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MATARA (emcee): Welcome to Student Tech Share! Starting in February of 2022, the Student Technology Consultants are hosting a series of conversations with students at the University of Colorado Boulder to chat about how they use technology. The theme of this first session was “Connection.” Ethan Pyke, Z MacLean, Lilly Nguyen, and Matara Hitchcock (that’s me) chat about how they use connection tech professionally, academically, and socially, what it would look like to have an official campus communication platform, and the question on everyone’s mind: Is YikYak back? Earlier in this conversation, we discussed email listservs, Discord bots, and the fragmentation of communication platforms across campus. Lilly also told us about Notion, a team collaboration application. We were experiencing some audio issues and wearing masks, so we encourage you to check out our transcript if the audio is hard to follow. Where we’re jumping in now, Ethan is talking about the technologies he uses for professional connections.

ETHAN: Yeah, I found that a LinkedIn is definitely more of a networking type thing, more professional. But Handshake is really cool. I just got on that recently because of like the they have internship and job fairs that come by, and it's very student-oriented, and like, you have to have a CU or a Colorado.EDU email in order to register for Handshake. I mean I think they do other universities too, but no, it's super cool because that one's like…it's definitely…it feels more like the recruiters are interested in me. Whereas on LinkedIn, it's just kind of super broad and like a good way to network but, you know, it's also very scary sometimes.

MATARA: Yeah. Yeah. Like if organizations sign up for Handshake, they're looking for college students. Yeah, which helps a lot. When we were talking earlier, I was saying that LinkedIn is great for having a resume up online. You can just…I've gotten in the habit of Googling people and at least seeing like the title on their LinkedIn. Even if I don't open it, since I know some people get notifications.

ETHAN: Yeah. That's also—

MATARA: Kind of weird.

ETHAN: like an annoying part of LinkedIn. Like “so-and-so viewed your profile…”

MATARA: Yeah, and I know there's like “groups” that you can join but I haven't really explored that very much. And oh, people used to—I don't know if people are as into this as they used to be—but the endorsements part of LinkedIn, where you can like “endorse” different…like “oh this person speaks French well” or is “good at Tableau” or whatever.

Z: I can definitely say Handshake is really nice. I used it. I got on about maybe my junior year I want to say, and I got a lot of like “Hey internship here! Internship there!” I never really pursued any of them, but the idea that I could have access to internships or essentially, if I wanted to, (if I applied myself a little bit better) a job as soon as I graduate was nice. So Handshake is extremely powerful but also a bit privileged. You have to be part of the university in order to access it as well. So there's kind of pros and cons with that, 

MATARA: A little more exclusive. 

Z: It is.

ETHAN: It makes it easier though, to get started. A little less daunting. 

MATARA: Yeah, that's true.

ETHAN: It's like a good starting point.

MATARA: Right.

Z: I believe you can check like where your fellow students on Handshake have worked at that position as well. So, it shows you how many people that worked there and their experiences with it too. So there's a little bit of feedback you get from some students, like your peers. “Hey, this was *raspberry noise*” or “this was good.”

LILLY: Yeah, I feel like throughout even high school and beginning of college, I feel like LinkedIn's always being pushed to students. “Hey, you need to have one.” And I think maybe that kind of pressure has made me…prevented me from actually making it and getting started because I'm like, “Oh, it needs to be perfect!” because, you know…this is how I'm gonna get a job or something. So I think I just need to jump in and get started on that. Just to have it, at least. 

ETHAN: Yeah, definitely does. It is daunting at first because like, like yeah, ask you for professional experience and well…I don't really have any! But you know, you can include a picture of yourself and your name, and it's just a good way to try and get started. Also, like, for applying to internships and stuff they have a really cool internship and job search feature. So that's been super helpful for me applying for this upcoming summer.

MATARA: And there's other platforms like ZipRecruiter and Indeed. It's just kind of hit and miss with those on if they'll be relevant, if they're sketch. So we talked about technologies in the classroom…I don't know. If there was an ideal communication technology to use on campus—would it be ideal to have one that served a lot of these purposes? Or is it better to have different apps that you download? Like, do you mind downloading additional apps if they do serve the needs of a specific group you're in?

ETHAN: It's annoying when a new class requires you to download an app you’re unfamiliar with and don't really know. But I feel like, you know, GroupMe and Discord and sometimes Slack are like the three main ones that all clubs use. So everyone has some sort of experience with that and like, all Greek life, all clubs, you know, that I've been involved with are on GroupMe.

