Southern Oregon University Social Media problems

In the wake of a social medium driven society anyone can post anything anywhere at any time. But is that a good thing though? Recently Southern Oregon University has found itself in a spot of trouble with regards to the social media platforms Snapchat and Yik Yak. These problems stem from students posting all aspects of their nefarious personal lives on Snapchat and other students posting their offensive opinions on Yik Yak. Which leads to the questions of what the school should do, how much should the first amendment protect these posting, and why are the students posting these things.

For those unaware the social media platform Snapchat is an app that allows people to take videos or pictures that only last an upwards of ten seconds and send it to select people they know or allow all people following them to view it on their “story”. While Yik Yak is an app that allows people to post anonymous comments, it then compiles all of the comments within a set area for the people within said area to see. This is all done so people can feel closer to a community while also preventing people from stealing jokes.

The Platform that Southern Oregon is currently having problems with the most is Yik Yak as recently comments were posted threatening to lynch a certain racial group as well as having insensitive or hurtful comments posted towards gender, race, and sexual preference. The comments have gotten to the point where the campus has launched an investigation and received television news coverage. The only problem with the campus investigation however is that Yik Yak prides itself on its anonymous feature making the hard to track the people posting these comments. So Southern Oregon’s only available action is to ask students for help on whether they know anything about the poster. Only thing is people associated with the poster don’t really want to tell on friends who have similar beliefs.

With regards to Snapchat a recent student driven account was made where students can send things related to their college life to the account to which the account will republish it for all of its followers to see. While the idea behind this is actually very nice and means well its purpose is being abused. Most post have been of parties, use of illegal substance, showing off how much weed someone has, and sexual provocation or situations. The reactions from students with regards to the Snapchat account vary. Some love it because they can openly express their life, others have no feelings for it, and some hate it doe to personal beliefs or because they feel it is just distasteful. First year student Briana said “I had to stop fallowing it because it was no longer fun to watch it just became about tits and drugs”.

With regards to Yik Yak the unfolding events are terrible especially following Yale’s racial debacle. With the Yik Yak problem going on the news people may associate Southern Oregon University with insensitivity to modern topics much like what happened with Yale. Which is very depressing as Southern Oregon prides itself on its equality and nondiscriminatory campus which has some of the best facilities to encompasses those of all beliefs, preferences, and identities. The only hope is that the campus investigation is lucrative and the people found responsible are expelled all while sending a message not to disregard some one based off identify, race, or beliefs.

The main concern for Snapchat however is that it is not something that really can be controlled as no hurtful comments have been made. Furthering that if outside sources find the account it could deter future students from applying because they hate the depicted lifestyles or it could attract an unsavory crowd who only view the school as the depicted images and videos. However, it is possible that the account can be removed either from the schools pressuring or of a possible violation of Snapchat’s terms and conditions. To combat this the account regularly posts pictures telling students to use the app Fleek College Stories. This app works exactly like Yik Yak except with Snapchat stories geared to college accounts. Unlike the Snapchat account though this one has no filter and will post anything which widens to scope of what can be seen. Ultimately making things worse off for the school’s promotion.

Students postings things like these is most likely due to them trying to express their beliefs in manner that does not harm them. Though this begs the question of how much of this the first amendment should protect in the world of social media. While the threatening comments are not protected under the first amendment the others are because they do not actively threaten, just advocate a lifestyle. Though they do pose a possible infringement on what Southern Oregon University hopes to promote. Raising the questions like whether or not to stop people from posting or let people continue with posts at the risk of the school’s image. Making it the debate of an individual’s rights or a schools. In the end though it’s up to the individual to determine the course a school should take with regards to the posts, whose rights are more important, and whether or not their own media platform posts should actually be posted.