It was only a matter of time until Eastern students discovered Yik Yak.

It was only a matter of time until they started embarrassing themselves and others.

For the uninitiated—the unsullied, if you will—Yik Yak is a new phone application that allows users to post anonymous comments, which are then uploaded to a location-based feed. Other users can then upvote or downvote specific posts to keep them higher on the feed. Think Reddit plus Twitter, but with less hashtags and more filth.

And, since blowing up across Eastern’s campus sometime last weekend (notably amongst the Greek community), the application has already transformed from into a safe-haven for racist, homophobic, sexist and misogynistic commentary. 

Thus far, posts with high upvote counts have often pertained to race at Eastern, to the supposed sexual orientation of entire fraternities, and to, for lack of a better term, slut shaming. 

However, the worst of it all has come in the form of personal attacks on Eastern students, often including personal information and comments on their sexual orientation.

Not only is this behavior completely unacceptable, but it also points to a much larger, much more ingrained mentality of homophobia at Eastern, one that hides behind iPhone screens or Android keyboards rather than with picket signs and rallies. It’s not just hatred—it’s cowardly hatred.

Of course, we understand that this isn’t the pervasive mentality at Eastern.

But, unfortunately, Yik Yak posts praising gay rights, or initiating open dialogue about racism, are pretty unlikely to hit the top.

And so, when a non-Eastern student downloads the application, they’re greeted immediately by constant barrages of “so and so needs to come out of the closet” or “this fraternity is like super gay.” And thus, the reputation of Eastern as an entire university is premised on a few hateful, unacceptable comments.

As for those who choose to call out individuals from behind a touchscreen: have we learned nothing about social media over the past week? Has the hacking of a half-dozen actresses personal photos, their posting online, not made you aware of just how open the Internet is, how dangerous social media can be when it falls into the wrong hands?

Eastern, we’ve had this conversation before: with CollegeACB, with GreekTalkEIU. We’ll likely have it again. 

And yet, unfortunately, it bears repeating: posting anonymously about another person can, and often times will, follow that person for life. There is no “clean slate” on the Internet. There is no reset button. 

The posts that accompany that person’s name will be there forever. 

And so, to willingly and intentionally defame that person from the comfort of anonymity not only shows an extreme lack of empathy and compassion, but an overt and frightening ignorance and hate.

Eastern, we’re better than this.

Now let’s prove it.