Imagine being able to post anything on Twitter for anyone in your local area to see, but without attaching your handle or name to what you say. The possibilities are endless. You can rant about your day without being called whiny. You can call out any number of people without giving them an idea of who’s hating on them. You can exercise your wit by making poignant commentary, and — should your comment not be funny as you had thought — wash your hands of whatever you said, only to try again later. This is the world of Yik Yak. It’s Twitter without the permanence or accountability for what you say, which leads to both unbridled hilarity and detestable remarks alike.
Yik Yak was created in 2013 by Furman University graduates Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington. The free app allows for anonymous posts of up to 200 characters — 60 more than the ever-popular Twitter. Users may add a title or attribution to take ownership of their posts, but this feature is used more exclusively for comedic effect. Similarly to Twitter, Yik Yak displays the most recent posts, or “yaks” in chronological order, starting with the most recent. Other users can comment on and share yaks, as with social media sites. When more yaks accumulate, older ones are removed from the feed. These removed yaks are only viewable to those who posted them and are no longer available to the public.
While Yik Yak is not the first app of its kind, part of its uniqueness lies in its location-based aspect. Yik Yak only displays yaks from within a 10-mile radius, making it ideal for college campuses, towns or workplaces. This tends to add a more personal nature to yaks, making area-specific “inside jokes” common and popular. For example, college students often use Yik Yak to remark about things specific to their college. Yik Yak users can also use the “Peek” function to look at other areas besides their own.
To encourage creative, humorous and identifiable yaks, Yik Yak employs its own version of the “like” feature popularized by Facebook. Any yak can be “upvoted” or “downvoted” by a nearby user. The original poster can even upvote or downvote his or her own yak. Yaks that receive large numbers of upvotes appear on a feed specifically for the most popular yaks at the time, or the “hot” feed. Downvoted yaks, on the other hand, typically do not last long. A downvote cancels out an upvote, and vice-versa. Any yak that receives a net total of five downvotes is automatically deleted. Any user whose yaks are too frequently downvoted or reported can receive a ban. Posting yaks, receiving upvotes and casting either kind of vote contributes to the user’s “yakarma” score — an arbitrary number that may or may not be considered a bragging right.
Yik Yak has taken hold at Elizabethtown College, for better or for worse. There are several things about Yik Yak that I question, but just as many that I enjoy. For starters, the anonymity the app offers speaks volumes about our culture. People feel emboldened when they do not have to take ownership of their words. This is a byproduct of the Internet and should not be attributed to the creation of Yik Yak, by any means.
Regardless, Yik Yak gives Etown students a springboard to make comments that are even too inappropriate to be published in this paper. At the same time, I have found that the average yak is significantly funnier than the average tweet. Taking accountability out of the equation adds tremendous entertainment value, but also adds a degree of danger. Due to cyberbullying concerns, Yik Yak does not function at high schools, which may be for the best. The fact that Yik Yak is so useful for such things, however, is a little worrisome. And notice that, in person, most people only take ownership of their most popular yaks — not the ones that garner little attention.
The idea of the downvote also has its good and bad points. Facebook and Twitter eschew the possibility of letting users give negative feedback on posts or tweets, barring comments and replies. Yik Yak’s downvote arguably creates a more negative climate, making disapproval as simple as tapping a down-facing arrow. Simultaneously, the downvote is similar to quality control, enabling the removal of obviously poor yaks within minutes.
The yaks that receive the most upvotes at Etown usually consist of a clever joke, a common grievance with the school or a universal college student complaint. At its worst, Yik Yak is a sounding board for complaints. At its best, Yik Yak is a realm of positivity, such as when many users posted respectful and uplifting yaks on 9/11 — some of which received over 100 upvotes. Yik Yak is not just a cesspool of foul jokes and bad thoughts; it is a place to express thanks and gratitude for “the real MVPs” out there.
While I disagree with some of the fundamental ideas behind Yik Yak, I cannot deny its sheer entertainment value. And like it or not, Yik Yak’s place at Etown is all but solidified. Will Yik Yak just be a passing fad like Vine, or a social media centerpiece like Snapchat? Will we come to judge each other by how much yakarma we have? Will we ever find out who “Stonehenge” is? I have no idea. Either way, Etown’s yak population is on the rise, and extinction is nowhere in sight.
