Yik Yak: An Effective Tool for Community Building

Viviana Valdez

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Every college student has to at least have heard about Yik Yak. For those who have not, it’s a social media app available on Android and iOS. The app enables college students to share whatever is on their mind. Here’s the catch – it’s anonymous; no profiles, no usernames, and no pictures.

Not only do users get to share their innermost thoughts, they are entitled to see what fellow users within a 10-mile radius have posted. Each post can be commented on and be voted up or voted down. Posts with the most up-votes show up in the popular section, resulting in more users being able to see your posts. Posts with a certain amount of down-votes are then removed from the feed.

Yik Yak can be an effective tool for anyone looking to catch up on local buzz around campus. At Fresno City College, the Yik Yak feed has a variety of different topics ranging from students posting about parking, textbooks, food, or the best places to sleep on campus.

“It sounds like it could be a good idea,” FCC student Alayna Clarno said. “It seems like it could be helpful with going out, getting coffee with friends, meeting up for studies.”

Hero Yuy, a student, said, “It can improve the Fresno community because people can vent about it. Maybe someone higher up could see it and make a change.”

“I like the idea of the Yik Yak app. Once in a while, I’ll scroll through to see what’s new,” a student who prefers to remain anonymous said. “Most posts can be hilarious, but it’s easy to say things to people that you would never have the guts to say if they realized it was you.”

A major flaw of the popular app is the potential to lead to cyberbullying and/or hate speech. It’s important for users to take advantage of voting down to remove the comment. Yik Yak also comes with a report feature, letting users flag inappropriate posts.

A few FCC students offer these suggestions to make Yik Yak a great app to use:

“I would say really try to consider what you’re saying first. Think about it before you actually post so you don’t hurt people. Also, if you have something useful, make sure that it’s presented in a way where it won’t insult anyone else. Or offensive images, stuff like that,” Clarno said.

“Go on there – read it, post your thoughts. As long as it’s not offensive to someone else,” Sen Vang said.

Joanna Arguelles suggests, “I would say try it, and anything you post – make it positive.”