Students lose interest in yik yak, a relief for administrators. Yik yak app has become the ultimate electronic tool for cyberbullies, those wanting negative attention and to others a way to terrorize their schoolorganization this app will allow an anonymous person to target others students, faculty, coworkers, organizations with. Anyone can download it to their smartphone, share 200 character open. The app really took off when students began to share the app with new friends they met on spring break. Yik yak was created by fraternity brothers tyler droll and brooks buffington, both 24. Advertising the app as a way to find your herd, the folks at yik yak have. Any time social media is blended with anonymity, trouble and ugliness are inevitable.
For those of you blissfully unaware of this app yik yak is really just an anonymous twitter feed. Education prof writes in defense of yik yak and online anonymity. By letting you express yourself, exchange thoughts, and explore your world, yik yak helps you feel at home within your local community. If i understand it correctly, you then see what is being posted anonymously in your local area. Mar 09, 2015 yik yak, a social media app that serves as a local bulletin board, has proved popular especially on college campuses, but the cover of anonymity it offers allows for some unfettered nastiness. For a bunch of reasons, yik yak has really found its niche on college campuses. We asked some of our professors to read yik yaks found around our sjc brooklyn and sjc long island campus. I downloaded yik yak about eight months ago, and frequently listen in on the conversation on my own campus and others in the vicinity. Yik yak college controversy causes alarm among professors. Watkins said that while some professors may continue to post on yik yak, he doesnt expect all his colleagues to turn into frequent users. Yakkers post smacktalk about rival schools, complain about horrible exes and roommates, make tasteless jokes, and engage in. Now that yik yak is dead, its time to choose a new app that offers similar functionality as yik yak, and that most people on your campus are ready to start using.
Though yik yak officially shut down operations earlier this year, at its peak the app was ubiquitous on college campuses, and at one point was valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. Yik yak is a locationbased social network that helps you connect with the people right around you. Emily humkey opens the yik yak app on a phone in athens, ga. Oct, 2017 use these yik yak alternative apps for anonymous messaging. Penn state is better than its local yik yak feed would have you believe. The most recent social media app to sweep uva is yik yak. Students use it for all sorts of reasons, including cheating on tests.
Download yik yak apk and experience the fun and excitement you wont find anywhere. Dec 15, 2015 by sage lazzaro this is the second installment of a three part series about yik yak, asleep on the job. Dear middlebury community, last spring, a friend encouraged me to download the app yik yak. The yik yak app is free to download and is available on ios and android smartphones and tablets. Watkins said he was a bit worried that students would overwhelm professors efforts to turn yik yak into a force for. Keywords yik yak, social media, anonymity, mixed methods, phenomenology. If you havent heard of yik yak, you arent on a college campus. Yik yak was a social media based application that has been discontinued now. Now, over a year later, its still around and a few of my friends and even some of my professors get on the yak frequently.
Yik yak is an app that allows you to anonymously post tweetlike content and view other yaks in your area. This application was available for the both android and ios smartphones with the system of making its users able to create and view the discussion boards and allowing the others to take part in these ongoing discussions. Professors turn yik yak into happy space inside higher ed. Ur asks app to reveal identities of anonymous posters wxxi news. The latest update officially killed this app yikyak was about being anonymous. Margaret crouch, professor of philosophy, and other professors were the target of demeaning and sexually explicit conversations on yik yak last fall, according to the new york times. Yik yak is a discontinued social media smartphone application that was launched in 20. Yik yak is the wild west of anonymous social apps, said danielle keats citron, a law professor at university of maryland and the author of hate crimes in cyberspace. The company has been working on the web version of the app for the. Yik yak as platform for harassment news february 6, 2015 february 5, 2015 leunice faust yik yak,an app that allows users to post anonymous messages for viewing solely in their local area, is being used by some students to criticize their college professors and faculty, causing issues on. Oct 22, 2015 feminist, civil rights groups tell dept. Jan 11, 2015 yik yak is a free app that lets anonymous users write on a scrolling feed that is geofenced, allowing only people within a limited range say, a college campus to post.
Reynol junco, an associate professor of education and humancomputer interaction at iowa state university, sees yik yak and hive as two completely different tools made to. Education prof writes in defense of yik yak and online. Dec 17, 2015 we asked some of our professors to read yik yaks found around our sjc brooklyn and sjc long island campus. Yik yak is an anonymous social networking app that works locally. Now, i must bring the app yik yak to the public sphere of the ole miss student knowledge. Sep 12, 2017 looking back on yik yak the ability to post anonymously on islands has sparked comparisons with another campusbased social media app yik yak. Ive run into an issue where im using yik yak on my iphone but then want to switch to using yik yak online using my computer. After reading comments on the app throwing racial slurs around, and shaming lgbt people, it became clear to me that yik yak and colleges have a serious problem. Its home to the casual, relatable, heartfelt, and silly things that connect people with their community. The growing popularity of the social media app yik yak is creating a stir on campus. After you download the app, you will want to allow yik yak to access your location. Nov 16, 2014 professor ben tausig, who teaches a course on rock music, said that professors should not be obligated to download yik yak to observe conversations before and during an exam.
