Arts & Life

Whisper, Yak and tell me your Secret

Today’s generation is extremely involved in social media in order to commutate, stay informed and to be entertained. Posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have put a face on social interaction online, but a recent social media trend is anonymity. Apps like Whisper, Yik Yak and Secret are rising in popularity, and users can share what’s on their mind without disclosing their personal information. This recent shift in anonymous interaction, which illuminates mobile phones is often funny, but can also be problematic.

Whisper

Whisper is an anonymous app that allows users to send messages and receive replies. The posts are displayed with text over an image, similar to a postcard. The app allows users to filter posts that are recent, popular, nearby or featured. Whisper users can also search post by categories such as, faith, news, confessions, advice, relationships, meet ups, drugs & alcohol or LGBT.

Since the app is anonymous, it does not require users to set up an account using an email. Instead, accounts are linked to electronic devices. Like most social networking apps, Whisper also allows users to comment or like others post.

Although sophomore political science major, Maria Gutierrez is not a Whisper user, she said the idea of the app is useful.

“I understand why some people might be using this app, sometimes you need some advice with really personal stuff,” Gutierrez said. “I get that people have best friends, but sometimes it can be really awkward or embarrassing asking for advice.”

At the moment, Whisper is number 32 on the Apple App Store’s social networking chart.

Yik Yak

Yik Yak was originally meant to be an application used for news provided by students on school campuses, according to Forbes. The creators of Yik Yak told Forbes that they wanted the app to be the go-to source for breaking news on campuses. Unlike Twitter and other social-wall-posting apps, users do not have to create a login with a password.

Although the app is meant to be for instant news, the app has taken a turn and has become more of an anonymous status feed. Cyber bullying became a big issue with this app because it is not accessible when users are detected to be within a mile radius to a middle school or high school, according to Today.

“The fact that [Yik Yak] is an anonymous app that is targeting students obviously leads to bullying and encouraging hatred,” senior art major, Sean Rowe said. “The users are not going to be scared, they will not have a filter when they’re posting stuff because they can’t be tracked.”

Yik Yak is currently number eight on the Apple App Store’s social networking chart.

Secret

Secret is an application that allows people to share anonymous messages within their circles of friends and friends of friends. This app is different from other anonymous apps because it primarily aims to share post with friends that also use that application.

Like other similar apps, Secret allows users to anonymously like or comment on posts. Secret under no circumstance lets you know who liked or commented on your post; however, it does let the user know whether it comes from a friend or a friend of a friend. Since Secret does not assign or display usernames on posts, it is impossible to tell whether the confessions come from the same person. Secret is vulnerable to causing trusting issues between friends since “friends” can easily talk about each other and never know which “friend” it came from.

“I would not consider opening a Secret account just because it would make me feel extremely sad if somehow one of my friends or I were to get backstabbed by another friend,” said junior nursing major, Kimberly Goldberg. “Social media in general has made a lot of relationships fall apart and [Secret] comes off to be aiming specifically to make relationships fall apart.”

Secret is not a popular application on the Apple App Store.

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