By Lily Margaret Jones | Arts & Entertainment Editor
On April 28th, a post on the mobile app Yik Yak about the first meeting of Salve Regina University’s Black Student Union was met with a series of reactions.
Yik Yak is a social media platform that allows its users to post statuses and responses to those statuses completely anonymously. Responses can be posted in the form of written comments or through the use of the app’s up/down feature (up meaning “like,” and down meaning “dislike.”) While every user’s identity remains unknown unlike other outlets like Facebook and SnapChat, Yik Yak randomly assigns unique icon images to those who reply to posts. If the user who posted responds to a reply, their icon is “OP,” indicating that he or she is the original poster.
Yik Yak is location-based, meaning that only posts from users nearby are visible. Because of this, it has gained popularity on college campuses, as one can assume if he or she is on campus, the posts on Yik Yak are those of fellow students. However, it is not restricted to the Salve community as users within a certain radius can automatically gain access, and any user can use the app’s “peek” feature to engage with the Salve Regina University feed from any location.
The Black Student Union was recently added to Salve Regina’s club roster. A member of the Union, who was the original poster of the meeting announcement on Yik Yak, has shared screenshots of replies with the Mosaic. Sister Jane Gerety, president of the university, sent out a mass email on April 29th addressing the posts, also pictured below.
*The following Yik Yak posts do NOT reflect the views of the Mosaic Student Newspaper staff.*
