Nothing
is more intriguing than seeing something you have been studying, become more
relevant. About midway through the semester Yik Yak actually visited Mason on
its college tour. At the beginning of last fall, Yik Yak seemed like a small
presence on Mason’s campus and now,
mid spring, the bright blue tour bus was humming around Patriot Circle.
My project has turned into many
things. After data collection and evaluation I realized that my research needed
a lot of work. I collected no demographic data (in order to stick with the
theme of complete anonymity) and it disallowed me from doing some of the
comparisons based on age or sex that could've resulted in more complete
results. However, I also realized some interesting information regarding Mason
students.
Although
the majority of participants reported never having felt intimidated or
threatened while using the application (82%), 12 respondents reported having
felt intimidated or threatened rarely (16%) and two indicated feeling
intimidated or threatened sometimes (3%). This indicates that there is the
potential for negative threats on GMU students. Ideally, everyone who answered
my survey would have reported never feeling intimidated or threatened while
using the application.
Out of
all respondents, 75% of indicated that they use the application for
entertainment purposes, 52% to see what other students are posting on campus
and 21% because it is anonymous. T-test identified very significant results
between opinion regarding the application and posts and use frequency. Frequent
users viewed the application (t =4.067, df=81, p=.000) and posts more
positively than infrequent users (t =2.379, df=81, p=.020).
One of
the most interesting things I discovered was that none of the respondents
indicated that profanity, underage drinking or mention of illicit drug use as
motivation for down-voting. Out of all respondents, 46% indicated that they
would down vote a Yak in order to disagree with a post they do not like. Only
13% said they would down vote a Yak because it involved cyber bullying and 7%
said they would down vote a post because it was intimidating or threatening.
All the other options listed for this survey question (including “Other”) were
selected at least once by one of the 99 respondents, minus profanity, underage
drinking or mention of illicit drug use.
This
suggests that maybe college students consider profane language a part of their
subculture norm and should be considered when evaluating the conclusions of
previous research. Sixty one percent of participants reported seeing profanity
on the application often or all of the time. Considering how much profanity
occurs over online communication, removing it could heavily affect the rate at
which flaming behavior occurs and is counted. If college students do not
consider profanity or illicit behaviors as a means for disapproval, then future
studies need to be modified to account for this difference.
My
study was designed to provide the first statistical insight into the
experiences of George Mason University students while using Yik Yak. Future
research could also attempt to analyze posts on the application. Posts on Yik
Yak have varying lifespans depending on how popular or unpopular they become.
Analyzing the rate at which posts cycle through the feed for a given college or
university could create a greater depth of information regarding what is
actually occurring through the application, versus what users are interpreting
is happening. For my research, I focused more heavily on the self-reported experiences
of students while using the application. I wanted to know, in order to help
gauge the threats of the application, what people thought about Yik Yak and
their experiences on the application as they remember them.
I will
be graduating this semester and thus, done with my research (for now). Having
the opportunity to participate in Undergraduate research has been a really cool
experience and something that has given me a sense of pride. From the first
idea to the final product I have been able to watch my project grow into
something that puts Yik Yak in the academic sphere. And I’m one of the first to
do so.
