I love Yik Yak. I wish I didn’t love it so much while I am studying or trying to go to bed, but I do. It has everything Twitter does, but with all of the pure, unadulterated honesty that comes with no one knowing who you are. While I am one of the more tame yakkers, I do get a kick out of the crazy things other people say, and I relish in the upvotes of some of my more clever yaks. And when one makes it onto the “hot” feed? Winning! By the way, my record is 215. It’s chill, though.     

No one knows who you are. It is great. You can yak whatever you want and it doesn’t matter, right? Wrong. In my humble opinion, it does matter. And that is why Yik Yak can really get under my skin.     

I love college and the friendly people I meet everywhere. I love that when I walk past someone they look up and smile, even if we were both checking our phones as we pass by each other. And that is why I yakked this last week: “I find it so odd that people here are so nice in person and so downright mean on Yik Yak.”      

This is not Carolina exclusive. I have “peeked” into other schools’ yaks and seen the exact same mentality. The attitude that no one can see who yakked this, so who cares what I say?     

I want to thank whoever yakked back at me for giving me the idea for this article. He/she said: “You find it odd that people are mean on an anonymous site? Where have you been your whole life.”     

I replied, “The real you is the you when no one is around. So maybe odd is the wrong word. Rather, I find it sad that people are only nice when their reputation is at stake. Where have you been your whole life?”     

Okay, so I got a little sassy. But I was just tired of it. I don’t see why people feel the need to be snarky. What if your comment offends the yakker, whose yak you replied to? Or at degrades their self-esteem? Remember, it was Thumper’s mother who said: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.”     

It doesn’t happen on Twitter because a person’s comment is stuck like glue to his or her Twitter handle. Compare your yaks to your Twitter. On which site are you kinder? I am all for yakking something embarrassing that you yourself did, or making a terrible joke with the comfort of confidentiality. Ragging on yourself is cool. Ragging on someone else who did not ask for it, is not.     

Don't get me wrong. Yik Yak is hysterical and a favorite of mine when I need some mind-numbing laughter. It is wonderful for making you feel better after you walk out of a killer exam and everyone is blowing up Yik Yak with “RIP my grade,” or “Time to curl up in a ball and cry, who wants to join?” In the stress-filled world of college, it makes you feel not so alone. You get all fuzzy inside when you see a yakker gush about how much he or she loves Chapel Hill or how much he or she hates DOOK (the only less-than-kind yak I approve of).     

Yik Yak has some solid entertainment value. But as the wise Albus Dumbledore once said, “Use it well.”