The following does not represent the views of Loyola University Maryland, the Greyhound, or Loyola University’s Department of Communication.
Fizz is an app used by students that functions as a social media network exclusively for students at Loyola University. It functions similarly to Reddit, with anonymous users and a karma system, which is kept track of with a leaderboard. Fizz has been used to spread news about events on campus, and was even one of the first places students heard about the Morgan State Shooting in October. The app uses student moderators in order to monitor activities in the app, and even has a marketplace akin to Facebook Marketplace.
Fizz can give Loyola students a quorum to talk about issues related directly to the school such as when seniors used it to express displeasure with SGA and the activities it set up to celebrate graduation. It even requires a school email to join. All activities on the app are anonymous, as Fizz is not actually associated with Loyola University. On the website, Fizz says that they “will never disclose your identity or anonymous posts unless required by law.” This anonymity may allow users to freely speak their mind, but does this allow for harassment or other harmful activity. Further, is Fizz actually useful and used by students at Loyola?
According to a poll conducted on Fizz, the app consists mostly of freshmen, with almost half of the 769 responses reporting to be a freshman. It is followed by sophomores with 32% and has juniors and seniors making up the last 20% with 11% and 8% respectively.
In terms of frequency, 40% of Fizz users polled reported that they used the app every day, followed by 30% who said they used it at least two to three times a week. Only 15% said that they used it four to five times a week and 16% said that they only used it once a week.
From the data it can be determined that Fizz’s user base slants younger, and those who use it tend to use it on a regular to semi-regular basis. These polls are not comprehensive, and do not account for users who may not have seen it, or do not use Fizz at all. Judging from the most highly upvoted post in Fizz’s history this school year, there are probably north of 1,500 people who have used the app at some point.
Fizz has played a role in some first-years’ introduction to college campus life.
“[I] used to be more interested in Fizz at the beginning of the year because it showed me things around the campus I may not have been aware of,” Alex Preusser ‘27 said. “I haven’t looked at it in weeks.”
“[I use fizz] one to two times a week to scroll for a while,” Sydney Merlin ‘27 said. “I don’t really know if it has any impact on campus… Fizz is okay for what it is, it isn’t exactly useful..News definitely travels fast on it.”
Cassidy Richard ‘27 also uses it infrequently.
“[I]only use Fizz once a week,” Richard said.
Although Fizz’s anonymous nature has the potential to lead to harassment, Merlin and Preusser have not seen it.
“I haven’t seen anything that would really be bullying, occasionally some rude comments but they get shut down almost immediately every time,” Merlin said.
“I haven’t seen any bullying on the app. I think the moderators must filter that out pretty well,” Preusser said.
“I don’t ever think it’s that serious because everyone is anonymous,” Richard said.
Fizz does seem to have a user base and one that thinks that it does justify its existence. Although it is not important and doesn’t play a real role in campus life, its users find it interesting enough to keep coming back to it.
