What people do on Yik Yak: Analyzing anonymous microblogging user behaviors
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
1-1-2017
Abstract
In recent years, online microblogging services such as Yik Yak—an anonymous microblogging platform—have gained popularity. Yet these anonymous platforms spurred concerns and uneasiness among educators and parents. To many people anonymous online blogging equates to cyber-bullying, hate crimes, sex and drugs. In this study, we explore Yik Yak users’ blogging behaviors. From March 2016 to July 2016, we collected 5,437 message postings on Yik Yak. This research reports on the findings that we gained from conducting content and structural analyses on Yik Yak data. Our findings show that even though postings exist that can be categorized as hate-speech and criminal activity related, the numbers are minuscule. We report different Yik Yak usage patterns, and analyze Yik Yak posts’ thread structures.
Publication Source (Journal or Book title)
Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
First Page
416
Last Page
428
Recommended Citation
Lee, J., Yang, S., Munson, A., & Donzo, L. (2017). What people do on Yik Yak: Analyzing anonymous microblogging user behaviors. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), 10283 LNCS, 416-428. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58562-8_32