Reading through posts on Yik Yak, a student smiles at jokes and cringes at a fellow student’s nervousness in finding a date for Homecoming. She pauses to upvote compliments about her best friend and screenshots it before continuing to scroll through the endless anonymous posts. When she comes across an overly negative post, she downvotes it. After 20 minutes, she shuts off her phone, her mind filled with cynicism, understanding, harmless humor and anger about school policy.

She takes a deep breath and considers Yik Yak’s role is her life. Does it unite her with her classmates? Or create a forum for cyberbullying? Is it a fun respite from the stress of school? Or is it a waste of time?

Yik Yak is a free application that uses phone location data to display anonymous posts from users within the area.

“The best way to describe it would be like a hyper-local Twitter with some features of Snapchat because things don’t stay on the feed long,” Yik Yak co-founder Brooks Buffington said to The Towerlight on April 30.

Since its launch in Nov 2013, Yik Yak has swept the country, starting on college campuses before spreading to high schools. On Oct. 4, it was the third most popular app on the iTunes Store.

The popularity of Yik Yak has not spared Piedmont. 59% of students use Yik Yak.

Junior Daria Mohazab said that Yik Yak became popular during the last week of summer.

“It used to be one post every six hours but now it’s one post every 10 minutes,” Mohazab said.

On Yik Yak, students express their opinions about topics ranging from stress about finding a date for Homecoming to displeasure about the new bell schedule.

“The things you see on Yik Yak are the things that otherwise wouldn’t have been said or expressed to such a large audience,” science teacher John Savage said.

Junior Justin Boltwood said that the anonymity on Yik Yak allows students to share their opinions without repercussions.

“You’re not really afraid of what you’re going to say,” Boltwood said. “It has negative effects and positive effects too.”

One of the positive effects of Yik Yak is the anonymous compliments directed at other students.

Mohazab has received compliments on Yik Yak.

“It’s agonizing not knowing who wrote [the compliment],” Mohazab said. “But it’s still nice.”

When Mohazab gives compliments, she thinks about the reasons that she is friends with the recipient.

“I want to highlight the qualities that stand out,” Mohazab said.

The recipients of compliments on Yik Yak are otherwise underappreciated at school, Mohazab said.

“It’s nice knowing that the [recipients] are out there feeling good about themselves,” Mohazab said.

However, Yik Yak creates a forum for negativity in addition to positivity.

“The lack of pushback enables people to say anything, so some pretty hurtful things are said on there,” Savage said.

Boltwood said that Yik Yak has a policy against posting names and personal information and that inappropriate posts will get deleted.

“I downvote [negative content] and report it,” Boltwood said.

Assistant Principal for Student Services Eric Mapes learned about Yik Yak when students reported that they were being harassed.

“I am not monitoring Yik Yak,” Mapes said. “I do not have an account. I don’t think it’s appropriate. But if I get an email about [harassment], I will deal with it.”

After learning about Yik Yak, Mapes alerted the parent community. When administrators visited classes at the beginning of the school year, Mapes discouraged students from using the app.

“I suggested to all students that they shouldn’t waste their time with that app,” Mapes said. “But they’re young adults, they can make their own decisions.”

Dean believes that school administrators should not intervene regarding Yik Yak.

“I don’t think [the administration] should really do anything about it,” Dean said. “They can discourage kids from using it but they shouldn’t be able to ban it.”

While the school has not prohibited use of Yik Yak, students may face school discipline for harassment on the app.

In July 2011, Governor Jerry Brown signed a law that allows schools to suspend students for cyberbullying.

“If things happen on social media and they are brought onto a campus, they are school business,” Mapes said.

In other high schools throughout the country, students have used Yik Yak malevolently through cyberbullying and bomb threats.

To counter this, Buffington and co-founder Tyler Droll placed geo-fences around elementary, middle and high schools throughout the country to prevent students from accessing Yik Yak while at school.

Boltwood said that Yik Yak should be accessible on school campuses outside of school hours but not during class.

“During school it’s a distraction,” Boltwood said.

Furthermore, the founders changed the suggested age range for the app to 17+ in the iTunes Store.

Boltwood said that this change in rating does not matter to students.

“Most of the stuff posted is PG-13,” Boltwood said.

Yik Yak was not intended for users below college-age. Buffington and Droll created the app to be an outlet for all students on a college campus to express themselves.

“We saw there was a need for everyone to have a voice on campus, for everyone to be able to share a funny story or relay news quickly or just say anything they want to,” Buffington said.

Students without Yik Yak do not feel left out.

“I just never got around to [downloading Yik Yak],” freshman Elka Sorensen said. “Nobody pressured me to get one.”