By Carly Colombo

Correspondent

Some students at NECC are turning to a popular app, Yik Yak, to socialize with one another and speak their minds. This forum uses location services so students in your area can anonymously post their thoughts. Others in the area can anonymously comment on these posts and so on. Many students on the NECC Yik Yak feed post about the anti-social behavior exhibited here; specifically, the common theme seems to be how hard it is to meet new people at NECC.

“Is sitting in my car between classes gonna be a normal thing now #firstsemesterhere” is what one student posted a week ago, along with others like “another day, another 2 hours sitting in my car between classes.” The latter post was followed by a comment, “I think almost everyone does it.”

One particular post, “I wish people would actually make an effort to be friends,” arose last week on the forum and got up to 11 replies.

On why it’s difficult to meet like-minded people, former NECC student Annie Aquino said, “I think it’s just because everyone is so busy. I know when I went there, I just wanted to go to my classes and go home.”

“It’s sad how we depend on social media as a medium to express ourselves, but yet a lot of us won’t dare to express or even talk to a fellow colleague,” NECC student Gaby Hernandez said.

If this topic is so common among this forum, does something need to be done? Is this app causing students to turn to an anonymous forum rather than speak to their fellow classmates?

“Social media has made us less social (in public settings) … everyone is just in their own bubble,” Hernandez said. “I think it’s just important to not let these kinds of apps take over your life. Why post things and wait for a reply when you can just talk to people?”