I feel compelled to warn you about a social media app that some teens are using called Yik Yak. It’s basically used to send out random thoughts like Twitter but with the promise of “anonymity”. Some kids are using it to take “mean” to cyberspace. Apparently the creators of the app are able to render it unavailable in certain places and I am told that Dunwoody High School is one of the locations that was most recently disabled. I’ve had parents and teachers from DHS express concern over this app so I thought I should share it with you in case you want to discuss with your kids or at least check their devices to see if they have it. There have been some pretty serious issues with Yik Yak in both Alabama and Chicago that you can read about in this article. And just so you know…the promise of anonymity is a farse…identities can be discovered and some of these kids are getting in big trouble. Here’s another article about this app from the LA Times.Parenting teens in this age of technology is tough. Lane Davis, Minister of Youth at DUMC is going to be having a Social Media and Parenting discussion in late March. He taught me about Instagram in his first version of this Social Media 101 a few years ago. I’m looking forward to the 2014 version to see what I can learn! When I get more details I will put on the Aha! Calendar and invite everyone to attend. We might need a really big meeting room for this one!
After a day of bullying took place on Yik Yak, it was banned at our school (in Birmingham, AL) which led to administration shutting down any further access (for students) to social media . It was incredibly horrible. You can’t imagine how terrible some of the things they posted in the period of one day.
I teach at a high school in North Fulton and this app caused some major issues with bullying in our school. Our administration has made it a mission to find and discipline offenders. This is not something to take lightly. Parents need to be extra vigilant on this one.
St. Pius X also disabled the use of Yik Yak at the school as well