Everyone loves anonymous social media apps. They’re considered fun, civil and informative. This is known widely, and Elizabethtown College is finally catching on.
In a statement titled “The Last Email,” President Betty Rider announced that moving forward, the College’s Office of Marketing and Communications (OMC) will be taking a new approach to campus communications. All important communication from the college will now be posted on the anonymous app Yik Yak.
Important information shared on Yik Yak from the College will include campus news and upcoming events, important financial aid updates and emergency notifications.
Yik Yak was launched in 2013, and relaunched in 2021. It serves as a discussion thread app that residents of college campuses can use. Accusations that the app’s lack of regulation have facilitated cyber-bullying and various forms of prejudice have followed it since its inception.
This truly democratic platform has found a home at Etown, where students can voice their opinions on any topic, completely free of consequence. Students have enjoyed the freedom to openly voice grievances about residence halls, faculty, dining services and of course, each other.
The Etownian, “a paper that no one reads” according to the app, reached out to the campus community to get their reactions to this news. Disclaimer: We understand the possibility that these quotes may be an inaccurate representation of student opinions compared to what one could find on Yik Yak.
“I can confidently say that Yik Yak provides a positive environment for students,” senior music education major Michael Sagedy said. “Switching it to our primary source of news will help us bond. No one ever says anything negative on there!”
“The opps aren’t gonna like this one..” senior music therapy major Marin Barneetz said.
Some have raised concerns such as “How are we supposed to know which of these animal profile pictures is the college” or “Can’t we just downvote and remove all of their posts if we wanted to?”
Yik Yak allows upvotes and downvotes on individual posts, accruing the poster “yakarma.” At the time of this article’s writing, Etown announced that its Yakarma is at five. They report that they are optimistic about growth opportunities in the near-future.
Some members of the campus’s performing groups, who have historically been trending topics on the app, are optimistic.
“In terms of reliability and factual information, I’m overjoyed to hear that this will become the standard. I wouldn’t want my campus news from anywhere else,” junior environmental law major Kylie Holl said, who performs in the Mad Cow Improv group(“Bad” Cow per Yik Yak).
Others don’t see how this changes things:
“Since the dance team is already a frequent discussion on Yik Yak, I don’t think this adjustment will affect us too much,” first-year public relations major Amelia Rendzak said. Rendzak is a member of the Etown College Dance Team.
Etown will shut down its Facebook, Instagram and TikTok accounts and sell them to young, up-and-coming influencers. They consider this an effective way to cut costs and are currently in contact with a Nigerian Prince for a possible future deal. The Etownian will continue to follow that story and, as always, keep the community updated. These updates will still come via the newspaper, as the college may stay on the cutting edge, but we remain committed to traditional journalistic practices.
