Communication Re"yak"tions: An Ethnographic Study of Yik Yak at UNC (2015)

Undergraduate: Mary Evans

Faculty Advisor: Courtney Rivard
Department: Undecided

---

Compact and unique college towns across the United States are cultural bubbles that provide students the opportunity to be part of a tightly knit community that has its own set of defining characteristics. With the creation of Yik Yak, two recent college graduates took advantage of these ideal communication bubbles and created the social media app that is taking the nation¿¿¿s college campuses by storm. This ethnographic report looks at how Yik Yak¿¿¿s use of anonymity, its small radius, and its implementation of self-policing mechanisms foster communication between students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill by controlling barriers that commonly inhibit conversation. Through observation of anonymous interaction on Yik Yak and student interviews, this report challenges the rash assumptions of those who accuse the app of being nothing more than a prime outlet for cyberbullying by providing evidence that it can be and is utilized as an effective method of communication on the campus of UNC.