I’d by lying if I said I didn’t love wasting time on Yik Yak and Unseen.
For those that aren’t familiar with the apps, Yik Yak is essentially an anonymous Twitter and Unseen is an anonymous Instagram or Snapchat. It takes your location into account and all the posts you see are from people in your area — mostly other Ohio University students.
The kinds of posts on Yik Yak range from students complaining about classes, to talking about hookups, to posts filled with their drunk thoughts. Unseen is filled with photos of weekend debauchery, semi-nude photos and pictures of dogs.
As much as I enjoy looking at these apps, there are a few things that are a little disheartening about the inner thoughts of fellow Bobcats.
It seems like both apps are popular venues for people to try to find a hookup. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen users post their Snapchat names and ask for people to snap them. These are especially popular in the comments of the almost-nude photos on Unseen.
People on Unseen also love to post photos of themselves in minimal clothing. Though I wouldn’t advise anyone to drop trou and post it on a public forum, it’s their personal choice. What is awful is the people who post photos of others in compromising situations. Some have captions like “my girlfriend,” and the woman pictured is clearly unaware that the photo was snapped. I don’t think I need to explain what exactly is wrong with this — or at least I hope readers will understand that posting these kinds of photos is a bad idea.
Even worse are the comments on some of these photos. Since it’s a public, anonymous forum, people seem to throw caution to the wind and say whatever they like. There aren’t any specific rules about posting rude or obscene comments that I know of, but that doesn’t mean that everyone should just bash on their fellow Bobcats.
I’m not one to be offended often, but some of the comments are some of the most degrading things I’ve ever read.
Sophie Kruse is a junior studying journalism. Do you like Yik Yak and Unseen? Email her at sk139011@ohio.edu or tweet her @kruseco
