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December 1, 2015

Title: What’s UP With Yik-Yak?
Topic: Yik-Yak

Discussed by John Horvat
with Return to Order www.ReturnToOrder.org

All the “cool kids” are doing it: Yik Yak. No, it isn’t some new game. It is an app college kids use on their cell phone to connect anonymously with others in their area.

Here’s how it works: Yik Yak combines the technologies of GPS and instant messaging, allowing users to anonymously microblog to other nearby users. Before loading messages, the Yik Yak app determines the user's location and groups them into pockets of 1.5 mile radius zones. Within these zones, anyone inside the radius can post and read other people's “yaks”. After a few hours, the anonymous post disappears.

In other words, Yik Yak is an anonymous bulletin board. The developers use a technology called geofencing to avoid as much cyber-bullying as possible. Geofencing allows certain areas, such as middle schools and high schools to be ‘fenced’ off using GPS technology. The app will then be no longer accessible in the fenced off area. Yik Yak allows small communities to provide commentary on events in real time.

John Horvat compares Yik Yak to the outbursts on college campuses around America. Too many college students are living life by the “feelings” – they are so emotionally involved with everything. Listen in as he explains his observations.

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