As college students, we all should be at a point where we have enough experience to know what to do and what not to do on the internet, especially when posting publicly.

Yet, recent examples of how students are acting in online town squares has not seemed like what one would expect from the internet-literate.

Nobody is claiming that a space like the Snapchat Community Story or Yik Yak is going to be completely free of problematic behavior, because spaces like these with little moderation online are not always going to promote the best behavior or discussion. But what has been seen on Yik Yak is troubling, to say the least.

Anonymity, when given the opportunity to do so, can bring out the worst in people. Nothing acts as a better example of this within the student body as Point Park’s Yik Yak has in some moments. The app has taken strides to try to hinder bullying and harassment especially by saying posts which identify people or say specific names will be removed, but this is just often not the case.

Consider the major flooding in Lawrence Hall last week. While it’s almost expected for some people to make questionable jokes to make light out of what is objectively an unfortunate situation, it seemed people on the Yik Yak instead took the opportunity to make fun of and slander the people affected. Why?

Now, it’s OK to not like someone. Life sometimes makes people interact who have nothing in common and have no reason to be nice to each other beyond basic respect. But what is not OK is to say anyone deserved to have their dorm room destroyed by flooding or to relentlessly drag people’s names through the mud just for your own entertainment.

These lessons seem so juvenile, but so do the insults and the behavior shown by those who troll others on Yik Yak constantly. The app was already known as a platform where hate, creepy behavior and bullying festers, but those who regularly use Yik Yak seem to take that messaging to an extreme.

Is this story unique to Point Park? Not really. Any college or university with access to Yik Yak in Pittsburgh or beyond is going to have similar problems this campus is having.

Being nice to one another is not difficult. Going to university should be a time where edgy mindsets go to die. This isn’t Mean Girls, you’re not Gojo and you’re definitely not Batman for harassing people anonymously.

Does the problem stop with just people? Considering how often pictures of spaces on-campus getting vandalized are posted and almost celebrated, no.

Young people are going to do stupid things — it is expected and can be funny when warranted or appropriate. But sticking cookies from the dining hall onto elevators, throwing copies of The Globe down flights of stairs to make others pick up and trying to purposely disrupt people at their dorms for the sake of creating content is never justified.

And are these behaviors new to a specific graduating class or even Point Park? Not even a little bit. Before security cameras were prevalent on this campus, vandalism was almost expected at any corner on campus, making both Lawrence and Thayer Hall unpleasant to look at.

The thing is, this isn’t the 1980s anymore. Cameras are all over the place on this campus and when someone decides to destroy something, someone will see it. If someone decides to harass another person, chances are it will be tracked.

Yik Yak requires students to join a school community with their school emails and is therefore not truly anonymous. So, consider making smart decisions on the platform.