Being a senior in college, I have certainly seen my fair share of fads and one-hit-wonders come and go. When I first came to Juniata as a freshman, Facebook was the latest and greatest thing…at least I thought it was because I had very recently made my own! Before I knew it, my friends and I were all getting iPhones and then, well, it all went downhill from there. Not really! But, we certainly became much more attached to our phones than we had ever been. After a while, Instagram, Twitter and Vine exploded onto the scene and everyone was talking about them.
But, of course, that was back in the day. Still popular? Of course! Still very popular, might I add, but social networking sites are getting craftier in general. I’m not sure if anyone’s heard of a little site called “Yik Yak”? It’s all the rage on Juniata’s campus, and I can imagine it’s the same on many other college campuses as well.Yik Yak is an anonymous social media site that can be downloaded as an app on any iOS or Android phones, or you can access it straight from your computer. You literally get a live news feed of what people are posting around you. You can write posts, otherwise known as “yaks,” and read posts completely incognito.
You can both track your own yaks and the replies you’ve made on other yaks. If you post something that gets more than five down votes, then it will automatically be deleted. Yik Yak also keeps score for you based on how often you post and the amount of up votes your posts get. It’s a really basic and fun way to see what those around you are up to! Yik Yak, like any social media site, is not meant for calling people out and naming names. It’s just a quirky site where people can go to be silly and keep fellow “yakkers” thoroughly entertained. So, now that you’ve been briefed on the world of Yik Yak…start yakkin’ away!
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