It’s no secret that the University has been undergoing what seems to be a crisis of community. The graduation ceremonies are getting split into multiple sessions. Enrollment is skyrocketing, inciting worries that the University’s culture will dilute in the tide of so many new students. Even symbolically the University is losing itself: the Rotunda — that grand monument to Thomas Jefferson’s vision — is shuttered.
The remedy to this crisis of community, of course, is to put a greater emphasis on introducing new students to the traditions and values of the University. To some extent, the community-organizing abilities of the internet will be crucial in sustaining and strengthening sense of community. However, Yik Yak — that popular web application that allows students to anonymously post messages to a public feed — is not one of the tools to be used, however community-oriented the application may seem. Yik Yak is both a small cause and an effect of this community breakdown. And, although the application seems to be conducive to a sense of community, it does not bring us together, but rather takes us apart by undermining our sense of mutual trust.
Yik Yak does not fit into our Community of Trust, that “unique spirit of compassion and interconnectedness” that defines our school. Implicit in the name of the Community of Trust is the idea that, in addition to not lying, cheating or stealing, University students should trust each other wholeheartedly and should marshal themselves never to deceive another. The poorly-scrawled message in a bathroom stall is a breach of this Community of Trust not only because of its property destruction, but also because its anonymity is a form of deception — lying by omission — that deceives by implying that any person could have written it. The anonymous scrawler is in fact slandering the greater University community by omitting his name and so attributing the words to the community at large.
Yik Yak commits the same sin in its own anonymous posting. Anonymity, while surely having its uses in reporting crimes, giving sensitive quotes to reporters, sending flirtatious love notes and staging governmental coups, is not fit for the Community of Trust when it consists of advertising most personal opinions. Anything the University student writes or says she should be proud to attach her name to, just as the secret society leaves their calling card in their wake. This is what we call self-accountability: owning up to your own opinions for your sake and for the sake of others. But the stream of nameless consciousness that flows from Yik Yak, being attributable to no one, is paradoxically attributable to everyone, subverting the Community of Trust. Even the most banal opinion on Yik Yak, such as “I hate calculus,” is partially implicit in this breach of trust, because it mischaracterizes the student body. The inflammatory and bigoted yak, on the other hand, shames all of us, and its anonymity keeps us from culling the writer from the student body.
Because of the anonymity of Yik Yak, the constitution of the University community is somewhat blurred. When jokes, quips and opinions can’t be assigned to an author, every University student assumes authorship. Through this, all of our collective individualities are a little obscured and twisted. I then see the man over there not as he is, but as the possibility of who he is. He could have written that clever Yak last night. He could have written that self-deprecating, hilarious Yak this morning. He could have written that cruel and malicious Yak I just read. He could be writing a Yak right now making fun of me. He probably isn’t, but anonymity on the scale of Yik Yak interferes with identity on every level because each of us shares responsibility for about one 15000th of every Yak. We take one 15,000th of every joke and one 15,000th of every instance of bullying. Thus, Yik Yak makes all of us clowns and tyrants. Interactions among students should be unrestrained by such burdens. I should be able to trust that you are who you appear to be. And even if complete trustworthiness is an unachievable, fairy tale ideal, it’s one we should be making attempts to reach.
The point is: Yik Yak is interfering on some level with each student’s reputation, regardless of whether or not the individual even knows what Yik Yak is. When there is an unfettered, anonymous public data stream representing the University, every person’s identity has an added layer of ambiguity. Everyone draws a little closer to the mean. In the Community of Trust, we should all relish each other’s differences of opinion and individual senses of humor. We should be forthcoming about who we are as people, students and friends, because a community is all the stronger for how sharply defined each of its members is. We shouldn’t be sacked with the prejudices of a few. The individual citizen is the foundation of the country; the individual hoo is the foundation of the University. So I say, let’s shed our cloaks of anonymity. Let each man and woman go out into the light of day. Let’s yak our last Yak.
Brennan Edel is a Viewpoint Writer.
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