William McHale ’26
Features Staff Writer
A new app has garnered much interest amongst Holy Cross students since arriving on campus this year. Fizz is a new social media platform that has sought to be an online home for members of the campus community.
During the first week of the semester, Fizz had representatives handing out donuts outside of Stein Hall in an effort to get students to join their app. The representatives got a lot of attention and seemingly a lot of sign-ups.
It is unknown how many Holy Cross students have joined Fizz so far, but the app seems to be a success when looking at the engagement that posts receive on the platform. YikYak is another app that students at schools like Holy Cross use to post about campus life, and there are a number of posts on the school YikYak community each day. YikYak has been a big name in college social media for a few years, and the posts on Holy Cross’s community can sometimes get dozens of upvotes, but rarely break into the hundreds. In comparison, posts on Fizz regularly get hundreds of upvotes, with the top posts on Holy Cross’s community getting over a thousand. Fizz is getting a lot of activity from Holy Cross students, and it is to be seen if this activity will endure or dissipate.
When a user downloads Fizz, they are prompted to verify their phone number before putting in their college email address. Some students have been hesitant to join as a result of the student email requirement, although YikYak asks users for the same information. The need to enter a school email may be off-putting to some users, but Fizz states in their privacy policy that they are “not currently affiliated with any school or education institution.” Putting in a student email address sorts the user to the community for the school they attend and allows them to see what fellow students are posting. The app is anonymous and allows users to post photos, GIFs, polls, and any thoughts or jokes that they wish to share. Users can then upvote or downvote posts, vote in polls, and browse the app’s content with a New, Top, and “Fizzin’” feed.
The content on Fizz has varied from discussion of campus events, memes about the stresses of the semester, complaints about the warm weather, and many other topics that students will find relevant to them.
Fizz is currently sitting at #66 on the Social Networking chart on the App Store, with YikYak still far ahead at #29. Even so, it is impressive how quickly the app seems to be growing.
Having a campus community like Fizz not only enables students to have fun online posting about student life, but it can also be a useful tool for promoting the resources and events found at Holy Cross. Clubs and other organizations may find utility in posting on Fizz about meetings, sporting events, campus speakers, or any other information that students might want to read about. The app may be a great way to bring the Holy Cross community together if people continue to post and enjoy the content on the platform.
Featured image courtesy of fizzsocial.app
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