by Dr. Mike Davis
Head of School

The rub about humanity is that in all of its endeavors and creations, we find both the pinnacle and the nadir of people’s character.  So it was this past weekend as I read the New York Times article about a student taking on Yik Yak – a student who is a CA alumna.

 

Yik Yak is a popular social media app that allows people to create and view posts anonymously, and within an approximate ten-mile radius of the user’s location. Some have called Yik Yak the bathroom stall of social media platforms; the anonymous nature of the posts, and therefore the lack of accountability, means that the site is replete with offensive and often destructive, hateful, and threatening posts.

 

Multiple attempts by colleges and universities in the U.S. to ban the app, or to have platform operators turn over the names and emails of those responsible for racial posts usually elicit no response. Just this week, legal counsel for the University of Rochester demanded that Yik Yak reveal the identities of users responsible for such posts.  Yik Yak’s website says, "… Yik Yak can only respond to requests for user account information that are received directly from a law enforcement agency pursuant to appropriate legal process."  

 

At Colorado Academy, we have had our own dealings with Yik Yak, filing repeated requests with the operators to implement and maintain the presence of a geo-fence, as they promise to do for schools. We also talk to students about appropriate use of social media, and the morally corrupt practice of posting negative and anonymous messages. Our character work at CA begins with taking responsibility for and owning behaviors and feelings and being mindful of how our actions impact others.

 

Back to the New York Times. The article, “Who Spewed That Abuse? Anonymous Yik Yak App Isn’t Telling,” by Jonathan Mahler, relates the story of CA grad Jordan Seman (’12), now a junior at Middlebury College in Vermont. She discovered a Yik Yak post that made derogatory sexual remarks about her. She fired back with her own comments in the Middlebury student press. (read her editorial here).

 

I emailed Jordan to offer my support, to share my pride for her actions, and to request permission to share her story here. She wrote back, “The outpouring of support the past couple of days has been really encouraging. I really appreciate it.”

 

She continues, “What I really want to stress about the situation is this: Ultimately, the apps and social media platforms are out there, but it's the users who decide what those outlets are used for. In small communities like Middlebury and CA, it is especially important to think twice about what we post because of our close proximity to the people we interact with… Whenever (people) post about someone on an app or online, that person has the potential to see it and be really hurt by it. And that person is a real, active member of your community….Being a part of these communities is learning how to effectively express oneself in ways that get the conversation going, rather than hurting individuals, to be able to put oneself in another's shoes and think about what it might be like to be on the receiving end. 

 

“I am personally so grateful to have been a part of such a strong and close-knit community at CA and now here at Middlebury, and I do realize that most of my classmates are not actively using these outlets to cause harm to others. However, I still think that my story is a welcome reminder to everyone that who we are is who we are when no one else is watching, and that goes for our online presence as well.”

 

My thanks to Jordan for sharing her story, her thoughts, and her wisdom. That is what I meant by the pinnacle of human character.