Bree Capel
bic001@marietta.edu
The popular app Yik Yak has incited campus wide discussion on whether its community-based humor outweighs the anonymous harassment that it hosts.
Yik Yak mimics a community bulletin board by showing recent posts in one’s local area. When other users like one’s posts, they can “upvote” it –if not, then they can “downvote” and one’s post will disappear after five downvotes. The twist is that all posts are anonymous, which could allow Yik Yak to be a means to humiliate and harass other peers.
Junior health science major Lauren Larrick says she does not support Yik Yak.
“I have been mentioned a few times with my full name and very vulgar and disturbing things were said,” Larrick said.
Besides the obvious issue of cyber bullying, Larrick’s situation also demonstrates Yik Yak users’ failure to comply with the policies of both the app and Marietta College. One of Yik Yak’s six rules states, “You do not bully or specifically target other yakkers.” Marietta’s student handbook clearly details that sexual exploitation “occurs when a student takes non-consensual or abusive sexual advantage of another for his/her own advantage or benefit.”
Offering her thoughts on why many students have been bystanders, senior broadcasting major Olivia VonLembcke said, “It’s kind of funny because it’s not you…It’s like a guilty pleasure. Still, VonLembcke recognized the gravity of peer-to-peer harassment, and said that she fears seeing herself mentioned in a post.
For others, like senior Conner Busby, viewing Yik Yak as a guilty pleasure is impossible.
“I personally do not have the app… but I have watched my best friend be consistently targeted and ridiculed for “promiscuous” behavior that was untrue,” he said.
Last week, President Bruno sent an email discouraging students from using social media to “intimidate, embarrass or harass other students.” A number of students, however, are dissatisfied with the nature of this email, which for some was interpreted as too vague to truly confront Yik Yak.
Senior psychology major Lacey Caparanis expressed sentiments shared among many students
“I think Yik Yak and many platforms before it (Ask.fm, for example) are just platforms that are destined to turn into cyber bullying hotspots,” she said. “I myself have the app because a lot of the posts are really funny, but it’s disturbing when people feel the need to anonymously name drop others in order to feel some sort of accomplishment. It’s almost to the point where I’m afraid to be quoted in your article because I don’t want my name out there in a negative light. It has its upsides and it’s downsides, but in a community as small as ours it’s destined to have some negative impact.”
