Yikidy Yak: Who’s talking back
Written by David Dufour and Emma Karp
After almost two years of communicating with people online, we are finally back on campus and interacting with each other in classes, the dorms and throughout the city of Savannah. But with all of that time came with a delay in remembering what it was like to be social face to face. Talking to people through social media during the COVID-19 lockdowns became like second nature since that was the main way to communicate with each other. As new and old students come back to campus, they used social media as a way to connect with the community.
Students have arguably taken the biggest blows following the pandemic. We’ve been without friends for months, and although normalcy is much more frequent (stores opening, schools returning to in-person, and public events taking place in public again), there is still a sense of awkwardness. But with the use of YikYak, a lot of students are finding comfort in that awkwardness together and working to make connections through anonymity.
YikYak, an app released in 2013, is an anonymous platform that connects users in a 5 mile radius. The posts, or “yaks,” can be voted up or down and comments are allowed. The app was banned in 2017 for racist, homophobic and violent messages across high school and college campuses but was re-released this year. Unlike in the past, Yik Yak has become a safe space for new and seasoned students alike to openly share their opinions. Not just opinions, though. Conversations range from the latest escapades of dorm romances, the address of a house party or the lack of friend groups and being unable to relate to peers.
When asked via an anonymous yak what they are getting from YikYak, one user replied, “It’s like therapy. I get to vent to ppl I have no emotional connection to.”
One student replied to my post saying, “I get nervous talkin to people sometimes and overthink everything I say but the anonymity lets me be a true degenerate in peace.”
“I’m hoping to find my first homosexual experience here,” someone said. “That or make genuine friendships.”
It’s not just a virtual complaint forum, people on Yik Yak want to have fun, too. One yak at the top of the feed says, “Electric unicycle guy u look so dapper in your rgb lights.” “Sometimes you just gotta shout into a void,” said another. In a single statement, that’s Yik Yak. It’s a place for those who are angry, even lonely to feel satisfaction knowing that someone somewhere within a few miles of them will read their thoughts and possibly relate to them.
