Yik Yak And The Power Of Yakking
In the middle of March, Yik Yak founders Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington presented a lecture called, Yik Yak Founders: Pursue Your Entrepreneurial Dreams, at the 2015 College Media Association Spring National College Media Convention.
The masterminds behind the new app, which was launched in 2013 and is now used in 1,000 schools nationwide, shared their inspiration to start the app. They also spoke about their vision and explained how the anonymity in the app is helpful in a way that no one is valued more or less because of their background, social status, gender or sexuality, but specifically based on the content of their comments.
Yik Yak is a smartphone-only application in which you can comment anonymously and see other comments on a newsfeed within a 10-mile radius without creating a profile.
The CMA received more than one dose of Yik Yak through the week as the mint green Yik Yak tent received journalism students from all across the country that recognized the Yak and approached the tent.
Lead community developer of Yik Yak’s PR team, Cam Mullen stood at the tent and was open for discussion about the different reactions schools take on the app such as deciding to ban it due to bullying and threats.
“Some schools don’t know the right way to handle it. ” Mullen said in an interview with The Reporter. “They think if [Yik Yak usage] it’s out of control, we can’t have it.”
The first step they took was imposing a self-ban from middle schools and high schools to raise the average user age to seventeen and up. Comments are also permanently removed from the newsfeed if it reaches five down votes, any Yak with offensive or abusive content can be reported and it uses a natural language system to identify and remove comments of the sort.
Despite the difficulties they face against the public view, the Yik Yak team continues to push their ideas forward and protect their vision.
“We are improving communities by bringing them together. People can speak freely and help each other with their comments, whether it’s advice or it’s a funny joke they want to share,” Mullen said.
Ronald Muller, a student at MDC and current Yik Yak user said: “ It’s good because of the advice people give. I’ve seen that a lot. Also, if you’re a tourist and you want to know where to go, people help with directions and give location advice.”
The Yik Yak team also tours colleges in an effort to inform and educate students about communication and community and to have a first-hand experience on how students use Yik Yak.
“We get insides from all types of people and we’re learning from schools. Colleges are one of our strongest communities,” Mullen said.
With a continually increasing number of users nationwide, Yik Yak has managed to give anonymity a positive power and has helped each Yakker find its “herd”. As for the future, Mullen has said there is a better Yik Yak to come. Now we must wait and up vote if the change is truly better.
