Editorial cartoon by Jacob Bogdanoff and Des Delgadillo
Yik Yak has hit the La Verne campus and brought with it a lot of anonymous drama. Any digital outlet where anonymous statements can be made is always a recipe for disaster, and the new Yik Yak app is no exception.
Yik Yak is an app where anyone can anonymously post whatever they wish so long as it is within the 200 character limit. Logging on to Yik Yak, there are “yaks” from people within a 1.5-mile radius, which on college campuses becomes a hotbed for anonymous gossip.
Although the app’s first rule is, “You do not bully or specifically target other yakkers,” ULV students continue to post offensive material targeting people and organizations by name.
From disturbing hypersexual statements to rude comments disrespecting people and organizations, Yik Yak at La Verne contributes nothing positive to the campus climate.
Yik Yak, because it is a third party app, cannot be taken down by the administration like the La Verne Confessional pages that had popped up on Facebook.
It is unfortunate that in this age of online bullying, yet another destructive app has hit smartphones, giving people the chance to anonymously describe how much they hate things about their college campus and certain people and organizations who are on campus.
News flash, La Verne – this campus is not even on the “Peek” list on Yik Yak that allows for other schools to see what is going on with us. Yik Yak doesn’t care about us, so why do we care about it?
Instead of spending hours scrolling through and voting up or down on ridiculous yaks and ridiculing fellow students, students should be focused on their personal lives rather than contribute to audacious and preposterous rumors.
La Verne should be a college that holds itself to a higher standard than staring at a spinning yak head waiting for some anonymous app on their phones to reload.
Be above the Yak.
