As a first year college student, Yik Yak is something still very new to me, and I'm undecided as to whether or not I think it’s more beneficial than harmful. Yet, one thing I’ve noticed is that I find myself annoyed by the oft repeated complaint posts: Someone stole my jacket from the Jug. The toilet paper is too thin. Frank is unsatisfying. I’m lonely. The irony here is that in my day to day life, I complain…a lot. As the cliché goes, the first step to solving a problem is admitting you have one. Yet, I’m not suggesting that my problem is complaining. In fact, complaining is how I deal with problems. You see, I think complaining can be a force for good, despite the stigma complaining carries. The dissonance between my defense of complaining and my dislike of Yik Yak complaints is a little problematic, and in an attempt to reconcile these two beliefs, allow me to detail why I think complaining can be good, and why I’m not sure Yik Yak falls into that category.

Before I dive in, I will make a few points of clarification. When I say I’m a complainer, I feel it is also important to recognize that I have relatively little to complain about. Perhaps in the bubble in which I live there are moments where I have it pretty bad, but this is not to say that my complaint about walking up three flights of stairs to my fourth floor dorm room is by any means comparable to the complaints of those who aren’t as privileged to attend a university such as Colgate. What I mean is that as far as I’m concerned, every complaint is justified to the complainer, and so I won’t be arguing that Yik Yak complaints are too petty. I will be arguing that the difference between good complaining and bad complaining is the outcome, and Yik Yak complaining undermines the likelihood of a good outcome. Here’s what I mean.

It’s impossible to complain effectively without someone to hear it. There are different forms of complaining, but there’s always at least one other person involved, and this is where complaining has its power. Yik Yak is no exception. Nobody would post a complaint on Yik Yak if they didn’t, at least somewhere in the back of their mind, want people to read their complaint. I’m going to refer to this form of complaining as public complaining. This form of complaining is fundamental to American society. The Declaration of Independence was a list of complaints. The Constitution ensures that people are able to complain by the rights to free speech, assembly and protest. Also, we see examples of this kind of complaining all the time. On a large scale, think of the Black Lives Matter protests. It might seem like downplaying the issues at hand to classify these events as mere complaints, but that’s what protest is. People complain, and the power of complaining is that it is seen as an effective way to call attention to an issue and most importantly effect change.

This is where Yik Yak seems unsatisfying to me. I suppose for some people it’s cathartic to complain and know that you have some sort of audience. If we all agree that this is a valid use of Yik Yak, so be it. Then, perhaps, I should stop being annoyed by the repetitiveness of complaints, but the public complaining to which I was referring before is of a different caliber. People who are truly passionate do not just let their complaints fade with time or down-votes, only to post them again and have them disappear again in a vicious cycle. Meanwhile, there does seem to be a huge gap between words and action that forms because of Yik Yak. People call for more of a dating culture. People call for jackets to stop being stolen. People call for their floor mates to shut up. These yaks pop up every weekend at a minimum, and you never hear of people actively trying to stop the behavior that prompts them.

Yik Yak contributes to the complaining culture that we are a part of. We have a constant outlet for complaining and a constant audience for those complaints. As a result, complaints have become smaller and smaller in nature, deemed “micro-complaints” . I’m in no place to condemn these type of complaints, as I’ve been known to drop a few myself, but here’s what I do think I can condemn. Along with micro-complaints comes a sort of passive complaining. Once your complaint is posted, it’s gone. We’d be remiss if we believed that this is how to solve problems. My fear is macro-complaints being handled in the same way as micro-complaints, leading to the ceasing of action. The only debate and demonstration will occur through likes or the withholding of likes on social media.

Complaining is not a magic bullet that solves problems; it’s the first step toward solving a problem of identifying the problem. Consider this: You take a trip to the beach and you notice a storm cloud overhead so you complain about it blocking the sun. The cloud doesn’t move. Perhaps you see the silver lining around the cloud, that you won’t get sunburned, and begin to feel a little better. Nonetheless, you still won’t get the tan you wanted, and if it starts to storm you’re going to get soaked.

I encourage you to continue to complain, but if you aren’t going to follow up with action, then just know that the object of your complaint isn’t going anywhere. If you don’t believe me, just start tracking complaint posts on Yik Yak.