Anyway, the bottom line is banning yik yak at emu is imo shortsighted and just not very smart. Anyone can download it to their smartphone, share 200 character open messages, and view posts within a ten mile radius. Users of the app post comments anonymously, and anyone within a radius of a few miles can see, share. The hamilton students demand that yik yak be banned from the area, while the emory students called for the university to use geofencing to block yik yak. Last december, in the wake of student demonstrations over racial tensions on campus, commenters took to yik yak to post a flurry of racist and insensitive anonymous notes. Yik yak, launched back in fall of 20, isnt even two years old. The ability to use yik yak on a data network left colleges few options for regulating discourse on the geolocationbased app, which was created by furman university alumni in 20. If you remember their promotional screenshots on the app store, the yaks were hilarious and relatable. Jan 20, 2016 yik yak, the anonymous, locationbased social network that has taken college campuses by storm, has today launched a web client. Yik yak college controversy causes alarm among professors, media. If someone is interested enough, he or she will download the app and be greeted with a warm welcome ride the yak.
It doesnt allow you to post or comment but you can browse anywhere in the world and view comments. First, we examine how users use the plat form, analyzing patterns in posting, popularity of yaks, and vocabulary. Users can write to no one in particular anonymously words that will be seen primarily by those nearby who also have the app. Yik yak, an anonymous messaging app for college students, announced today that it would finally be shutting down.
Nov 12, 2015 yik yak is a locationbased, anonymous social media app thats all the rage among college students including those who like to spread a little hate, sexism and other joys, such as making a. There are a lot of students on yik yak and some of them feel very comfortable sharing all their thoughts. Gun violence was threatened recently on yik yak at michigan state university, and students using the app harassed professors during a class at eastern michigan university. Online threats call for action by university faculty. Ur asks app to reveal identities of anonymous posters. Yik yak was founded by college students, tyler droll and brooks buffington and launched in november 20. It lets people post some comments just about anything they come across and even post photos that would later on spread like fire to over hundreds of people using yik yak in 5mile radius. Notre dame profs, students respond to racist yik yak posts. That article about banning yik yak at clemson is not exactly persuasive because its basically a small group of students who think that yik yak ought to be blocked from campus. Could college messaging app islands be the new yik yak.
Yik yak allows anonymous comments or posts done using an alias. Good hope high school administrators have banned cell phones from the campus in response to reportedly inappropriate and abusive messages posted about students on the mobile app yik yak. Yik yak is a free app that doesnt require a signup or login. The most common explanation of yik yak is, oh, its like an anonymous twitter.
The idea was to highlight all thats good on campus while showing students the power that even posts on an anonymous app can have over the mood on campus. Yik yak students, professors and administrators are noticing although yik yak has taken steps to prevent students below the college level from using the app, it is widely used at high schools. Professor ben tausig, who teaches a course on rock music, said that professors should not be obligated to download yik yak to observe conversations before and during an exam. Our full time job is not to pay attention to what apps exist and what kind of technological cheating mechanisms there are, tausig said. Mar 11, 2015 a january episode of the reply all podcast highlighted abuse at colgate university in new york, where students shared racist and threatening posts on yik yak. Students often post about parties, professors, or other people, and. Nov 06, 2015 now, over a year later, its still around and a few of my friends and even some of my professors get on the yak frequently. Jan 23, 2016 yik yak, an atlantabased social media app, has a presence on more than 2,000 college campuses.
Yik yak is a smart phone app that allows users to post anonymous messages to an ongoing conversation tied to a particular place. The popular phone app yik yak, which allows users to anonymously share comments with nearby app users, has been attacked by college administrators and student governments alike who argue that it plays host to too much hateful or offensive commentary. At times, you want to put down your phone or its simply easier to use your laptop instead if youre at work or in class and are supposed to be listening to the professor luckily for you, there are several options you have to use yik yak on your computer. If you go to its website and put in your smartphone number, it sends you the app to download. Students appear to have moved to other platforms snapchat, for example, which is showing impressive reach among 18 to 34yearolds as well as allimportant appeal to advertisers. Professors generally dont follow yik yak and many havent even heard of it, said duffy, who helped write the letter and gathered signatures from colleagues. A glimpse inside an often cruel, but often revealing. The additional fun of it was anyone could say anything, both the anonymity and not signing up for an account to post, and all posts were eventually. Despite my evergrowing hate for the app, im finding myself using it increasingly more. Whats up with hive, a nascent successor to yik yak the. Nov, 2015 one way colleges could stem the tide of harassment, the groups suggested, was by banning yik yak and similar apps on campus wifi networks, or asking the company to set up a geofence so it couldn.
