It is a generally accepted fact that the Internet completely changed the world. Knowledge concerning current events was suddenly available to millions of people moments after the events occurred. Artists were able to share their work in new and innovative ways, allowing their unique styles to become a part of modern artistic movements. Stores began to vanish and websites like Amazon and eBay took their place. For better or for worse, the Internet left an irreversible mark on the world, forcing people to adapt to every change it perpetuated. Perhaps one of the most monumental of these changes was the Internet's innate ability to suddenly pool the knowledge of a generation into one place, and have that knowledge be readily available for interpretation and criticism by all people. I would argue that it is this innate feature of the Internet that has caused the centers of discussion regarding social issues, specifically that of rape culture for the purposes of this paper, to shift from primarily areas of literature to more intangible areas of online interaction. I will focus primarily on the smartphone application “Yik Yak”, which I have found through my experience to be a place where, though ideas do not necessarily get overtly debated, they nonetheless are brought up and discussed in both constructive and destructive ways.
What exactly do I mean when I say “intangible areas of online interaction”? I’m talking about Facebook. I’m talking about YouTube. All of these very specialized means of interaction were born alongside the Internet, some focusing on media and others focusing on social interaction. What they provided and continue to provide was a place where numbers became tangible and visually powerful. We suddenly had the ability to “like” and “dislike” someone’s ideas, and the magnitude in which we did one or the other sent very strong social cues to anyone else that viewed the idea in question. We had the ability to, as a society, collectively choose which ideas we deemed valid and good. This had its problems, as the ingrained nature of patriarchy often led us to disambiguate between right and wrong in very incorrect ways. Just as the Internet had the power to propel good ideas, it could just as easily propel bad ones. Regardless of whether it was used for good or bad, however, the Internet had created a global arena unlike any other before its time.
That said, the Internet mustn’t be seen as a purely global phenomenon. Indeed, the scale of the Internet runs from global to communal, the latter of which can be seen clearly on the campus of Colgate University. How exactly is the Internet used for discussion at Colgate? Well, let’s let Yik Yak do the talking.
There exists a smartphone application by the name of Yik Yak, which essentially serves as an anonymous Twitter. You submit your "Yak", with a limit of 200 characters, and it is immediately visible to anyone else with the application in a certain radius of where you are. Those people then have the ability to "up vote" or "down vote" your Yak, representing approval or disapproval, respectively. All of this, piled onto the seductive allure of complete anonymity, makes Yik Yak a breeding ground of gossip at Colgate. Though there are many other things that could be discussed concerning this application, I want to look into how it deals with rape culture. That is to say, how the application perpetuates it, how the application provides resistance against it, and how the application simply highlights it as an issue in the first place.
Ah, the Yak that started it all. Last week, in an effort to raise awareness of sexual assault and rape culture both at Colgate and in our society in general, students stood on the front staircase of the chapel with tape over their mouths, holding signs calling for an end to sexual assault. The tape was meant to signify the silenced voices of sexual assault victims, who are coerced into silence by the rape culture that surrounds them and vilifies the reporting of assault. This scene was understandably confusing to any student who didn't understand what it was about, so Colgate naturally turned to Yik Yak for answers.
Surprisingly, some actual answers existed. Yaks like the one above were both constructive and positively welcomed by the campus (as indicated by the amount of up-votes). Here are some more Yaks that were spreading positive messages about the event taking place on the chapel steps:
(s/o = shout out)
That's right, 185 people up voted that Yak. An average Yak might get 20-40 up votes before it gets lost to the stream of new gossip about fraternities and sex. This is exactly what I was talking about earlier when I said that the Internet allowed numbers to become tangible and visually powerful. The viral nature of that Yak was a very visual representation of support at Colgate for sexual assault victims, and overt acknowledgement that the assault happens in the first place. Although 185 is certainly not a large portion of Colgate's 2800 students, this still serves as one of those strong social cues that I referenced earlier. Anyone who sees a Yak with that amount of up votes is going to assume that it is the general consensus of the campus, and that they too are societally expected to agree with the Yak's content.
But wait, let's repeat that sentence. Anyone who sees a Yak with that amount of up votes is going to assume that it is the general consensus of the campus, and that they too are societally expected to agree with the Yak's content. What happens when the up votes are on a not-so-constructive Yak?
… Yeah. Someone at this school (And as a man it pains me to say that it was probably a man, but it was probably a man) had the nerve to try and denounce the statistics raised by the sexual assault activists. What's worse is that people actually gave this Yak up votes, probably due solely to the anonymous nature of the application. This provides an example of how the Internet can easily be used to perpetuate rape culture here at Colgate, and how the visual power of numbers can be utilized in both positive and negative ways. Thankfully, other students felt compelled to respond to this Yak, as seen below:
followed by...
The Yaks above couldn't do better to highlight the polarization of opinions that exist surrounding rape culture. Some people truly refuse to acknowledge both the true definition as well as the existence of rape, and are offended by accurate statistics and definitions that could characterize any of their previous actions as rape. On the other hand, there are those that vehemently try to spread the messages of sexual assault activism. Once these opposing ideas are put into the realm of the Internet via Yik Yak, it then falls into the hands of Colgate students to play the numbers game. Thankfully, as evidenced by the spread of up votes and down votes on the above Yaks, many Colgate students understand which side is the correct side of history. It is this very visual way of reaching consensus on issues that allows Yik Yak to have at least a minuscule amount of validity. While it may not be conducive to longwinded discussions about issues such as rape culture, it nonetheless provides a place for information to be shared and criticized by the student body in a concise, anonymous way. Such Yaks as this…
… provide direct evidence that the application is in some way making people think. The application is, at the end of the day, providing a place for ideas to be mixed and critiqued, which is a key component to enacting change in any environment.
Finally, shifting gears a little bit, I want to highlight how Yik Yak perpetuates Susan Douglas's idea of enlightened sexism (or in this specific case, "enlightened rape culture", if you will), which she talks about in her book, Enlightened Sexism. Take a look at this Yak, along with a reply to it:
Clearly, the response is not to be taken seriously. Whoever wrote that Yak was trying to be funny, attempting to turn sexual assault into a joke. Yet, this was under the assumption that we are past sexual assault; that sexual assault no longer is an issue on this campus and in the world. It is important to recognize what can and cannot be joked about, and sexual assault definitely does not fall under the former category. It is simply still too much of a problem for us to pretend that it is behind us.
I think that all of the above examples provide clear evidence to support my assertion that discussions have shifted location in part due to the introduction of the Internet. Although literature and film still stand firm as powerful influences, it is impossible to deny that social media outlets such as Yik Yak and Facebook are contributing to these discussions and shaping them in some way. For this reason, I find it of utmost importance to take complete advantage of the outlets that we are given. Though we may feel like our activist Facebook statuses are meaningless and affect no one, you never know who is going to read them and have their views influenced in some way. This is in no way meant to detract from the value of literature and film, which I still hold as the most practical ways to convey ideas. I simply find it important to acknowledge the sheer mass in which humans use the Internet, and subsequently the power that comes from that usage.
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