Z: I think it also has something to do with “do I have an account already for this?

MATARA: Right.

Z: Log-in, putting in my email, putting in a new password, checking my email for the confirmation link…if I could say here's the GroupMe, great. Boom! Here's the Slack, thank you very much. Boom! What's your Snap? Here's my phone. You have those already your fingertips, so kind of like getting more random stuff thrown in is *ick noise* at best. It's more work and the more work, people probably won't actually be up for that, even it's like a five minute sign up.

MATARA: Oh, yeah! I've seen people throw fits because they used to have GroupMe and then they took it off of their phone. It’s more like “You're gonna make me redownload this app?!” even though they already have an account and everything. It's just the space on their phone.

Z: Humans are lazy. 

MATARA: I feel specifically phone apps can be burdensome, depending on how much other stuff you have on there. I know with Slack it was nice to have the option to use it in-browser or download it as an app on my computer. Like with [Microsoft] Teams, same with Teams. 

Z: Is Discord still browser-based as well?

ALL: Yeah, yeah.

Z: Just double checking. I'm not sure if they went fully into the “Hey, download our app!” Here's a question: would you prefer a University-sponsored application? Where it's like, here's what we use for communication and like Canvas, it's an all-in-one application sponsored and then developed by the University. Or would you rather have a list they provide of “Here's resources you can access.” Top three scheduling apps: Google Calendar, the one you just mentioned, Apple calendar. Here's the ones for communication: Discord, Slack, yada yada. Would you rather have the former or would you rather have the latter?

LILLY: I think if it was like university-sponsored and, you know, we were all gradually making that shift, then I wouldn't mind because I know that will facilitate certain things. But I also think that, you know, Google Calendar, GroupMe isn't going away. So it's like do we go through the effort of even trying to create that?

Z: Yeah. 

MATARA: And then you create all of this worth and all of this capital—”social capital”—into an app that then is only relevant for the four years you're in school. I guess maybe up to ten, if you do grad school here, too. But then it's like, okay I can't use that anymore. So all of those the group chats I was in go away. I guess maybe they could stay active, but as opposed to something like Slack or GroupMe where you can still use it after you graduate if you want. 

ETHAN: Yeah, I would find an app like that be helpful if all teachers and all professors and, you know…just as more of a professional app. Instead of, you know, when teachers require me to download a Discord and, you know, hop in there or teachers require me to do other things outside of Canvas, it is sometimes annoying. I would prefer to have all my classes organized, communication with classmates, and everything in one place. But  I don't know how well it fly with…like I don't know if I want clubs and Greek life and all that to be on that—

MATARA: Official communication platforms

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Z: “We’re not snooping!”

ETHAN: Yeah! Then it’s just like CU is tracking students.

MATARA: “Hello, fellow kids!”

Z: We’re gonna throw a big rager and so and so on campus…”oh no you're not.”

ETHAN: Yeah, exactly. Definitely would want to keep the two separate. But you know, if there was a communication app that all professors hopped on board with, that would be nice because even the communication and discussion feature in Canvas is annoying. 

MATARA: And yeah, so you weren't here when—maybe you were, [Z] yes, you would have been when—so campus used to use Blackboard and Canvas, and then started to force everyone onto Canvas, but people were super not wanting to do that. A lot of faculty took forever—like until the last minute to transfer over to Canvas—so students were having to use both. So I could see the same thing happening with communication apps if it was…because Blackboard we could shut down, right? Where it's like no, you literally can't use this anymore. It's not hosted anymore. But if all of those other apps still existed and we couldn't mandate like a *clap* “Nope, we're taking it away.” How would you land it really?

Z: How would you mandate “you can’t use GroupMe's?” 

MATARA: Exactly, you can’t.

Z: How would you…how dare you schedule a Google calendar! Expelled. Go away. We don't want you here anymore. As we kind of close, what do you think is an application or program or piece of technology that you're using now that you recently discovered in the past couple months, maybe the time you've been here at CU and you've thought, “Hey, where has this been all my life?” and you know, this is for anyone actually. So, what do you think?

