In August 2021, two Stanford students launched a private, campus-specific, anonymous social platform called Buzz. Its popularity quickly skyrocketed on the Stanford campus, prompting a slight rebrand and name change from ‘Buzz’ to ‘Fizz’ to avoid possible copyright issues before it was transformed into a social media app. Fizz now exists on over 240 college campuses and 60 high schools across the United States, including our College.
Fizz is a very easy platform to understand and use. Students create an account with their student email address (containing an ‘.edu’ domain), verifying their identity as part of the college whose space they are trying to join. Once they access their college’s Fizz community, they are free to make posts, which can be any combination of text and images, and to upvote, downvote, and comment on other people’s posts. The app interface includes three pages on which posts can be viewed: ‘New,’ ‘Top,’ and ‘Fizzin.’ The ‘New’ page displays the most recently created posts, ‘Top’ features posts with the most all-time upvotes, and ‘Fizzin’ exhibits posts currently getting a high volume of upvotes.
All of this activity happens anonymously. Users can choose whether others can view the email address used to create the account, and it is very rare that someone opts to have their identity accessible. After all, anonymity is part of the appeal. From sharing gossip to discussing current events to commiserating about neighboring dorms playing loud music at night, the ability to share thoughts with the whole campus entirely incognito encourages students to post uninhibitedly.
It’s no secret that Generation Z is a socially isolated generation. A quick internet search yields a deluge of thinkpieces on the paradox of teenage social life in this day and age: digitally, we are more connected than ever, yet, study after study finds that levels of loneliness and social isolation are higher than those of any prior generation. Between the aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the contradictorily isolating impact of social media, we seem to become more and more interpersonally detached with every passing day.
When Fizz was founded, it set out to counteract this phenomenon of social isolation. Co-founder Ashton Cofer told The Stanford Daily in 2022 that the platform was originally created “to help students connect to their campus because while we were at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, we all felt so disconnected from campus.” The Fizz website states that its creation was intended to address “a lack of connection and authenticity on a campus grappling with Covid restrictions.”
Here at the College, Fizz plays an active role in the social scene. It gained popularity after a series of racist incidents led to students abandoning the platform Yik Yak, an anonymous location-based posting forum that played a role similar to that of Fizz. Beste Kuruefe `26, an international student from Turkey, reasons that, because Fizz requires an official Colby College email address, users will be more deterred from being overtly racist or making otherwise awful comments. She says, “Considering that you need to have your Colby email attached, I don’t think people will risk as much as they did on YikYak. You have some sort of accountability on here.”
However, a crucial aspect of the app’s design is that users are listed as ‘anonymous’ unless they actively choose to display their identity. This leads to users posting things they may not have if their name was attached, due to the complete lack of social consequences posting anonymously provides.
Much of the content in the College’s Fizz community is made up of memes or musings on topics that students at the College might relate to, such as weekend events or dining hall food. Ezra Nyberg `29 finds that Fizz tends to be “a good way to find out about events happening on campus.” By providing a medium through which students can discuss these topics as a community, the platform creates a sense of camaraderie and provides a way for students to stay up-to-date and informed about campus occurrences.
However, inevitably, less innocuous topics are also present in the space. Politics often play a role in disturbing the harmony, as political disagreements quickly transform into dismissive personal attacks rather than attempts at mutual understanding. Additionally, instances of casual racism, sexism, and homophobia are not uncommon. These incidents are likely made more common by the nameless, faceless format that the platform is built to support. Nyberg says that though in some ways the app does seem to build community, “it can also be overwhelming” when tensions are high or when other users post things that are unexpected, uncomfortable, or disrespectful.
On its website, Fizz is described as “a wholesome, intimate, and uplifting online space” for college communities. The reality is more complex. While some students here find that it allows them to freely express themselves and feel more connected to their peers, others feel that it has damaged their relationship with fellow students and is detrimental to community building. According to the app’s “founding story,” its owners “can’t wait to see what Fizz becomes and are ecstatic to spread a platform of inclusivity and authenticity to students across the country!” Student opinions at the College remain divided on whether or not this mission has been successful.
~ Anna Izquierdo `29
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