By: Taylor Popielarz
“Quinnipiac Students Connect Anonymously”
A new smartphone app is quickly becoming popular among Quinnipiac students. It’s called Yik Yak, and it’s essentially an anonymous form of Twitter.
“It’s like so bad that it’s good, and I just can’t take my eyes off of it,” said Senior Paige Sherman.
Yik Yak was created last November by two fraternity brothers in South Carolina. It’s a text-only application where people can anonymously rant about anything they want. If you’re within a 1.5-mile radius of a person posting, you can read that person’s latest text, and then either “upvote” what you like, or “downvote” what you dislike.
“The anonymous platform permits students to show their true feelings on things, without any risk of embarrassment to them personally,” said Quinnipiac Associate Professor of Journalism Rich Hanley.
Yik Yak’s creators say more than 250 college campuses are now actively using the app. First year students at Quinnipiac began using the app heavily when the school year began, and now upperclassmen are using it too.
Officials at Quinnipiac’s student affairs office say they are aware of the new app’s popularity on campus, but they are not monitoring it consistently.
“We are always aware of what’s our there,” said Associate Dean of Student Affairs Seann Kalagher. “We will access it if we feel there’s a need to do that.”
As the app continues to gain popularity throughout Quinnipiac’s campus, Rich Hanley says Yik Yak is revamping an old pastime.
“This is the digital version of the wall in a bathroom of previous generations,” Hanley said. “People would write anonymous comments about things, and leave them there for the next visitor to read. And this just follows in that tradition.”
