Francesca Tripodi
Digital Sociologies
(In)Equity
Identity, Social Media
It's the affordances more than anonymity that leads people to post what they post
Francesca Tripodi dives into the nuances of Yik Yak, a social media platform tied to college campuses. Her in depth study of the platform and what makes its users more likely to post concludes that people who already feel like they belong on campus use the platform to reinforce that sense of belonging. But the same algorithm that creates and recreates their sense of belonging simultaneously produces social norms about what to post that constrain future use. This year long ethnography of the app Yik Yak provides insight on user engagement and the connection between the digital and physical worlds of college campuses.