In the Orwellian world of 1984, if one were to do anything, they would know that Big Brother is watching. At Franklin and Marshall College, when a nonchalant Diplomat trips over uneven steps, is loud in their room, or does not hide their screens well enough when they violate their technology policy in class, Big Brother might not be watching, but Fizz is.
On September 2nd, 2025, Carrie Ramp, Vice President and Chief Information Officer at F&M, sent out a campus-wide email reaffirming the administration’s stance against online bullying on campus. This follow-up email came almost an entire year after Vice President Drew Steljes’s campus-wide email on September 12th, 2024, in which VP Drew and the administration first acknowledged the concerns about the rising popularity of Fizz on campus.
Online anonymous apps have existed on college campuses for years. Whether it be YikYak or Fizz, these “social” apps have proliferated college campuses in ways that sometimes look straight out of the movie “The Social Network”. But if these apps have existed on college campuses for so long and clearly will continue to persist in these cultural arenas anyway, what are the real ramifications of anonymous posting apps operating on college campuses? Is banning or limiting their existence on campuses just another act by the boomers aimed at mitigating the Gen-Z “funnies” or are there real concerns regarding the operations of these apps on campus? This article attempts to give you some versions of both sides.
To dismiss anonymous posting apps as merely a means of sharing memes and/or gossiping would be a disservice to the platforms and the people that use them in so many ways. After all, ask one of the many anonymous diplomats who climb the Fizz leaderboard every day, and they will tell you this is no joke. Rising the ranks requires a grip on the campus pulse, an understanding of what people will find funny, and well, sometimes you will post something and realise you are a lot funnier than you thought. Clearly, though, college students across the country continue to use these apps on campus, and there must be a reason why. Yes, the apps are great for posting and keeping up with campus happenings. Even if I don’t understand it, I can empathise with the impulse to want to know every spicy and funny thing that happens on campus, and more than anything, Fizz is great for that. But wait, there’s more. An honest and even cursory overview of the many posts on the platform will make you well aware that the largest number of posts you will see on the platform are about the “social activities” on weekends. You will see identical posts every weekend asking which fraternity is fraternizing that night, and you will see even more questionable and sometimes deeply personal stories being shared on the platform. On the other hand, though, you will also see engagement, many forms of which the college community, particularly at F&M, has little of right now anyway. On its best days, Fizz will feature anonymous freshmen asking upperclassmen for professor reviews, people giving each other (semi-earnest) advice, and (shocker) on a rare day, you will also see political discourse and commentary on the administrative decisions at F&M. Clearly, the anonymous posting apps are more than just memes and the funnies.
For the ardent lover of Fizz, though, who is reading this article and is waiting for the other shoe to drop, unfortunately, here it is. Yes, anonymous college apps may have made you laugh more than you would like to admit, but on college campuses across the country, the negative impacts are starting to show. Whether it be an increased level of policing and surveillance that negatively impacts self-perceptions and mental health, or it be far more serious data-related concerns being brought up, research on this nascent form of campus engagement unfortunately points in one direction:these apps cause immense levels of harm and should not be allowed. From NIH research papers that reveal these anonymous apps’ relationship with promoting collective unhealthy behaviors on campus to far more serious concerns outlined by fellow student reporters at colleges such as Stanford and Trinity College, the anonymous part of these college apps is unfortunately catching up. Across the country, more and more of these college app dashboards feature posts about inappropriate sexual interactions and waves of posts bullying and shaming people. Unfortunately, with all the benefits of anonymity, these apps have done the one thing that no college should approve of. They have handed the bully a megaphone.
The purpose of this article is not to tell the hegemons of the Fizz leaderboard what it is that they should post about, nor is this commentary on the F&M College’s decision to limit access to these apps on campus. What it is, however, is an earnest reminder to not forget that beyond the anonymity and the leaderboards, these apps are used by real people. People who are your peers. So the next time you feel the impulse to upvote a “tea-spilling” post on your feed, maybe take a second to remember what these apps have the capacity to be. Meaningful, engaging platforms, with enough room for nuanced discourse AND the funnies. But, if more and more of the leaderboards are dominated by bullying and shaming and less of the discourse, not only will you lose an app that has immense potential to be so much more, you will also lose all the points you worked so hard to gain.
Junior Ibrahim Bin Amjad is a Staff Writer for the College Reporter. His email is ibinamja@fandm.edu.