Communication Technology Social Change

Tedratic Analysis of the Comeback of YikYak

Nora Pittner

03/07/2022

Dr. Glantz

COME 384

Introduction

Today’s social media landscape has landed us, the consumers, in an era of history where the phrase “there’s an app for that” has never been more true. If you want to seek therapy, funny videos, memes, beer-drinking, or fanfiction, there is truly an app out there for whatever your needs or wants may be. If you want an app where you can anonymously post your innermost thoughts and feelings there is an app for that. YikYak is an app that originally took off in 2013 after two college students created this app which had many flaws that lead to its demise in 2017. Many argue that with new technology and surveillance measures anonymity is decreasing significantly. The pew research center stated, “Several respondents indicated that there is no longer a chance of anonymity online, many say privacy and choice are still options, and they should be protected”.  

While privacy should be protected so should the ability to have a good mental health standing and not be under attack by people you do not know. YikYak had its rise and fall of success and it is currently in full swing once again stage among college-aged students. Besides YikYak, only three other anonymous social networking sites are currently known: Gab,  Nextdoor, and Whisper. Not too many endless amounts of anonymous accounts on all different types of social media platforms. Anonymity is one problem and flaw but what is the whole picture of the understanding of a platform like YikYak. Using the tetrads of Marshall McLuhan I will be discussing how YikYak enhances, retrieves, flips, and obsolesces both the communication and media communities.

Theory

Marshall McLuhan is a media scholar whom many are familiar with; his most famous quote being, “The medium is the message”. This quote sent a shot out into the world when McLuhan explained how he believed that media shapes one’s brain. In his 1964, textbook Understanding Media, had taken over with fellow communication and media theorists and experts. The four tetrads McLuhan introduced inside this book are how I will be dissecting YikYak for enhancement, retrieval, flipping/reversal, and obsolescence. Enhancement refers to communication/technology that will enhance a new medium. Retrieval refers to an obsolete aspect of the communication/technology and the medium will lead to a flip. Flipping refers to the hypothesis of McLuhan that a medium will be flipped into the “reverse” of the starting characters of the respective medium. This happens more specifically when the medium has reached its absolute peak of potential. Obsolescence refers to the communication/technology a new medium may consider dated due to the enhancements of other aspects of the respective medium. 

YikYak Analysis

Enhance

YikYak is free in the app store which makes it accessible to everyone with basically any mobile device. Not only is the app extremely accessible that so are your posts or “yaks”; they can reach anyone within a five-mile radius of the location one posted their “yak”. Part of the attractiveness of an app like YikYak is the anonymity, as much as we deny it, we love being able to say whatever we want without any consequences no matter how rude and offensive it may be. The other part that draws the users in, is the content that the platform provides you, the consumer, with. The content is so random and can be so funny and part of what adds to the humor is the anonymity of the confession or what the contents of the “yak” may be. 

Retrieve

YikYak is our human fear of rejection, because this app is open to everyone, yes everyone, which opens the floor to more hate comments and such. YikYak had originally been released in 2013 by two college students from Furman University. YikYak was successful right away after the release date. Then, everything plummeted when users and the public started to heavily criticize the app. This criticism was so harsh that it led to its demise in 2017. Many schools during this time had many scandals released through this app. One national scandal came out of the University of Missouri. Student, later identified as Hunter M. Park. He had posted racist rants and had alluded to shooting the school specifically, his black peers. This is the behavior so many fear could also happen to them. Despite this large scandal many of the times this app helped spread the rumors like a wildfire no one was ready to handle. According to a 2015 Washington Post article states, “the app is fielding a new high-profile incident roughly every two weeks” (Dewey, The Washington Post). The author sampled all the high-profile incidents for over a year. In 2015, there were seven incidents; three mass shooting threats, two racist commentary issues, threats of rape & sexual explicitly, & finally murder. In 2014, four high-profile incidents happened; threats of both violence and sexual assault, two mass shooting threats (copycats), and a non-consensual release of a sex tape. These incidents created fear from users but if it was not these types of issues, it was the rumor mill which during high school and college are the worse times to go through those types of minuscule things. 

Flip

While YikYak has made progress to combat cyberbullying it cannot stop it which is why it has the potential to flip to the fear that people have for using an app like YikYak. While it may be fun and even therapeutic to release all those: feelings, comments, concerns, etc. It could be harmful and not everyone has the same intent as those who intended for an app like YikYak to be fun and therapeutic. YikYak is not the first online media platform teens used to impact one another, an example would be Ask.Fm and a few other examples. That is where YikYak gets interested in bringing in the cloak of anonymity. Bullies could hide behind their keyboards say how they feel and seemingly face no consequences. The bullied are confessing to their future crimes or protecting those they do not want to harm. In retrospect giving bored high school and college students does not seem that bad until we figure out how we can abuse the system of truly free speech. 

Obsolesce

While there is no proof on how to properly control and contain this issue even with the improvements made to the app. At the end of the day, there is only so much censorship we can put on media. It is especially hard for apps where the users are the content creators. We, the content creators, do have to understand that they must follow all of YikYak’s terms and agreements. Including, the “one-strike-and-you’re-out policy that will ban the user from the app if the “violation is serious,” as stated on the website” (Vail, The Record).

Evaluation

As someone who has been subjected to bullying and especially cyberbullying, while not through YikYak, I understand the concern about the return of the scandalous YikYak. It has created very hard situations for those involved in any of the high-profile incidents or the bullying incidents that may be able to be portrayed by the movie Mean Girls. While, I, a content creator/user of  YikYak, can tell they do not force the rule automatically deleting a “yak” after five downvotes. Many times they have been downvoted in the ’20s or ’30s. While they are taking steps towards counteracting bullying and more scandals YikYak does have more strides to make rather than simple steps.

Conclusion

YikYak, once again founded in 2013, is an online media platform that most high school and college students use to voice, well their voice. The user and content creator is allowed to say anything they choose. This can lead to heavy cyberbullying as we have seen and a positive impact does not outweigh the negative. I think giving people the to say whatever they please with what seems like no consequences only seems to create greater and grand consequences for people lacking a filter when it comes to speaking their minds and the truth.

References

Dewey, C. (2021, October 26). What is Yik Yak, the app that fielded racist threats at the University of Missouri? Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/11/11/what-is-yik-yak-the-app-that-fielded-racist-threats-at-university-of-missouri/ 

Dyer, H. Y. (2021, November 29). Online abuse: Banning anonymous social media accounts is not the answer. Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://theconversation.com/online-abuse-banning-anonymous-social-media-accounts-is-not-the-answer-170224 

Rainie, L., Anderson, J., & Albright, J. (2020, August 27). The future of free speech, trolls, anonymity, and fake news online. Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2017/03/29/the-future-of-free-speech-trolls-anonymity-and-fake-news-online/ Vail, E. (2022, February 18). Yik Yak has returned – and so have reports of cyberbullying, students say. Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://therecord.media/yik-yak-has-returned-and-so-have-reports-of-cyberbullying-students-say/#:~:text=First%20launched%20in%202013%20by,relaunched%20in%20August%20of%202021.