WWC Digital Community: App-solutely Positive or Potentially Problematic?
Ada Lambert | January 27, 2022
Sierra Davis
Screenshot of WWC app.
There are a lot of rumors floating around about the Warren Wilson College (WWC) app and how it has been used. Whether it is used for relaying information about classes and extracurriculars, laundry posts or a stream of memes, the app is a universal way to communicate within the WWC community. With recent important discussions on campus, the app has been utilized in different ways than it has in the past, which has raised some questions within the administration and the students themselves.
The app initially started in 2018 as a research project at Duke University where they collaborated with five different schools of all sizes within the state of North Carolina. Warren Wilson was approached by Duke themselves and was chosen as one of the two small campuses to participate in the research. Tacci Smith, interim dean of students, witnessed the beginning of the app and how it has evolved since then.
“Duke researchers wanted to research how college students were best getting information, and people are on their phones a lot, so they were trying to figure out how to structure an app that is multi-faceted,” Smith said. “They wanted to monitor in the sense of what were people clicking on, what were the students interested in, what reactions, and how many people engaged on it.”
When the app first was introduced to students, there was a much different setup than the 2021 version — there was some trial and error at the beginning.
“It started as an open message board. From the first couple months of that, we quickly realized maybe more structure would be good,” Smith said.
Despite the initial struggles with the app, gradually there were new features put into place for Duke’s two-year research study, some of which Smith believes were beneficial and positive.
“(The Duke researchers) wanted to do some targeted messaging,” said Smith. “What you have not seen this year but what some upper-classmen will tell you is there would be messages like one about sleep for November, one of them was alcohol, one was sexual health. It was like sex-ed or health class resources.”
Not only were there helpful modules for students involving mental and physical health but during the peak of the pandemic, there were many good resources for information on COVID-19 and people lifting each other up in the uncertainty — this was something Smith admired about the app at the time.
“Last year when we had a lot of students doing online only and we had very strict COVID protocols, it felt like the app, at least from my perspective, was keeping the community together because we could find each other, we could mention things, on campus we could say ‘here's what's happening, this is how we are managing’ so those tiles were much more COVID and health center specific,” Smith said.
Since the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year, the atmosphere on the app has changed. Many upper-classmen and administrators have noticed this shift.
“What we have seen this year is that our app has become such a place of not just discord but the inability to take that discord in a productive dialogue,” Smith said.
Students have also noticed the negativity on the app. Spencer Lewis, a first-year at WWC, believes that the app has done more harm than good.
“I ended up deleting the app,” said Lewis. “What few positives there are on the app are completely overwhelmed by the incessant negativity and complaints that seem to do little to address any problems.”
Though there has been a noticeable change in the dialogue on the app, that doesn’t mean it has no use or cannot be redirected if the right steps are taken. Right now, Smith and her coworkers are tasked with asking all the necessary questions about the future of the app.
“We have to make the decision as a college about ‘is this really worth it?’” Smith said. “For people who say ‘no, get rid of it,’ I often ask them to think about it from multiple sides, like having an app and having it be our place to put what we want on it — if the app goes away, we only have the myWWC and that wasn’t always the most effective either … so do we miss the mark if we do away with it?”
There are many things to consider about the app and its presence within the Warren Wilson community. While administrators will make the final decision, it is important that students speak their own opinions about the app, too. For Issy Hyde, another student at the school, regulating the app in certain ways may be a better solution than deleting it entirely.
“I think the lost and found section and the buy/sell is positive, but people tend to use the app as a social media platform, which can sort of cloud what the app is supposed to be for,” said Hyde. “I think there should be a post limit for everyone a day, just because the important information gets lost in the sea of things that aren’t necessarily useful to campus or campus life.”