Flyers everywhere: Students share their thoughts on the Fizz app

You may have seen hundreds of purple flyers in the parking lots on campus, or even a goose chewing on one the past two weeks. Advertisements for Fizz, an anonymous social media app, have been growing on campus after being marketed towards students earlier this month. 

The app was created by Stanford students in 2020, but has just started receiving attention here for starting drama. Like Fizz, the campus has had another unofficial, anonymous social media in recent years,Yik Yak. “Not everyone is rude, but anonymous apps I guess enable people to say rude things without having to take the consequences and responsibility,” student Jack Woodward said. “It’s a little shallow.”

On the contrary, student Noah Dobson said, “I don’t think too many people are taking it seriously. More people just think it’s funny and I personally think it’s hilarious.” 

“It’s giving high school in a way that I don’t think is productive or helpful for anyone. There are more appropriate means to go about communicating information,” University of Central Oklahoma Student Association Chair of Congress Izzi Barry said. “I did not feel that the whole ‘Post on my story advertising Fizz for $15’ felt very safe or secure. There were flyers all over the place. That’s litter, which creates work for other people and students.” 

“For the most part, I don’t think it’s anything bad,” student Heather Schlicher said. “It’s something we can all just share what everyone’s thinking.”

More than just drama is spread, but positivity too. In one post, an anonymous user said “Just a reminder, there are literally free clothes in Thatcher Hall 106 please take them at this point we need all the donations we can get.” However, instances of lying on the app defeats the purpose of using the app to spread helpful campus information. The truth is harder to verify and rumors are harder to trace.

The legality of whether or not Fizz can market towards students and have them advertise on campus is unclear.

Despite being unverified by the university, Fizz is yet to be in any trouble, and it is likely the university cannot do anything about the app.

There is potential for the app being blocked from use on campus WiFi (like TikTok) in the future, but Fizz Social Corp. is free to market the app in the Apple app store. Fizz is not in the Google Play Store, so students with Androids cannot access the app entirely. Local laws and individual campus rules may create some changes for students on the app soon.