By Jill Venditti and Olivia Arnold

The app, Yik Yak, for Androids and IOS, was released in December 2013 but is just recently trending nationwide. It was created by two Furman University students, Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington,  to connect various users. The app is a virtual bulletin, in which age appropriate users (college students) are allowed to post their ideas and comments anonymously. Based on your location, you are only enabled to see the posts within a five mile radius. Since it is anonymous, the app requires no username, only allowing others to see a map of a general area of where you posted the yak. While viewing posts, you can “downvote”, “upvote”, and comment on posts. Once a yak receives a score of negative five, or five downvotes, the post is removed. If bullying takes place, a name is mentioned, or there is innapropriate content and someone reports it,  the post is removed.

The app is mainly aimed at colleges and due to prior conflicts regarding Yik Yak in elementary and secondary schools, the app is disabled in those locations. If you try to use the app this message appears: “You appear to be using this too close to a school. Yik Yak is for adults only.” Before these modifications were created, there were bullying cases; It is important to remember: nothing is ever anonymous and your electronic history is never completely deleted.

A user has to follow a set of rules, and if disobeyed, the person will be suspended. The rules stated include:

1. “You do not bully or specifically target other yakkers.”

2. “You DO NOT bully or specifically target other yakkers.”

3. “Zero tolerance policy on posting people’s phone numbers.”

4. “Don’t clutter people’s feeds with useless or offensive yaks. If you see a useless or offensive yak, make sure you do your part by downvoting or reporting it.”

5. “If your yaks continue to be downvoted or reported, you will be suspended.”

6. “Ride the yak.”

Although you can only see the yaks in your general area, you can look at other college universities and other “top yaks”. You can also “peek”, or look at, yaks about different topics including Freshman Advice, Yik Yak Hogwarts, Sports Headquarters, Yik Yak Shark Tank. There is also Yakarma, which is a point system in which increases when you upvote a comment or yak, or get upvotes on your post.

Although Yik Yak tends to have a bad reputation, it includes many positive things such as advice, spirit wear reminders, information regarding events, jokes, and people wanting to spread awareness and positivity. Around April 16, 2014, students at Virginia Tech posted yaks to spread awareness and remembrance of those who lost their lives in the 2007 school shooting. One of the top yaks posted stated, “Ryan Clark, known as stack to his friends, was an RA, a triple major with a 4.0, in the band, and a music director at a camp for mentally impaired children. Your legacy lives on Ryan. Rest easy”.

Yak continues to grow nationwide due to it’s interesting aspect of a virtual bulletin. Using the app, we have benefitted from the major positive impacts in the Westborough community.

So remember, ride the yak, but do so responsibly.