Yik Yak’s back, for better or for worse

In recent months, an app has swept the Geneseo campus with the promise of anonymity and an ability to spread information rapidly. It’s called Yik Yak, and you may have heard of it years ago—the app launched in 2013, and was wildly popular throughout schools of all levels in the United States. Now, after a successful rebrand and relaunch in 2021, the app has regained popularity. 

While there are undoubtedly positive aspects of Yik Yak, after conducting a series of interviews within the student body, we found the app to be more detrimental than productive in the Geneseo community.

In Geneseo, a “yak”, or a text post, is posted on the app’s feed at least once every five minutes during the day. Users post everything from complaints about their roommate, personal advertisements, events on campus, and sometimes even allegations against other students. 

The first and most important question is—why do these students use Yik Yak? Many apps offer access to a local community and information. Yik Yak, according to our interviewees, gives access to gossip and drama that would usually be spread by word of mouth. “Yik Yak is so specific to this community,” said Tessa McCarthy, a senior communication major. “Geneseo is not a very big school, so going on Yik Yak is going to somehow relate to you.” 

Many posts are about Greek Life, including sorority and fraternity rush, parties, hazing and general sentiments, like “I hate phi kap” (Feb. 26) and “omega: my mom’s type of music in the best possible way” (Feb. 27). 

But other times, the posts are more specific. Riley Weaver, a sophomore psychology major, described an instance where her own name was circulated on the app. “My name has circled before, and it was very scary because they could say anything, and no one will take you seriously if you deny stuff.”

While Weaver once used YikYak like many of her peers, she has since strayed away from the platform, further adding that what “once stood as a place to get things off your shoulders now is a place for pointed fingers without a body attached.”

Most users agree that the app can be pretty negative, including Dana, a senior biology major: “I don’t think it's a good app anymore because people don’t know how to control themselves… everything on that app is negative.” But Yik Yak seems to be here to stay anyway—and, a few of our interviewees note that the app can also be a space for anonymous connection, in a positive way. 

“People do genuinely use it as a source of information, especially younger people like freshman because it’s just a way to hear things about different organizations, different people, and different events that are going on”, said Taylor, a senior psychology major. 

Another student, who wished to remain anonymous, described the safe space that they found on Yik Yak, stating “I’ve found a lot of comfort in the anonymity and vacuum-esque nature of Yik Yak when needed. I once Yik-Yaked about an addiction that I was uncovering in myself as I was in the process of acknowledging that addiction, and it got 30 upvotes. Weirdly, that made me feel really seen. I felt a little less alone, even though it definitely sucks that 30 other people could relate to that same thing.”

Some users simply like to be in-the-know, treating Yik Yak like a normal social media app that provides casual entertainment. “I don’t go on in search of anything specific, but I go on when I’m bored, and if I see something that interests me, I might go back on later to see if there are updates,” McCarthy said. 

The most serious thing users have seen on Yik Yak are posts accusing students or locals of assault or other crimes. “I’ve seen some pretty awful things on it, but you never know if they are true,” said Uli Kitar, senior political science major. “People accusing sexual assault, people accusing rape, all of that.” 

Students had mixed feelings about these kinds of posts. “I think it can at least tip you off,” said Kate Rodgers, a senior communication major. “Most of the time, people probably aren’t lying if it’s about sexual assault. Usually what I do is take what I see and then go confirm or discuss it with other people in real life.” 

On the other hand, users are able to say whatever they want about whoever they want, and that causes some users stress. “It’s bad because people say things directly about people that they would not have the courage to say if they knew who it was…and they have zero consequences because its fully anonymous,” Dana said. 

All together, Yik Yak has proved to have both positive and negative features. However, with harmful misinformation, name dropping, and bullying, many of the positive features got lost in cycles of hate. As Taylor Presutti, senior psychology major, explained, the app brings users “zero consequences because its fully anonymous,” and, in effect, can lead to some harsh community tensions on the college campus. 

Tessa McCarthy added, “Even if people get temporary pleasure for it, it just fosters a really toxic culture within the community. Even talking to other seniors, I feel like things didn’t use to be so tense. Everybody knows everybody else's business, it causes so much turmoil in the campus community that didn’t exist before and I think that’s solely because of Yik Yak.”

Regardless of student sentiment towards the app, it seems to be here to stay. For an app designed for anonymous connection, it is certainly doing its job, whether you agree with it or not; and to quote Presutti, “The creators of that app knew what they were doing.”