As if Chico State didn’t get enough negative attention from apps like Fade, now Yik Yak wants to join the fun.
Similar to Fade, Yik Yak draws in eager young adults with its anonymity. The app connects users within a specific area and lets them engage in conversation without revealing their identities.
Essentially, the app is one long, anonymous series of pointless thoughts. The user’s feed is quickly filled with random statements as pointless as “booty game too strong” in the hope of starting a conversation with other people or just getting as many likes as possible.
The app’s creators even started a Ride The Yak 2014 Fall Campus Tour to attract more young adults. They’re trekking in a 45-foot-long bus to visit 36 college campuses while bringing the Yik Yak mascot to take pictures with college students.
After reading about the tour and looking through pictures posted with students, it seems as though the tour is the only thing this brand is doing right.
The thought of being able to say whatever one pleases without the repercussions of having anyone find out might attract some college students, but it does the opposite for me.
Sure it’s amusing to read all the nonsense that people are saying around me, but in the end, all of it is just nonsense. Unless someone really thinks debating getting a bikini wax is important enough to share with the world, then I think people should just stick to using Twitter.
Or just buy a diary.
As much as I’d like to think that all adults can handle using an app without starting problems with other people, that’s not always the case. With anonymity usually comes cyberbullying, and Yik Yak is no exception. Some colleges have even banned it from their campuses because of how out of hand it can get.
Apps offering anonymity are a bad idea altogether. Even a terrible app like Fade that has content consisting of naked pictures, drugs and party locations still serves more of a purpose than Yik Yak.
Some students swear by this app and its funny quips, but I think Chico State can do just fine without Yik Yak.
Veronica De La Cruz can be reached at [email protected] or @Veronica_dlc on Twitter.
