The article I chose for this week revolves around the up and coming social media platform- Yik Yak. For starters, Yik Yak is a online social media used on an app on user’s phones. Before last week, Yik Yak was known for it’s users to be able to anonymously “Yak”, or post, whatever they want. The media system works by location, so only people in your immediate location can see your posts and you can see there’s. Last week, as reported by the co-founders Brooks Buffington and Tyler Droll, they have moved to a handle based system, a handle is a user’s account name that they can be tracked by. Several members in the audience of South by Southwest Interactive were concerned about the use so far on the social media platform. One woman, who would not state her name or the name of her school, commented saying that 90% of students “Yaks” were referring to sex and drugs. As well as it becomes an easy channel for more profanity and even bullying. The co-founders, Buffington and Droll, responded with the fact that all social medias have the potential to be negative outlets. Any platform where people, specifically teens and young adults can communicate freely- has the ability to be an outlet for negativity. One woman even asked if she could pay Yik Yak to block her son’s IP address. There were more complaints than plausible solutions at the conference, one solution being: to make the social media platform more reliable; meaning to put names and faces to the posts. This action is not yet in production, this action would go against the principle reason for using Yik Yak over other popular, established social medias such as Facebook and Twitter. I personally observed Yik Yak over DECA State, everyone used it to post false rumors about the hotel such as serious incidents, party locations, and jokes. Though the rumors were presumibly false, there was that sense of community that Yik Yak founders hoped to establish. Everyone used the site, everyone could communicate- everyone knew what was going on- everywhere. From observing the conference about Yik Yak I have not only observed the benefits of social media- but also the downfalls. There are a lot of serious downfalls of Yik Yak such as negative social factors and safety risks. But the community can benefit from the local communication as well.
http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/yik-yak-drew-bunch-criticism-sxsw-over-anonymity-its-platform-170186
http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/yik-yak-drew-bunch-criticism-sxsw-over-anonymity-its-platform-170186