Whether you’ve never heard of Yik Yak before in your life, you occasionally glance at it when you’re feeling a bit too bored or you scroll through each post as a nightly routine (responding to the ones that successfully anger you enough to fight back against them), this article is relevant to you. Because, like it or not, Yik Yak has established itself as a well-trafficked news source and place for connection on our campus.
A primarily anonymous app, Yik Yak provides the opportunity for college students—and others involved in different types of communities, from Love Island fans or gym rats—to post questions, comments and pictures. You can reply to anyone’s posts, along with the power to upvote (like) or downvote (dislike) posts. This assigns a net score to each post, indicating how much support it garnered from the rest of the community. Downvoting even allows a post to have negative votes. The posts with the highest scores are shown at the top of users’ feeds. Since comments under posts can be judged as well, there are often instances where one perspective within a comment section is aggressively downvoted while another is aggressively upvoted. This phenomenon occurs particularly when a minority opinion enters a conversation on Yik Yak. And because of the anonymity the app provides, anyone can hide behind a screen to attack those who disagree with their points. This brings me to my primary issue with Yik Yak: the inflexibility its members bring to the table when prompted with a different opinion than their own.
Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon in which a cohort of people cling to a unified opinion, brushing off differing views in order to establish a sense of group harmony. Yik Yak is the perfect breeding ground for this behavior to occur. This is worsened by a second psychological phenomenon: group polarization. As more and more people discuss a certain topic, particularly one that is controversial among Carleton students, the intensity of the group’s opinion escalates dramatically. This can happen on both sides of an argument, causing upwards of 50 comments on a certain post that range from respectful nudges toward another point of view to cursing out the original poster (OP). It’s easy to brush off instances like this with the argument that words on a screen can’t hurt you—or that it’s easy to just turn off your notifications and even fully delete the app. But many get caught up in indulging in these types of conversations and are unable to look away from the harmful comments that often ensue.
Not only do conversations like this on Yik Yak pose danger for someone’s mental well-being or self-assurance, but they also cultivate the rhetoric that it’s impossible to disagree with others respectfully and calmly. Yik Yak somewhat mirrors real life. It allows people from different social circles to listen to each other’s opinions and react accordingly. It gives glimpses into different sides of campus and spreads rumors and gossip about various individuals or teams around Carleton. However, it is not reflective of the conversations we can have face-to-face in classes, at social gatherings or on the street. In person, you can’t hide behind a username or simply the title of “Anonymous.” People can’t show their opposition to your opinion with downvotes as you try to advocate for your point of view, pushing any perspective you have to the bottom of the conversation (literally). And you cannot find groups of people awaiting you on campus to validate your opinion in increasingly intense ways. Thus, having conversations via this resource not only desensitizes people to elevated levels of polarization but sets up unrealistic expectations of how conversations discussing controversial topics play out in real-life settings.
It is understandable why so many people flock to Yik Yak. When you have a strong opinion about a certain topic, it’s human nature to want validation and a group to rally around your stance. Yik Yak also spreads information quickly—sharing details about events, political news, etc. This can be a great resource for students, especially when they’re new and trying to find advice or an opportunity to connect with others on campus. In no way is this argument trying to convince you to delete Yik Yak from your phone or go around and spread the word of how awful and corrupt it is. It’s simply a reminder to take a step back and pay attention to the information you’re ingesting on a day-to-day basis. Is the discourse on this app making you feel better? More informed? Less anxious about how you’re perceived on campus? If the answer is primarily no, then maybe it is time to remove yourself from the Yik Yak community. I have to say, I doubt you’ll miss it all that much.