The new Erodr application is taking over the screens of DePauw students' smart phones, giving them a new way to update peers on their social lives.
Described by users as a breed between the social platforms Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat, students are able to share highlights from their day through pictures with students at the same college. Once a picture is posted on the application, it's expected to erase within 24 hours. The unique catch-- students post pictures and messages anonymously.
Users, or "Rodies," can post pictures or statuses anonymously. If a user presses "like" on a status or a picture, only the original poster will then be able to see who liked their picture or commented.
Since the application's intended audience is limited to people in a campus community, students are promised more privacy compared to common social media applications. In order to start posting, students' college email address must be validated to ensure they are from the campus they say they attend.
Some unique features that differ from other social media include the option to "dislike" a picture and the radar feature. The radar feature allows users to share locations.
The Erodr application could create both a positive and negative buzz about the consequences of sharing one's private information with the entire campus community.
Senior Michael Riddering, campus representative for Erodr, first learned of the application from a friend who attends University of Missouri, where Erodr first originated. He decided to get DePauw involved in the social trend.
"He showed me it- I downloaded it off of one of my friends using his [Mizzou] e-mail," Riddering said. "So I basically just emailed the [Erodr vice president] of marketing at the time and basically sold him on DePauw's campus."
The Erodr application for DePauw has seen about a week of activity. Riddering reported that he's seen students using Erodr to share inside jokes amongst friends and pranks between sororities and fraternities.
Senior Caroline Hall said it's another way to interact with other people on campus.
"I use it to post things that I think are funny or that I know other people would find amusing just to get involved with other people that I probably wouldn't be if I didn't use it," Hall said.
Students do not have to post pictures or status to be an Erodr user. Dormant users can still see what's happening and share a laugh by reading the profiles of the people they are friends with.
Mizzou has reportedly had great success with Erodr with students sharing positive content. However, other campuses, such as Temple University, have not seen the same result, where students began to share posts about illicit drugs.
"I don't really think it could happen here, but they keep telling us that every campus has their own personality," Riddering said.
Although Riddering admits that the social platform comes off as having a bad reputation initially because of people perceive it as a partying application, students can use it in other situations.
DePauw's Erodr Twitter handle, @erodr_DePauw seems to promote otherwise.
Recent tweets have read, "Most importantly anything and I mean ANYTHING goes on Erodr" and "I'm thinking we can get a whole weekend dedicated to seeing how many boulder run pictures we can get posted."
A main concern with the application is the whereabouts of the pictures that end up getting erased after a given amount of time. The website says, "All posts to the Erodr streamer expire in hours and aren't kept on our servers after expiration."
Although the site promotes "an open social platform for the student community that is private from the rest of the world," it is still questionable if people skilled in resurfacing information on the internet could potentially get their hands on regretted pictures that were deleted from the night before.
Director of Public Safety Angie Nally is unfamiliar with the new social trend on campus, but she does remember when Facebook first hit DePauw and how similar it is to the popularity of Erodr.
"You should be worrying about future employers, because once stuff goes on the Internet, it does not come back," Nally said.
If there is an issue with a picture or private information being leaked to the public, there isn't much Public Safety could do to stop it.
"We don't have the resources or the time to go scan the social media for posts, but people send us stuff all the time," Nally said. "I would say that if it's available to the world it's potentially harmful."
Hall said that whatever is posted on a profile is under the Rodies control.
"If you don't want it to be seen then you wouldn't be putting it out there," Hall said. "But if you're putting it out there then it's up to you and you're going to get in trouble."
It's too soon to tell how Erodr will evolve on DePauw's campus, but Riddering believes that DePauw will be different from other campuses.
"Each campus has their own personality, but as an individual you really could make Erodr whatever you want it to be."