The Fizz post was straight to the point: “Some guy shot his roommate in McCarthy.”
It was late afternoon on April 7, and when Loyola Marymount University students saw the post, they began to panic, asking the original poster where they got the information. “I was at the beach and I texted my friends that lived on campus right away!” said junior journalism major Sofia Gyepes
While students scrambled to find answers, the LAPD responded to the mental health crisis for which they were called to McCarthy. LMU did not alert students about the incident, leading to the spread of more misinformation on Fizz.
When anonymity is prevalent, rumors often reach a wider audience than the truth. This is especially true on social media and is exemplified on the newest platform to take over universities: Fizz. Students at Loyola Marymount have seen this happen again and again on the new craze, Fizz – the anonymous blogging app
The most recent outrageous rumor to come out of Fizz happened this past month, when students began scrambling for answers after an anonymous post claimed someone had shot their roommate in McCarthy residence hall.
No student had a gun. No one had been shot.
While Lion journalists worked to verify the claim from the LAPD, most students took the Fizz post as truth and began to spread the rumor further than the internet.
Fizz was first launched in 2019. By logging on with your college email, posts on Fizz become visible to all students. Similar to X, Fizz lets you comment, repost, and upvote and downvote posts, which mimics like and dislike features found on other platforms.
Fizz became the new used app on campus, introducing features that other anonymous apps like, Yikyak, didn’t: polls, reposts, and direct messaging. Recently, the app added a Marketplace, which allows students to sell and buy items from other students, similar to Depop or TikTok shop.
The app has gained extreme attention, however, not all publicity is good publicity. Scary at times, Fizz can also be a place for students to express their negative opinions about campus. Last spring, Sigma Chi Fraternity presented a “Sigsaw,” alongside their philanthropy event, Derby Days. The seesaw, with their fraternity letters, was added to spread awareness about sexual assault. They claimed they would have members be on the Sigsaw for 24 hours straight as a form of activism.
However, posts on Fizz showed photos of the Sigsaw abandoned, with no members around. This left students confused about their commitment to their philanthropy as well as their activism approach. According to the LMU website, “Sigma Chi will not be allowed to hold the annual Derby Day Sig Saw event for the 2023-2024 academic year. [Sigma Chi will be on] Conduct Probation through 5/24/24.” Yet Fizz users posted otherwise, saying they would be back again this year.
Issues like these are important for students to know about, to keep them updated on campus activity. Posts about The Lair’s uneaten food, broken escalators, the president’s house, and cut sports teams, can help other students raise awareness about the problems on campus. “Its lowkey informative, you figure a lot of stuff out about campus and it’s all good and fun,” said freshman Business major Ryan Kriegel.
Although hilarious, at times, the anonymity of Fizz allows students to post anything without thinking of the consequences. First year psychology major Elias Lee says, “People aren’t scared to get backlash […] if they put their name they’ll watch what they say.” However, Fizz is not as anonymous as many students think.
A common debate among Fizz users is whether it has caused more good or harm on campus. “There’s a lot of drama that gets spilled on there […] I’m in a sorority, and we hear a lot about sorority dramas on there, like which frat is the best and which sorority is the best,” said freshman Dance major Delaney Basily, “There are some close personal situations on there that happen and I think it could definitely hurt someone’s feelings.”
Kriegal said, “If you can’t take it, don’t be on the app.” While senior Theater arts major, Edward Ainslie had a different opinion, “I think it’s a very harmful [app]. I’ve seen so much bad come from it”
Some posts can be dangerous, triggering, and mean, which can be deleted by student monitors. To mitigate the harm, there is a group of student monitors who vote on reported posts, deciding on whether the post is taken down or not. “[…] a few monitors will be assigned the same report so the majority vote decides what happens to the reported post,” said an anonymous student monitor.
Although Fizz does not attach a name to the post, LMU is able to find out more than someone posting mean content would assume. While the debate continues on whether Fizz creates good or harm on campus, we only can hope LMU will find a way to limit the harm while allowing students to keep their voices heard.
