“The two soccer girls riding on one scooter together everywhere together.”

“Let’s go catssss”

“When there isn’t a seat for u at the conn table but u wanna hear the tea.”

These are just a few of the popular posts that Villanova students can see and relate to on the new app Fizz. Fizz is an app exclusive to college students that was first released in October of 2022, and has recently become popular on Villanova’s campus. This anonymous social media platform allows students to upload text, posts, memes and pictures. After they are posted, students can comment, like and dislike the posts. Fizz is similar to Yik Yak, another social media platform that has the same goal of bringing a community together. However, unlike Yik Yak, Fizz makes students log in with their school email address, verifying that they are truly members of the college community rather than just within the same geographical location, which is what Yik Yak is based on. 

Because of this, Fizz is more applicable to Villanova students and much of the content shared has a bit of an “insider” feel to Villanova’s campus and culture. 

“It’s definitely an interesting app,” an anonymous student said. “I end up checking it pretty often to see what people are up to.” 

While some students have been enjoying the app, others are a little more skeptical about giving it a try. 

“I feel like it’s a repeat of Yik Yak. I don’t know… it just feels wrong to give them my school email address too–who knows if any of my professors are spying on us through the app?” another anonymous student explained, laughing. 

This raises an interesting point. Because the app collects college email addresses, college administration can likely become involved and eliminate some of the anonymity that the app advertises. However, it is also important to note that Fizz is not formally affiliated with Villanova by any means. 

Another similarity between Yik Yak and Fizz is the concept of “karma.” On Yik Yak, the point value system is branded as “Yakarma,” but these two platforms essentially utilize this same idea. Users who post will receive upvotes and downvotes, which is what the “karma”  numerical score is based on. Fizz built off this system adding rewards that users can receive for completing certain items on the app. For example, Fizz users can receive an award for their first comment on a post or if they created a post that received 100 upvotes. This feature prompts users to be more interactive with the app and gives people greater motivation to engage themselves in the Fizz community, which is another promising addition to Yik Yak that I believe Fizz provides.  

As for me, Fizz is an app I am still exploring. I only recently found out about it this semester and I enjoy checking it occasionally to see the various opinions and funny memes that students come up with. So far, I have found that Fizz is different from Yik Yak in the sense that most of its content, at least here at Villanova, is heavily based on experiences that exclusively happen here on our campus. Thus far, Fizz appears to have exceeded Yik Yak in the goal of uniting our Villanova community and sharing student stories, interactions and relatable experiences. I have found more vulgar terms and humor on Yik Yak than on Fizz and, while some may say that the app is a repetitive concept, I believe that it is more so a big inside joke that brings our student voices and ideas together.