Adding in the 5-mile radius requirement to chat, however, set Yik Yak apart, and it quickly became popular at universities. It’s basically the unfiltered internet version of the Wild West. No user names, no real names, and no profile photos made it truly an anonymous experience. Yik Yak was created in 2013 and was similar to other anonymous sharing apps of the time, like Whisper and Nearby. Buckle up, we’ve got a lot to cover as we discuss all of the different dangers the return of this definitely-not-for-kids app poses to young people. Yik Yak combines the bite-sized messages of Twitter with the upvote/downvote feature of Reddit, all tied together with the location-based parts of Snapchat.
And to make things even more sketchy, it only shows you messages - also known as Yaks - from people within a 5-miles radius. Now, imagine how scary comments would be if people were completely anonymous! This is essentially what the messaging app Yik Yak is. Comments sections on social media platforms can be scary, hateful, and aggressive places - and this happens when people are logged in under their real names.
