The Spire

Patrick Ryan ’27

Chronically Online

Dear reader, are your friends tired of listening to your hare-brained political opinions? Do your peers groan and roll their eyes every time you attempt a joke? Do you find rooms often quickly empty out after you’ve entered them? If so, do I have the place for you- Fizz. Fizz is an app developed by Stanford students in 2020 designed to provide a discussion forum for college students. Each college, including Holy Cross, has a message board where students can post whatever is going on in their head at any given moment. More exciting than Instagram but less inflammatory than Yik-Yak, Fizz provides a new and exciting avenue for students to beg for attention. 

Take sophomore Henry Clay for example. Clay has accrued over 600 points posting his hot political takes on Fizz, and doesn’t plan to stop anytime soon. “Most only receive a few upvotes or are downvoted into oblivion,” Clay explains, “but it makes me happy to know someone is at least reading them!” Clay pinpoints the start of his obsession with Fizz at around the same time his friends inexplicably began to cancel plans with him. “No one seemed to want to hang out anymore,” Clay recalls. “I don’t care, it just gives me more time to post!” Likewise, sophomore Abigail Adams expressed her recent infatuation with the app. “Most of my friends are disgusted and weirded out by some of the things I say,” Adams comments, “but luckily for me I can post whatever I want to Fizz with no shame!” No shame indeed, Abigail.

From complaints about unrequited love to blatant hate speech, the platform covers about every area one could imagine. But Fizz isn’t only a place for students to type their stream of consciousness. It’s also a space to organize particular school spirit events that the College frowns upon. In a stroke of genius, students will attempt to arrange outdoor gatherings on the app, and can often be seen expressing their discontent with law enforcement. “Would I ever say what I say on Fizz in person? Heck no!” remarks first-year Will Halsey. “But that’s the whole point of it! If my face was attached to my comments, I’d probably get kicked out of here.” So, the next time your friends are sick of listening to you endlessly blather, or you need a little pick-me-up from imaginary numbers, look no further than the groundbreaking app Fizz. Thank goodness Holy Cross students have a space to bicker like middle schoolers.

Copy Edited by Hannah Torrey ’27