A knack for Yik Yak: Why millennials turn to an online diary

I didn’t even have to go outside during midterms week to find out that the sidewalks were miniature ice rinks and students were slipping on the pavement and breaking limbs. 

I had Yik Yak.

Although the anonymous social media app has drawn some furtive glances from the likes of concerned parents and Business Insider since its inception in fall 2013, college students have embraced it. Though social media has met demands for college-related content — think “Overheard at Pitt” on Facebook and “Pitt Makeouts” on Twitter — Yik Yak is a more fully developed and streamlined version of the concept. 

Yik Yak changes the market for anonymous content in a positive way — through its tight, 1.5-mile geographical radius and filtering system. In a time where we’re constantly hungry for new technology, Yik Yak has gained fame on college campuses not only as a community bulletin board but also as an online diary for millennials.  

The furry, brown mammal isn’t in the headlines for no reason. At Vanderbilt University, a fraternity brother tried to gather students through Facebook and Twitter for mouth-swabs to try to find a blood transfusion match for his brother, who had lymphatic cancer. Facebook and Twitter left the student stuck in certain social circles. Once he posted a Yak about it, though, he rallied about 1,100 students and kept swabbing until they found a match.

The good deeds don’t end there — Pitt uses Yik Yak for good, too. On Wednesday, my feed had a Yak about a missing item. “PSA: found some keys on the 10a! There’s a keychain with the Eiffel Tower on it and a Mozart management tag.” With 15 upvotes, the Yak was moved to the “hot” section where more users would see it. 

Due to Yik Yak’s geographical boundaries, the content near college campuses is mostly produced by students. As a result, the app creates a sort of community announcements page where students can post about upcoming events. For instance, the first week of March, I saw Yaks about the upcoming Spring Carnival at CMU and the Lupe Fiasco concert at Pitt.

Yik Yak plans to capitalize upon this ground — cofounders Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington want Yik Yak to be a source for breaking news commentary. “Imagine people in Ferguson, Mo., Yik-Yaking about what’s going on,” Buffington told Forbes. “Anytime anything newsworthy happens, people are going to be going to Yik Yak to see what people there are saying.” 

But, along with most social media outlets, Yik Yak isn’t just a place to talk about campus issues or create a dialogue about current events — it’s a channel to release emotional stress and talk about personal issues. 

On Wednesday night, one Yak read, “4 days into clean but flexible eating along with working out and I feel 100 times better and hope to eventually look better for myself .. [sic] not for others.”

Another said, “I think I’m in love and I’m absolutely terrified,” to which several responses reassured the user that the turmoil called for celebration.

The harsh reality, though, is that sometimes we’re slightly passive-aggressive. 

Twenty-somethings are fired up — we’re perpetually anxious, and, sometimes, a thorough rant feels merited. Rather than choosing to “subtweet,” or implicitly refer to our ex-boyfriends on Twitter where it’s more obvious who the message is about, we choose Yik Yak because it offers a cloak of anonymity.

It’s unrealistic to tell millennials to stop whining on social media. 

However, with the change from physical diaries to online tirades, it’s essential not to leave an embarrassing trail behind your name. Like it or not, potential employers do check social media. A 2014 study by Career Builder reveals that 43 percent of employers use social networking sites to research job candidates — so don’t attach things to your name that would make your grandmother blush. Employers don’t need to know how creative you are with the swear words of the English language — if you have to do it, opt to be anonymous.

But what about the people being Yakked about?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but offensive Yaks simply won’t stand up in court. Rest assured, though — messages that involve bomb threats will be investigated, eventually traced through IP addresses, proven through precedence in a California case regarding Yik Yak last fall at Mira Costa High School. A series of three Yaks led to Mira Costa closing for a full school day. The most incriminating reads, “tomorrow at 2 be ready Costa, you’re going on lockdown.” .  

However, this instance is an outlier — most complaints are trivial, referencing irritating blurbs about someone who is “fat” or “ugly.” Thankfully, most of these Yaks don’t address individuals by name, a positive result of passive-aggression — you want to make people wonder, but not pull a full-on Regina George.

 While Yik Yak opens the door for rude comments, the platform can weed them out. Users can “downvote” posts that they don’t want to see on their feed. Additionally, Droll and Buffington claim Yik Yak has an advanced reporting system. “People that are consistently posting negative material get suspended or banned,” Buffington told Tech.Co.

Droll and Buffington have even addressed their greatest controversy in the news — that high schoolers simply aren’t mature enough to use the anonymous app. Through Maponics, a geographic data company, Yik Yak has set virtual boundaries that block about 85 percent of high schools and middle schools from using the app, according to The Cavalier Daily. With this upgrade, most high schoolers can’t see Yaks that could possibly trigger sensitive mental health issues.

I can attest to this — when I went back to my hometown, Plum Borough, Pa., for break, there was hardly any Yik Yak presence at all, much to my chagrin.

Luckily, there’s a simple solution to any identifiable harassment that slips through the cracks — with one light touch of your pointer finger you can delete the app.

With all the negative media attention, though, why do we continue using Yik Yak? We’re the tech generation.

Millennials are obsessed with the Internet — so we’ll continue to post online. Yik Yak is the perfect place not only to get your feelings out without sacrificing your future, but to connect with the people around you in a fresh way.

For now, I’m keeping the app. Maybe if enough people Yak that my column sucks, I’ll have to delete it, but, for now, I’m glad to have a forum where I can check out what’s happening on my campus in my peers’ words.

Keep Yakin’.

Courtney Linder is the Assistant Opinions Editor of The Pitt News and primarily writes on social issues.

Write to Courtney at cnl13@pitt.edu.