The Yik Yak mascot outside a fraternity at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, N.C., March 3, 2015.
Travis Dove/The New York Times/Redux
Last week, the New York Times published an article about the popular anonymous social app, Yik Yak. Stories introducing a new social media platform used by young people seem to almost always engage moral panics. The Times story certainly followed this model. Their thesis was that allowing young people to post anonymously on Yik Yak leads to the most horrendous instances of harassment and abuse.
Call me crazy, but I am really tired of the anonymity equals evil trope. I’m also tired of claims that popular social technologies are inherently bad based on isolated negative incidents. Do issues of harassment happen on Yik Yak? Yes. Do they occur with a frequency that is disconcerting? Absolutely not. This might very well be a case of employing the availability heuristic, a cognitive shortcut whereby people estimate the frequency of an event occurring by relying on immediate and striking examples. For instance, many people are afraid to fly because of notable media reports of plane crashes even though one is more likely to experience a fatal automobile accident than a plane crash in their lifetime. It seems that the same types of appraisals are being made about online harassment—isolated and sensational cases have drawn attention away from the benefits of anonymous online participation.
For those who don’t know how Yik Yak works, it is a smartphone-only application that allows for anonymous short postings within a 10-mile radius. Think of Twitter restricted to a local area. Unlike Twitter, Yik Yak allows for up- and down-voting of “Yaks” and their related comments. If a Yak or a comment receives 5 down votes, it is removed permanently from Yik Yak. Yik Yak also has a robust offensive/abusive content reporting system. Even more importantly, Yik Yak uses a natural language processing system to identify and remove Yaks intended to bully, threaten, or offend.
Online anonymity does more good than harm. I’m a pretty active Yakker; however, in the many months that I’ve been following the conversations on Yik Yak at numerous universities (and sometimes at airports when I’m really bored) I have only witnessed one case of harassment. There was an incident at a particular Midwestern university where one or perhaps a couple of Yakkers were making fun of a “guy who wears a pink hat”—the community then came to the rescue supporting the “pink hat guy” and made him a bit of a campus celebrity. Of particular note was the fact that bystanders used their anonymity for good and in order to shape the conversation more positively. Indeed, recent research has shown that anonymous online bystanders are more likely to intervene when they witness bullying. Bullying will unfortunately always happen offline and online, however, being able to remain anonymous helps motivate people to aide victims of harassment. Unfortunately, it is very difficult for bystanders to remain anonymous in offline spaces; thereby making it less likely bystanders will intervene when they see someone being bullied.
Anonymity also affords students the ability to take creative risks they otherwise wouldn’t take. In some of my research on using social technologies in first year classrooms, students who contributed online anonymously brought ideas they shared online into class discussions, showing an openness and willingness to be vulnerable that was previously unseen for incoming students. Furthermore, interacting anonymously online allows students the ability to develop their identities in ways that are difficult to do offline. For instance, a student who is exploring a gay identity often feels more comfortable exploring the coming out process anonymously in online spaces because of an increased feeling of safety.
Instead of being afraid of Yik Yak, campus professionals should embrace it as not only a way for young people to explore creativity and develop their identities, but also as a way for professionals to learn more about the campus environment through students’ eyes. Yik Yak helps students engage in a campus-wide conversation, strengthening their sense of community and allowing them greater levels of social integration. Social integration not only leads to more psychologically well-adjusted students, but more academically motivated ones as well. With Yik Yak, campus administrators and student affairs professionals have a unique ability to understand, at least in part, the campus sentiment about a wide range of issues. From my interactions on Yik Yak, I can tell how well the buses are running on a given day, the least crowded times at the gym, and student reactions to administrative decisions. Instead of being worried about the negative aspects of anonymity on Yik Yak, we should embrace the service’s ability to help our young people grow and develop a strong sense of community.
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