LILLY: I think, especially with my computer science classes that I've done since they're so big and many of them are introductory classes, there's platforms such as Ed and Piazza that we use as a forum. Like, where people can ask their questions about assignments and stuff, and instructors will respond. But I've already had to use two different platforms. Like, deleting the other, creating another account on the other, just for those different classes. So that's been a little bit annoying just because, you know, going through the steps of creating a new account and then getting used to the platform—and they were very different in how they worked. So I had to struggle with that for a bit 

Z: Yeah I’ve used Piazza. That's a good program.

ETHAN: Yeah I found the…just as you were saying with computer science like the Piazza is…sometimes it's helpful, but you get used to it one semester and then the next computer science class you take is on Discord. It is frustrating bouncing between. And then it's also frustrating almost, having the class Discord where you got to be a little bit more formal, and then it's right above that is a club Discord or something where it’s super informal. To answer your question though: YikYak, dude. 

MATARA: Yeah! Okay, I wanted to make sure we got to this. [to Lilly] Do you know what YikYak is?

LILLY: Yes I downloaded it because—

ETHAN: It is funny. 

LILLY: —me and my friend would just scroll on her phone and I would just watch. But then one night I was really bored and I'm like “Man, I want to go on YikYak” so I download it on my phone. 

MATARA: Okay. So. Quick history of YikYak—er, Matara's experience with YikYak—so when I was a freshman at the University of Texas at Dallas starting in 2014, YikYak was huge on my campus and continued to be so into my sophomore year. I helped out with this research project based around YikYak and like what students were getting out of it on campus through the first half of my junior year. And a lot of it was really depressing because people would be really mean or really sad on YikYak. Doing this as a formal survey, just having to use these as data points in a paper *laughs* oh my. But then all of a sudden, it died junior year. So I would talk about it like it was this archaic thing and then brought it up last week and everyone just like “Oh yeah, I know what YikYak is!” And I was like “Really?!” 

ETHAN: Yeah it took a reboot.

MATARA: I thought it was gone forever!

ETHAN: This past fall, it just completely rebooted. It’s…it's pretty entertaining.

MATARA: Yeah, because I mean platforms, like Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and Vine…they all feel like they have a life cycle that is complete and then it ends. But YikYak…it had a resurgence.

ETHAN: It's also…those apps are all you know account-based. So people are always trying to prove themselves. Yeah you know when people go on Twitter and it's connected to their account, I mean, you're not always given everything. To me it's just anonymous Twitter. People are saying whatever they want. And it's cool because it's all local. So even, I went on vacation to Boston and New York in November and looked at YikYak there. And it's funny because in Boston, there's like six different colleges that are all in the same YikYak because it’s area-based. So there are some wild words being thrown around which is so funny.

MATARA: I bet. That's amazing. And like, so many of these other apps. There's stats associated with them, like followers on Twitter or the amount of likes something got, which I guess…does YikYak still have likes?—

Z: The blue checkmark.

MATARA: The like “up” and “down” [arrows]

ETHAN: Yeah, it does. 

MATARA: Yeah, the blue checkmark, right? Like other ways of being like, “Hey, I'm more important than these other people.” But on YikYak, it's anonymous! Like there's no reputation. Everyone…it's very egalitarian. For better or for worse. 

Z: When it comes out for Android I’ll be jumping on it. But right now, I cannot access. Y'all iPhone users.

MATARA: And it becomes important in a campus setting that you're close to campus. Because if you commute you can't access the YikYak anymore. Goodbye.

ETHAN: Yeah. It is definitely, I would say, predominantly college kids because, you know, there's not…like I go home and there's no like high schoolers on. It's just all college kids. Even like your generation, Matara, like they all think that it’s dead! None of them—

MATARA: I know!

ETHAN: —none of them are even on it. So it's just like…

MATARA: And like, spoiler alert, when you finish college you're not really in a group anymore that's like, “Oh, [I’m] around people my age!” Like that kind of community anymore. So if I was if there was a YikYak in my neighborhood *laughter* that would be a huge age range.

Z: Be the change you want to [see]. Start the YikYak in your neighborhood. 

MATARA: Yeah, well people use like NextDoor instead, right?

Z: Make fun of your neighbors and your HOA. If you’re lucky enough to own a home.

MATARA: Okay, cool.

MATARA (emcee): We hope you enjoyed this Student Tech Share! Our next conversation will be based around “Productivity” and will take place on Mar 29, 2022. If you’d like to join us, click the link in the episode description for more information! If you’d like to add into the conversation about using technology for “Connection” or “Productivity,” send us a voice message using that link in the description. Thanks for tuning in, and we’ll see you on the 29th!