<p>This is the phone app that lets you look specifically at a college campus's particular "tweet" sort of things on a given day. They seem to recycle to only about 24 hours for most comments (? I don't know what to call them) unless they are "hot" which means they can remain for a while. </p>
<p>The app does not let you post to a campus's YY if you are not already there. You can only be a fly on the wall while they all talk to each other anonymously about the food or the studying or the classes. About being stood up for dates. Asking about <em>what on earth</em> is happening at 1am in a particular dorm that's too loud. About the stress of recruiting meetings. About loving college. About being intimidated by college. There is a lot of stuff about sex and the bathrooms.</p>
<p>Just warning about that last part.</p>
<p>They also seem to have some "featured" YYs where certain colleges are playing certain other colleges in heated contests. Again you can click but cannot post unless you are actually there.</p>
<p>Anyway I feel like I have already learned more than I should know about the professors kids like; the food they don't; the pair of underwear left in the quad for 3 days now that no one will claim. But you sort of feel like you have a window into the campus where your kid is that you wouldn't have otherwise.</p>
<p>Using Yik Yak as a gauge of what colleges are like is akin to using middle school locker room gossip as a way of determining how sexually active 12-14 year olds are. </p>
<p>I’ve never looked at it but one of my kids says it’s replaced twitter/facebook et al. I thought you had to be on or near campus to read it though.</p>
<p>It was banned at my youngest son’s high school last spring because of its ease of use as a cyber bullying tool. There is a lot wrong with an app that allows free posting with anonymity. </p>
<p>Would it be ok with you if people in another neighborhood could secretly peek in your neighborhood windows and see/hear what you and your neighbors are up to??? Would you feel it is any of their business if they didn’t love there??? </p>
<p>If you’re a student and visiting a college, I highly recommend the student reads through the area’s yik yak. College is all about academics, but if they want to truly know what the social life/the student body is like, then this is the best app to do that. Granted it may be inappropriate, but it doesn’t work like it does in high school. At least at my high school it was banned because of cyber bullying, but at my college, it’s just witty comments and humor that isn’t appreciated by a high schooler.</p>
<p>Could not find Yak Yak for iPad but found it for Android. All I am seeing is stuff from our high school. Closest college is probably 8 miles away. Intriguing nonetheless. Nothing too racy, just funny comments about life at school and in our town by high school students! </p>
<p>I wonder how that works? Do they grab tweets based on location (which you can opt not to show in twitter)?
I guess it’s not technically invasive since it just aggregates stuff already published, but it is a warning on how stuff our kids (and we) send in social media is being viewed unexpectedly. </p>
<p>It’s not a twitter aggregator. It is it’s own thing. Realizing Saturday morning is the wrong time to be reading most colleges unless you go browse the BYU yaks. </p>
<p>I love yik yak. My husband works for a huge contract food service company and he reads them to monitor what kids are saying about chefs, staff, food and unhappiness. ( and times in the bathroom are often related to complaining about food)<br>
Also my son complains about the party all the time attitude and bar culture. Yik yak definitely confirms this, however those kids would be more obvious. </p>
<p>Oh, wow. Thanks for the heads-up. I hadn’t heard of this and after browsing some schools’ Yik Yak feeds (or whatever they’d be called), I feel nauseated. So much sexual and alcohol, what?, grime. Annapolis was the only school of those I looked at that wasn’t completely sordid. With the Wisconsin frat story and the missing UCV (sp?) girl story, it’s stomach-turning. I just keep wondering: WHO are these Yik Yak posters?! Ick Ick.</p>
From a quick perusal (“peeking”) with Yik Yak on college campuses, my preliminary conclusion is that college students are the same regardless of the prestige of the college or the cost of the college.
I conducted a Yik Yak “experiment” and have to agree with eli1067. The yaks were surprisingly similar among schools that differed in location, ranking and vibe. Students complain a lot about food, parking, registration, roommates, and early classes. Sex, drinking, Netflix, weather, and bathroom habits are frequent topics of conversation. It gets repetitive. And because posters are anonymous, one has no way of knowing what % of students are actually posting. Posts can be upvoted or down voted off the board so some posts disappear quickly.
After my little experiment, I deleted the app. Tbh, some things are better left unknown and it really is a little creepy.
</p>