Until a student gets to college, most students have never heard of Yik Yak. Yik Yak is an app where you can anonymously join different communities, spread across numerous ideas and interest, and it’s not only meant for college students. The part of Yik Yak which is most popular with Eureka students is the “my school” tab.
Students can enter their school issued email into the app and join a group meant for their campus. Users can still post anonymously, and Eureka students have used the group in numerous ways. Some students use it to spread the word about campus events, if the ice cream machine in the Commons is working, and even to ask for help in their classes.
Unfortunately, some Eureka students use Yik Yak in less positive ways. Some students post anonymously and post about others, using initials instead of names because Yik Yak will take down any posts calling out a certain person. Posts are often made in rude, and negative ways about other students. Recently, posts have been very targeted at a couple of Eureka’s women’s sports teams.
One Tuesday, September 9th a post was uploaded anonymously to Eureka’s Yik Yak. The post has since been deleted, but suggested that students come to the Women’s Volleyball game, because Women’s Soccer was currently losing their game. When the post was uploaded, women’s volleyball was on the court warming up for their game, without access to their phones.
The next day, September 10th Coach Candece Van Bogaert called a meeting between her women’s volleyball team and women’s soccer. There, Van Bogaert and her team captains apologized to women’s soccer and their coaches. Van Bogaert and her captains have since banned all their players from downloading Yik Yak on their phones.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of the fake Yik Yak posts. September 19th at 8:35 pm, a screenshot of women’s volleyballs most recent game at the time where they lost three sets to 1 against Concordia Chicago. The caption read, “That’s what happens when you talk s— ab us losing…” However, women’s soccer was still on the field for practice at the time the post was uploaded.
After the September 19th post, women’s soccer also apologized to women’s volleyball, assuring them that it was none of their players. But women’s soccer has still been the center of negative Yik Yak posts.
On September 25th, around 11:00 am, a post was again anonymously made on Yik Yak. This time, directly degrading the defenders on the women’s soccer team. Saying that if the team had better defenders that they could win a championship. Since that post, head women’s soccer coach Reece Scragg and his captains heavily encouraged their team to stay off Yik Yak.
Coach Scragg says that not only does he encourage his athletes to stay off Yik Yak, but he also encourages all students to stay off the app. He says that it’s an app that was created to encourage cyberbullying. Through text messages he mentioned the seven reasons for Eureka students to not be on Yik Yak. First, the anonymous environment encourages negativity, along with potential damage to mental health and the risk of false information. He also says it can hurt trust and relationships between students, it can be a safety risk, and waste of students’ time. Finally, he says there’s no monitoring, therefor, no repercussions
He also says that Yik Yak has put Eureka’s coaches in tough spots when it comes to their athlete’s usage of the app. There is no way to make sure no one his or any team ever downloads the app again, so all he feels he can do is encourage his players not to use it.
“All I can do is highlight how much the negatives outweigh the positives and hos it’s not good for anyone.” Coach Scragg said via text message. But the question that remains is if Eureka students think that the negatives out weight the positives. That may be the opinions of Eureka’s coaches, but they aren’t the students that may be directly affected by the negative and hurtful things posted anonymously on Yik Yak.
