Yik Yak: New Anonymous App Gains Popularity

By Allison Jones

September 30, 2014

 

Recently, a new trend has popped up and causing quite a stir on many high school and college campuses.

 

Yik Yak is the latest social media craze that defines itself as an “anonymous gossip app.”

 

According to techcrunch.com, “The app was started by two Furman University students, Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington, aiming to connect people through anonymous, location-based posts.”

 

After something is posted, other anonymous users are allowed to “like” or “dislike” posts, which frequently means the post was inappropriate, and if the post gets two or more dislikes, it is removed from the site. Even still, it is obvious to think that with an app that will allow so much leeway as to what one can post, that cyber bullying could become an issue.

 

“The company has already faced issues among various colleges, who feel the app violates anti-bullying rules,” techcrunch.com stated.

 

Yik Yak started out on larger university campuses such as The University of Georgia, Ole Miss, Clemson, University of Virginia, and Wake Forest, but even Milligan is experiencing the repercussions of this forthright app.

 

“Yik Yak is basically a bash site,” said Milligan Senior Catelyn Radeck. “It started off as a fun pass time app., but it’s spiraling out of control. People are getting extremely nasty on there and have no regard to what they are saying and how it affects others.”

 

While cyber bullying could easily become an issue, Yik Yak’s creators still ensure that they are making certain that is not what the app is about, especially to protect it’s younger users.

 

“We’re working on trying to find technical solutions to prevent app abuse; the blocks that we currently have in place aren’t working as well as we’d like them to,” said Buffington in an interview with techcrunch.com. “One thing that we have seen on the college front is that the longer a community is around, the more mature and constructive it becomes. So we think that lends to some promise for the anonymous or semi-anonymous app realm.”

 

The app now has more than 100,000 active users and over 15,000 messages are posted everyday… and that’s just in three months.