Yik yak app should be studied, not banned an assistant professor and his students are taking a hard look at the app, and how social media and technology affect daily life. Even lesli, who used yik yak for stealth communication and promoting free coffee at finals, chose to communicate as if studenttostudent, rather than as. Brandon inabinet, a professor of communications studies at furman and critic of anonymous digital interaction who shared the stage with yik yak s creators, found that out the hard way. We gathered some of those posts and packaged them together to illustrate the fact that. Mar 04, 2014 yik yak can have frequentintense sexual content, nudity, profanity, crude humor, and references to alcohol, tobacco, or drug use. Im a little surprised that much of the chatter can fit into three categories, said assistant professor of german jens klenner. Anonymous app creates conversation, conflict at college. Anonymous gossip app yik yak is in trouble vanity fair. The weather, foodin its various stages of production, whether before or after. Yik yak, the once popular and controversial college messaging. By last year, yik yak was no longer in the top 1,000 apps downloaded in the app.
It was similar to other anonymous sharing apps such as nearby, but differed from others such as whisper in that it was intended for sharing. Once a staple on smartphone app store top downloads charts, yik yak has this year fallen out of the top several hundred most popular. Its like an anonymous twitter for midd people, its hilarious, she said. Yik yak, a social media app that serves as a local bulletin board, has proved. Ivy league social media app touts its anonymity as. Good hope hs bans cell phone due to cyberbullying on. I supposed, as a journalist and editor of the universitys paper, it might be wise for me to re download the app so. According to app annie, a firm that tracks metrics for apps, downloads spiked in september. Responding to offensive posts on yik yak, professors. How a president is fighting online harassment of minority. Hopefully this provides a little comic relief for students during finals week december.
Launched in 20, the social media app spread quickly enough to become a core mode of interaction in many universities. Well begin winding down the yik yak app over the coming week as. Professors peek in on student life with yik yak the. It was available for ios and android and it allowed people to create and view discussion threads within a 5mile 8 km radius termed yaks by the application. From the chronicle of higher education from last weekend comes responding to offensive posts on yik yak, professors stage socialmedia takeover. Apr 28, 2017 yik yak, an anonymous messaging app for college students, announced today that it would finally be shutting down. Since the app was introduced, it has also been used to issue threats of mass violence on more than a dozen college campuses.
Yik yak is a locationbased social network that helps you connect with the people around you. Yik yak s popularity does not seem likely to wane any time soon, but perhaps there is a chance for change in its usage pattern. Its clearly a different circumstance than whats going on at emu. One of the 5 yik yak alternative apps i mentioned in this article should definitely suit your needs, so go check them out. However, college students enjoy the freedom of venting about teachers, finals. But just like a senile grandpa at the dinner table, the squirrel jokes and overtly racist yaks are causing a problem in lectures as professors. Yik yak enables college students to share whatevers on their minds anonymously and to see what others in the area are plotting. By sage lazzaro this is the second installment of a three part series about yik yak, asleep on the job. Bruce shepard of western washington university speaks out about his efforts to calm racial tensions following an anonymous threat on yik yak to lynch the student bodys black leader. And then in 2016, security researchers with nyu, led by computer scientist and professor keith ross, found other ways to hack users personally identifiable information out of yik yak.
As protests increase, student demands get more ambitious. May 08, 2015 yik yak is an anonymous locationbased messaging app. And still, the anonymous, locationbased messaging app is available on almost any campus in the united states and has raised. I redownloaded yik yak for a week heres what happened. Last fall semester, professors at eastern michigan university reported being harassed on yik yak. Apr 09, 2015 check out yik map, explore anonymous messages on a map. The app first launched back in 2014 as a way to discreetly communicate with others. Oct 28, 2014 there are a lot of students on yik yak and some of them feel very comfortable sharing all their thoughts. You can vote posts up or down, depending on the value. According to app annie, a firm that tracks metrics for apps, downloads spiked in. It is a mobile app, named dash, helps college students to be able to adapt and enhance the college life by providing an anonymous online community for a specific campus.
Dec 15, 2014 watkins said that while some professors may continue to post on yik yak, he doesnt expect all his colleagues to turn into frequent users. Adding handles was a horrible decision, but as long as people had the option to still post anonymously it was okay. Yik yak creates new environment for coursework and exams. Faculty do intervene, as when colgate university faculty popped up on yik yak to encourage students during finals, 19 but onetime posts by popular faculty are the exception to the rule. The reason why yik yak was successful was because of their marketing of witty, savage humor. Apr 07, 2016 anonymous gossip app yik yak is in trouble. So if you sign up for this at emu, you get yaks from folks on campus at emu. This required downloading the free yik yak app onto personal iphones. After class, one of the professors, margaret crouch, sent off a flurry of. From there on, that person is given a backstage pass to the uva gossip, real or made up. Rip yik yak, the oncefamous app for college students study. For example, a student might yik yak about the test she just took and post some of the questions to give a heads up to students in other sections.
Yik yak is the virtual embodiment of every negative stereotype about college culture. At the present, a mixed bag of somewhat obvious humor and vile behavior makes the app less than palatable at best, and dangerous at worst. Spying on college life, via yik yak the new york times. It is aimed at college students but anyone can download the app and post. Anonymous yik yak catches flak from michigan schools.
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