Even in the first few days of the winter quarter, Fizz is taking the campus by storm. For those with it, it has become a hub for inside jokes, pet peeves, homework struggles, personal secrets and the wackiest overheard gossip. It provides a carefree experience, offering a good laugh or distraction when the day feels long.
Arguably, the most appealing factor is the anonymity of the app. Although you can make a username if you so desire, few choose to do so.
The app is limited to the school, meaning that users create accounts using their SPU email. Unlike other social media platforms, the people posting memes or gossip are all on the same campus.
I have seen many users joking and making memes about the soccer team. One user posted about how they went bowling with one of them. They were eating food while playing, but at one point the player neglected to wipe his hands of dipping sauce before picking up a bowling ball. This led to several users making memes about the rest of the soccer team as the post gained more attention.
From there, the jokes continued as some users told of other dates they experienced and others made polls about which team on campus has the most players. As the day continued, some joked about whether the soccer team would even show up to Gwinn after all the posts.
The smaller user base makes handling the app much better because I can be certain that I’m interacting with humans. I don’t have to worry about bot or spam accounts. If I see someone making a joke about a specific professor or complaining about a class, I know it’s a genuine experience that someone wrote as a joke or to vent.
Unlike Twitter or Instagram, Fizz is not algorithm-based. It provides a single stream of content of all varieties, from all across SPU, ranging from classes to usurped parking spots. This lack of an algorithm makes it easier to be aware of all the happenings around school because everyone sees the same feed.
On Fizz, when I show my friends a funny post or mention something that trended that day, they almost always know what I’m talking about. This simplicity makes it easier to find people that I can connect and relate to and talk to my friends about the memes and what’s trending.
With all the good things about Fizz, it has one major flaw: it’s only available for Apple operating systems and that leaves out many potential users. Students using Android products must either ask their Apple using friends about what’s going on or risk getting locked out of the loop entirely.
Don’t have access to Fizz or haven’t downloaded it yet? It allows users to vote for their favorite posts and then aggregates them for the entire school. The most enjoyable part for me is that when you post, you can give it a category. A good variety of options exist, such as ‘meme,’ ‘crush,’ ‘question,’ or ‘shoutout.’
My favorites are the ‘confession’ and ‘crush’ categories. I like them because it gives me the freedom to express these little experiences and feelings that I wouldn’t post about on other social media platforms.
It’s honestly a pretty fun and easy platform to use. It’s low stakes, pretty carefree and people keep enough of their common sense when posting on the platform.
I have used the platform since launch, and it has given me the best laughs I have had in a long while. It’s perfect when I just want to turn my brain off from studying or homework. I certainly don’t mind the small break from reality that it gives me. It creates an odd but unique sense of community.
For example, if someone doesn’t like what Gwinn is serving and you’re also sitting in Gwinn, there’s just this small feeling of connection that you wouldn’t get from another social media platform.
There may be a chance that it fizzles (pun intended) out within the next few months, but with the activity it has now, I see no signs of it stopping. It serves as a good relief from college life’s day-to-day hustle and bustle.