Monday, December 1, 2014

Yik-Yak Clean Fun or Cyber-Bullying?

A year old mobile app has become outrageously popular on college campus’s. A new social media app,  Yik Yak, allows users to post anonymously within a one and a half mile radius. Users can share any thoughts they’d like—which makes cyber-bulling an easy feat.  
The element of anonymity while posting is not new, but Yik Yak made it popular. The herd of yaks spread across  1,500 college campuses. After speaking with several students, it was clear they thought the app was more harmful then harmless. Most of the “Yaks” on Ole Miss’s campus are about rival teams, great life, or students general thoughts, but  for some campus’s Yik Yak is a greater threat. 

Last week a southern California high school Mira Costa, closed for two days in response to threats posted on the social media network. Despite the app being anonymous they did find the user who was posing threats.

The app gets a bad rep for users who abuse the anonymousness, but users have the ability to “flag” any content they deem inappropriate. Slanderous and threatening post have been so common, co-founders had to res-establish their original plan from a yuk-yak that was nationwide to limiting the amount of users who can yak together, 500 people geographically closets. Yik Yak also promised to block any college campus’s who abuse the app. Yik Yak teamed up with a data provider to make that pp inaccessible to high school students while on campus. 



Out of the thousands of Yaks a day, is the short-filled fun is it worth the rumors, cyber-bulling, and other yik-yak-yuk? 








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