Social media at Colorado Mesa University (CMU) plays a big role in the expression of our student life, as well as promoting organizations and different events happening on campus.
Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, BeReal and more apps are popularly used by the student population. The social media app Yik Yak has quickly found itself growing in usage among students. While the app has not always been popular–with students’ interest naturally ebbing and flowing–it has recently seen a massive resurgence among CMU’s student population.
Yik Yak allows students to post anything they want anonymously so long as it abides with the app’s guidelines. Anyone in a five-mile radius will see it, or you can make global posts.
While its resurgence has been happening gradually, it recently has gained significant traction and is now one of the main social media platforms used on campus.
Yik Yak was created in 2013 and was shut down in April of 2017 due to students being involved in bullying and racist threats against their peers. It recently re-emerged in 2021 after the unnamed owners purchased it from Square Inc.
With the popularity Yik Yak has on campus, it is, unfortunately, being used in a negative way among students at CMU. While it initially seems like a fun app that encourages student connections and a campus community, the anonymous posting feature opens the app to a myriad of problems.
Currently, Yik Yak is used by students to bully each other and slander organizations. Students recently and continuously make remarks towards many clubs and organizations, including slander against the fraternities Theta Xi and Kappa Sigma.
They also make posts that bully their fellow students. There are many false statements that have been spread about different CMU students and the organizations we have.
As the app allows people to post anonymously and conceal their identity, students do not face any responsibility or accountability for their actions. This social media app promotes bullying, hate, slander and toxicity on campus.
As a Mavily, these are not the principles that students should strive to promote on campus. Yik Yak has shown that there is a darker and more toxic side to student life at CMU.
We should get away from incorporating this social media app into our community. Instead, we should use social media platforms where there can be responsibility and ownership over our opinions and thoughts. While Yik Yak has, in a sense, created a community on CMU’s campus, it is centered around the most negative aspects of being a CMU student.
