Jacob Franklin
Opinions Editor
YikYak – if you have been on nearly any American college campus, you have most likely heard of this rapidly growing social media app. Providing its users with the luxury of anonymity, YikYak is an interface that allows communities, college students in particular, to share their thoughts and engage in online discussions. Sewanee is no different from numerous campuses in the U.S. in that its YikYak is integrated into the Sewanee student culture. If there is a story worth reporting, such as a riveting scandal within the student body or a change in University policy, Sewanee students will be the first to report on it via “Yaks.”They can be best explained as the YikYak equivalent of Twitter’s “Tweets” by which they can anonymously vocalize their opinions. Additionally, users can use YikYak to ask questions to their peers. In its simplest form, YikYak can be used to share funny, witty remarks or memes. No matter how users choose to use the app, YikYak’s impact on the culture of the Sewanee student body cannot be denied. But the question remains: is this impact, by-and-large, positive or negative? For the most part, I believe YikYak to be a positive force within student culture, as it quickly and entertainingly allows students to have access to University information, and strengthens and unifies the Sewanee student body.
Our Sewanee is dynamic; thus, updates might be difficult to keep up with. YikYak allows students to keep up with updates and ask questions anonymously so that they do not have to fear humiliation for not knowing certain information. For example, in response to the recent winter storms, multiple businesses and organizations in the Sewanee area changed their operating hours, and YikYak users would “Yak” their questions about these changed hours. While, of course, there are the occasional barbs at the askers of these questions (admittedly, a lot of these questions can be answered if users checked their email), information is, for the most part, easily accessible through this platform.
I want to emphasize how important YikYak is to the unity of the Sewanee student body. Yes, this might be a bit of a dramatic stance to take, but I believe that YikYak is a social staple within our community. On the app, students can share their thoughts on certain topics and events, which gives them the opportunity to find those who share similar opinions. Additionally, students can poke fun at events that have happened on-campus. This establishes a sense of comradery amongst students and only makes our bond with one another stronger, even if those bonds are anonymous.
While YikYak, as an app, is truly no different from any other social media such as Twitter or Reddit in how it is used, I can understand how YikYak can be a bit more problematic than these apps. Only those within the Sewanee community can interact with the Sewanee-specific YikYak. This means that, in cases of cyberbullying, interactions online are more likely to translate offline. Poking fun at someone specific on YikYak could lead to real-life consequences if another user is able to identify who that person is. However, I find that these cases are too infrequent for YikYak to be a reason for its impact to be described as negative when there are other benefits to its presence on our campus. This app, whether we like it or not, is a characteristic that unifies the vast majority of our community. Because of that, in many ways, YikYak is a resource that cannot be written off as an unimportant social and informational component of the Sewanee student body.