Most students don’t come to college expecting to find fame and fortune, but for some Yik Yak users at Drake University, fame has fallen right into their laps.
Yik Yak, an anonymous social media platform, is a popular outlet for college and university students to become more connected with the rest of their school while maintaining a comfortable distance. The anonymity makes it easier for the app’s users to post freely on the platform without having to worry about direct judgment from others. The app, only available to Apple users, automatically adds anyone in a 5-mile radius to a school group and is also used by non-school communities.
First-year student Belle Lapos has only been using Yik Yak for a short time. She described the app as “college Twitter” because of users’ tendencies to post their random thoughts.
In Lapos’ eyes, the anonymity of the app would make it hard for someone to become a “celebrity” in the traditional sense, but an account can become popular by consistently posting content that receives upvotes from users.
“I don’t think [Yik Yak fame] really would [impact my life]. It’s just a way to connect with people [and] with Drake, especially as [a] first-year,” Lapos said. “It’s kind of like everyone is treated completely equally on that platform.”
One user, a Drake junior who has experienced Yik Yak fame first hand and asked to remain anonymous, explained that a person isn’t really a “celebrity” on Yik Yak because of the anonymity. An account can be popular for a time by simply posting content that other users will find funny.
“[It’s] kind of similar to Reddit,” they said. “Your posts get upvoted or downvoted, and the more upvoted they are, [the] more people will see it.”
While the user didn’t believe in the concept of fame on the app, they did find joy in knowing their posts could bring a smile to someone’s face.
“I think it’s kind of ridiculous, [so] I don’t take it too seriously,” they said. “Sometimes it does make me happy. If I make something really popular, that always feels good.”
Another user, a Drake sophomore, has also achieved so-called “celebrity status” on Yik Yak, something he claimed all comes down to catering to the audience.
“You just gotta be fun. [You‘ve] got to post what the people want to hear,” he said. “Sometimes you gotta be outrageous, but sometimes you also gotta level it out with what people think is funny. Be grounded, but also be a little silly. So it can be totally random.”
The user also explained that, while a person can get a lot of upvotes on their posts, Yik Yak fame doesn’t have a long-lasting effect.
“There’s fresh content being generated every minute of every hour, so it’s [a] very constant stream of new stuff,” he said. “[In the] short term, it’s kind of [a] dopamine boost. People think I’m funny. It really makes my day.”
One Drake senior, a long-time user of the app, is no stranger to Yik Yak fame.
“When I started using it, it was fully anonymous,” she said. “There wasn’t anything that could connect you to a certain identity. Then they implemented emojis, so your identity was anonymous, but all of your posts could be linked together.”
Although the user believed her posts were never earth-shattering, she enjoyed the way “fame” helped her connect with the Drake community.
“I just posted funny things, my thoughts,” she said. “I did questions of the day that kind of got people interacting with each other. Just some silly, humorous thoughts that I had about campus in general.”
While the internet, including Yik Yak, is not always a kind place, this user enjoyed using her popularity to create positive experiences for herself and others.
“I thought it was fun,” she said. “I definitely did end up making some connections with people through that. I made a couple friends through it, who I found out shared similar senses of humor [as] me. I liked that I could be funny and [that] I could bring just a little laugh to someone’s day.”
