The Effect Yik Yak Had On Sorority Rush

Elon University is anything but new to the conversation surrounding Yik Yak's resurrection. It’s taken over the phones of students since last semester, and its most recent spotlight has come as a result of Panhellenic Sorority Recruitment. Yik Yak has been running its course through campuses around the country, but we have yet to see this side of the app. 

Greek life is notorious for its competitive nature and pitting organizations against one another, but this app has enabled these conversations to be taken to a new level. As freshmen girls began preparing for a monumental week of rush, judgmental comments about different Greek organizations soon flooded Yik Yak. 

Sorority recruitment is an anxiety provoking time for freshmen as they decide where they want to call home for the next four years. There is so much variety within Greek life; no two organizations are the same. This is what makes sororities so successful and allows girls to truly find people similar to them. 

The process overall should be extremely personal, which is why there is a silent period urging girls not to discuss their decisions with friends or roommates, however the individuality of the process was stripped away this year due to Yik Yak. Regardless of if freshmen were communicating with each other, their experience was corrupted by anonymous rankings and false rumors. 

Many potential new members spent their nights replaying conversations they had during rounds that made them feel valued and appreciated, only to open their phones and see people anonymously bashing the girls that allowed them to feel so comfortable. This is troubling for so many reasons. Most of the information that’s posted on the app is false, and it projects an individual's opinions onto others who may feel entirely different about specific organizations. 

For those who aren’t familiar with the process of sorority recruitment, it’s a mentally draining yet extremely rewarding experience. The over-exhausted state of potential new members during this period allows them to be even more receptive to the hateful rumors being spread through Yik Yak. Many freshmen found it was hard to decipher fact from fiction, and this caused potential new members to develop preconceived ideas about many organizations. The process as a whole is meant to be uplifting and reassuring, yet Yik Yak transformed it to be just the opposite.

This platform allowed Elon students of all ages and backgrounds to infiltrate the minds of freshmen girls, and alter their decisions. The app is serving no purpose except to act as a platform for cyberbullying. Members of organizations felt as if their hard work and dedication to welcoming a new pledge class was undermined by Yik Yak and its users. 

Moving forward, campuses need to hold members of their community accountable for their actions. Anonymous cyberbullying can be extremely hurtful and damaging. In the context of sorority rush, there were many freshmen who felt that their judgment was clouded as a result of Yik Yak, and chose outcomes they wouldn’t necessarily have chosen if the app didn’t exist.