Yik Yak, the newest social media app, has taken Auburn by storm over the past few weeks.
The mobile phone app gives users an anonymous live feed of what people are saying and doing around them without actually having to know them.
The app, which was created by two Furman University students in October 2013, requires no sign up, profile or password.
Yik Yak is completely community driven, with users creating all the content, which could be a major problem.
Yik Yak was created for the sole purpose of griping about things, people, places, classes or anything else on a college campus.
"[Yik Yak] has been mostly about fraternities and sororities and about individuals every now and then," said Rachel Tourne, a sophomore in pre-early childhood education. "I don't see anything positive coming from it, but I can also see why people would be so intrigued by it."
In its first three months, Yik Yak gained 100,000 users across five campuses, including the University of Georgia, Ole Miss, Clemson, the University of Virginia and Wake Forest, averaging nearly 15,000 messages each day.
The creators of Yik Yak meant the app to be used by college students only but have done little to prevent the spread into high schools and middle schools, causing a number of problems to arise.
The obvious problem with Yik Yak is that it provides an open forum for cyber bullying, which has been cited as the cause of many teen suicides in the U.S. and has little or no way of preventing such bullying.
The only bullying prevention tool the app contains is a two dislike and then disappear system, which still allows for people to view the post prior to it going away.
If a user posts something to Yik Yak and the post gains two dislikes then it automatically disappears but not before some users were able to see it.
The alternative way for a user to get a post removed would be by taking a snapshot of the Yik Yak the user wishes to be removed and emailing it to the Yik Yak team, which would then remove the post from the page.
With many reviews bashing Yik Yak and the immature forum it offers students, the Yik Yak founders ask that people give it time to develop, believing the longer a community is around the app, the more mature and constructive it becomes.
However, Dylan Powers, junior in industrial design, said he believes the app will disappear before the posts get better.
"When it comes down to it, I think the app will disappear in a month or so with the exception of the individuals who try to keep it going," Powers said. "Until then, I'd recommend deleting the app because from what I have seen, it cannot do anything positive for someone's life."
On Feb. 21, two minors in Mobile, a 14 and a 16 year old, were arrested for posting potential school shootings on the application and now face charges of terroristic threats, rendering the anonymous tag on the app a void one.
Yik Yak developers helped officials track down the school shooting users by releasing the cell phone information and tracking it to an address.
Anyone who considers using the Yik Yak app to make threats should realize authorities have the ability to pinpoint their location.
The app, which was originally created for use by college students, requires users verify they are over the age of 17 prior to downloading the app.
Although the app is community driven, Yik Yak could stand to make some changes to ensure the safety of high school student as well as college students is at the highest possible level. Until then, the Yik Yak guidelines will read:
"We rely on our communities to do the right thing. You have the power."
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