Recently, our high school principal
sent out a warning about a smart phone app called Yik Yak. I'm happy
he did because if you're the parent of a child in high school, you
NEED to know about it.
YIK YAK IS A SOCIAL MEDIA SITE THAT ALLOWS USERS TO POST ANONYMOUSLY.
Yik Yak is a social media site that
allows users to post anonymously; they do not have to sign-up nor do
they need to declare a user name. Users post comments, questions, or
claims about others without assuming any responsibility for their
words. They can share posts with those within a 1.5 mile radius,
meaning they can target people they both know and don't know. As
such, Yik Yak threads have become a platform for libel, drug
discussions, sexual suggestions, and cyber bullying. Schools and
sometimes even the police cannot identify individuals' postings on
Yik Yak.
USERS CAN "UP VOTE" HARMFUL POSTINGS, THUS PROVIDING NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT.
The app is set up with game-like
features that give users the power to “control what is hot” by
“up voting” and “down voting” other people's posts. The
continuous tally of your “up votes” is called a Yakarma score
with users encouraged to “create quality content” to achieve a
higher score. In other words, the juicer your posts, the higher your
Yakarma score will be. If a post receives five “down votes,” the
user's Yakarma score goes down and the post is deleted. Sure, this
sounds positive, but it's not because users can “up vote” harmful
postings, thus providing negative reinforcement.
The most disturbing thing about Yik Yak
are the repercussions posts can have. Someone can post a salacious
rumor about your child which can spread like wildfire on their high
school campus and neither you nor they have any way of knowing who
posted it. Any defense made will certainly not get the amount of
views that the initial rumor received. In other words, Yik Yak
renders your kid defenseless against their peers.
THERE ARE LOTS OF SEXUAL COMMENTS, RACIST REMARKS, REFERENCES TO DRUGS, SEXISM, HOMOPHOBIA, AND JUST PLAIN MEANNESS ON YIK YAK.
I downloaded the app last night and was
immediately disgusted by the amount of sexual comments, racist
remarks, references to drugs, sexism, homophobia, and just plain
meanness of so many posts. There are some really depraved people on
Yik Yak. No wonder at least one psychiatrist has dubbed it “the
most dangerous app out there” (read his article here:
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/05/09/psychiatrist-view-yik-yak-is-most-dangerous-app-ive-ever-seen).
So what can we as parents do? Grab
your high schooler's phone and/or table and see if they have Yik Yak
downloaded. If they do, ask why they have it and discuss with them
what would happen if they or one of their friends was targeted in a
post. Help them to see how destructive the app actually is – a
discussion with you can be extremely valuable.
GRAB YOUR HIGH SCHOOLER'S PHONE/TABLE AND SEE IF THEY HAVE YIK YAK DOWNLOADED.
My son and I talked about Yik Yak and I
was relieved to see, for myself, that he does not have it on any of
his devices. He said he's heard about it from friends and, in his
words, “it's evil.” That's now. He could give in to peer
pressure in the future. As I always do, I'll be monitoring his
electronics to see what he's downloading. Cyber-beasts like Yik Yak
are out there. It's up to us, as parents, to protect our kids as
much as possible.
For more on Yik Yak, please visit the
sources I used for this article:
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/student-affairs-and-technology/yik-yak-anagram-hot-mess;
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diana-graber/yik-yak-app-makers-do-the_b_5029679.html;
http://nymag.com/thecut/2014/04/gossip-app-brought-my-high-school-to-a-halt.html;
http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-yik-yak-2014-5.
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Please note, this article first appeared on the website The Geek Parent.
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