What Jodel is all about
Jodel?? A new smartphone app: anonymous, location based, free and focussing on students on and around a campus.
With this app you leave posts that can be read by other users in an area of 10 kilometers. All posts can be up-voted and down-voted by other users and you can also reply. There is no need to create a profile, followers or friends do not exist. You just read what others in your surroundings have to say, you respond to that (anonymously), you laugh, or you start to get annoyed by the nonsense that you read.
In the Android App Store the app has been downloaded half a million times now. In Sweden and Germany we see quite some buzz around the app. In The Netherlands people speak about the app since November 2015, for example in Nijmegen andUtrecht. Because I am in Delft right now, I cannot check any of the jodels being posted in those cities. In and around Delft I see about 40 posts per 24 hours, with a significant amount of interactions (up-votes and replies). Looking at the information that is being shared through these posts, it is indeed used by students.
Jodel versus Yik Yak
Although Jodel is fairly new in Europe, Yik Yak exists for quite some time in the US and UK already. This app has similar functionalities and is indeed being used by students. It has grown enormously in the past two years. Assistant Professor W.B. Mackintosh from University of Mary Washington describes Yik Yak as: “…the id of the university community. It says all the things we probably think at some level down in our brain stem, but which we talk ourselves out of because we know they’re not correct or useful.”
What to do with Jodel as a University?
How can Jodel be useful for you or your University? You should start with listening. What are your students saying on Jodel? Between all jokes and posts about beer you will also find the real sentiment of your campus students. And now and then it can be great fun to show this world of jodels to the outside world as well. As this video, where lectures of Keele University read out load some Yaks, shows:
