I’m an absolute sucker for ridiculous, trendy apps, no matter how disputable their usefulness may be. There’s something fascinating about this nightmarish cyber future we’ve built for ourselves, and I guess I like watching the world burn enough that Yik Yak appeals to me on some level.

For those who don’t know, Yik Yak is basically Twitter, but it’s anonymous, and the feed is generated by location, not by following people. Not surprisingly, it’s blown up in a big way at Wichita State this semester, after recently rising in popularity at other universities.

Twitter proved that, when given an opportunity to share a constant stream of their thoughts, most people prove to be uninteresting.

That, in and of itself, makes it interesting. Yik Yak localizes that concept, meaning the post you just read could have been posted by the person sitting across from you in the student center.

It’s amusing to find out what is going through the heads of people around us, but with that comes the revelation that some of it is concerning, to put it generously.

A significant portion of the WSU feed every day is pure mundanity, but there’s also a disturbing amount of pure garbage.

I loaded up the app for the first time in a week recently and immediately saw a post implying international students smell bad. There were plenty of posts sharing similar sentiments a few weeks ago during the international food festival on campus.

I hope I don’t have to explain why that’s messed up.

It’s also common to see people suggesting that they would like to have sex with a complete stranger they just saw, usually a woman. This usually involves physically describing said stranger to an immeasurable, anonymous crowd.

I can’t stop anyone from having those kinds of thoughts about another person, but I have to wonder whether it’s appropriate to share them in a public forum when you don’t know who is in the audience. That kind of thing can make someone feel violated or unsafe.

If you wouldn’t say it within their earshot, maybe you shouldn’t say it anywhere.

Even with the amount of unpleasantness on Yik Yak, I want to note that I think it still has merit. It’s fun to share thoughts with a localized audience.

That’s what I’m doing right now. I just think people should take more time to consider the possible consequences of what they say.

There’s a false notion that Internet harassment, or “cyberbullying” or whatever you want to call it, carries less weight because you can just look away from the screen.

But there can be negative effects to reading a gross, anonymous comment about yourself.

So, please keep that in mind when you use Yik Yak. Let’s try to make it fun for everyone.