What the hack is Yik Yak?

As if college kids needed another place to anonymously say whatever is on their mind, a relatively new platform is making it way through Athens and cities everywhere. Yik Yak, as it is called, has become the new bathroom stall of social media. Users can literally say anything that they want as long as it is  within the 200 character limit. Yik Yak pulls a feed on your phone by using your GPS location and gathering all Yaks within a 5 mile radius to display for you. It does have some restrictions such as you cannot use it at schools, you cannot use names, and you are not allowed to give phone numbers. The app also says under the rules that is discourages bullying and offensive posts. When you post something on Yik Yak other people have the opportunity the "up" your yak or "down" vote you based on whether or not they like the yak. The only problem with this system is that with mainly college users the yaks that consistently receive large amounts of "ups" tend to be mean spirited or offensive in some way. The picture I have attached at the bottom of this page shows the all time greatest yaks in terms of number of "ups". It gives a good idea at some of the sorts of things that get consistently high "ups". Feel free to fill in the blanks as you please. So as you can see Yik Yak has taken the saying "say whatever is on your mind" to a new level. While you may find the occasional witty yak that makes you chuckle, beware of the all too often obscene yaks that make you cringe. If you want to truly know is on peoples mind then Yik Yak is for you. However, if you cannot handle the obscene and all around offensive then use at your own discretion!

Why Uconn will win the National Championship tonight

I'm not going to lie, I will be going a little off topic in this weeks blog. Typically I have been talking about some sort of news in social media makenting. Today, however, is one of the most important days of the year for me so I have found myself compelled to talk about it. Tonight an event will happen that has happened three other times in the past fifteen years. The Uconn mens basketball team will play Kentucky in the National Championship in Dallas, Texas tonight at 9 PM. You may be asking yourself, "This guy is from Georgia, why is he a Uconn fan? He must be a bandwagon fan". In that case you would be wrong. I have been a Uconn fan even longer that I have been a UGA fan. I have two main reasons why I am a Uconn fan, and those are my parents. They both graduated from Uconn in 1984-1985. After graduating from Uconn they decided to move to Georgia, but never stopped cheering for their Huskies. I can remember growing up and watching the 2004 National Championship and cheering on Ben Gordon and Emeka Okafor as they defeated Georgia Tech to win their second National Championship. Then in 2011, the year of Kemba Walker, I don't think I missed watching a single game. I have never seen a player put a team on their back and lead them to the promised land the way Kemba did that year. This year has had a very similar story with Shabazz Napier leading our team through the tournament with the help of his wing men Ryan Boatright and DeAndre Daniels.

In order to complete this miracle run against the Kentucky Wildcats Uconn will have to continue to do many of the things that got them to this point. The main focal point will continue to be Shabazz Napier. His senior leadership and clutch shooting are the main reasons we have gotten to this point. Another key to the game is Ryan Boatright's tenacious defense. He has been a thorn in the side of every team we have played thus far. He flustered some of the best guards including Keith Appling of Michigan State as well as Florida's senior point guard Scottie Wilbekin. DeAndre Daniels will need to continue to be the scoring force that he has become. His combination of slashing drives through the lane and ability to hit the three has turned him into a dangerous weapon throughout the tournament. It was always easy to see that he had huge potential from the time he came out of high school ranked as the 11th best player in the nation. With these three guys as our core I believe the Huskies have the ability to take down the Wildcats later tonight. Kentucky has a huge advantage on the inside with their big men. We will need our bigs, Amida Brimah and Philip Nolan, to contain their big guys and not let them take over the game. If Uconn can put together a complete game and continue to hit a very high percentage of their free throws then I believe they will be able to take down the inexperienced Wildcats and take home their fourth national title in the past 15 years. GO HUSKIES! BLEED BLUE