Disclaimer from the Office of Marketing and Communications (OMC): “The College does not proactively engage on YikYak and the guidelines were not prompted by any social media incidents.”
Social media is everywhere: from accounts associated with Elizabethtown College itself to anonymous messaging apps, social media pervades every facet of life here in the Etown community. That being said, there have been recent events regarding the use of social media on campus that have taken place, one of these being in OMC and another involving the popular social media app Yik Yak.
OMC recently updated its guidelines and best practices in terms of social media posts and content. According to Director of Communications and Social Media Brad Weltmer, these guidelines “are primarily geared toward College-managed accounts, such as departments, schools, centers, etc.”
Weltmer continued to describe the new OMC guidelines in the following comment: “These updated social media guidelines and best practices are more robust and detailed than our previous version. We aimed to improve on a resource that educates and provides the tools to empower our campus community members who either serve as a representative of the College on a non-institutional account or who run a College-sponsored social media account. We want to encourage our campus community to engage in responsible, professional social media practices and conversations that support and reinforce our brand messaging and we believe that these updated guidelines will help support this continuous effort.”
When asked how these guidelines are encouraging professional behavior on social media, Weltmer said, “These guidelines provide helpful tips for both creating new accounts and effectively managing current accounts. We want to ensure our campus community is placed in the best position to represent the institution on College-managed social channels and by informing and educating, we are helping to set up everyone for success!”
Amidst the updating of guidelines for College-managed social media accounts, there has also been controversy on campus regarding the social media app Yik Yak. This app is a social media platform on which students can choose their educational institution and post messages within that community, all while remaining completely anonymous. The reason this has caused controversy on our campus is because, as stated in an email from the College in March, students were reported to be using peers’ full names on the app in order to harass others. It should be noted, however, that this is not an Etown-exclusive issue. In fact, Yik Yak has caused the same controversy at schools around the country, solely due to the fact of the app’s anonymity. If students know their names will not be associated with their online posts, they tend to post without inhibition, leading to issues like harassment and bullying through the platform. A recent update of Yik Yak’s entire interface occurred just weeks after the incident on our campus, creating a new rule that full names cannot be used on the app, lest the posts be deleted by the program. This update and its advantageous timing may imply that Yik Yak’s developers received an influx of complaints from college campuses which filed the same grievance regarding the use of full names on the app, and they were forced to make a change.
First-year digital media production major Hannah Garinger had this to say about Yik Yak: “I like that you’re able to see what happens on campus. I find myself going on it [Yik Yak] multiple times a day just to see what other people are saying…I like that it makes you feel connected to the student body, but I do think people abuse it.”
The reality of our society today is that social media is everywhere, and we cannot escape its embrace—whether that be for the positive or the negative. However, having bodies of control over social media use is a thing for which we should be thankful. Weltmer, gives this message to our student body regarding social media usage: “Take that extra minute or two and pause before pressing the share button! Your activity on social media is your digital fingerprint. When used positively, social media can be a powerful tool for building a personal brand that will allow you to stand out to employers or grad schools. But when used the wrong way, all it can take is one post to negatively impact your future.”
