Hook ups, exam anxieties, and Vildanden. In the new app Jodel the students’ most important questions are updated in a steady stream – completely anonymous.
“Somewhere out there, there’s a kid who actually has the world’s strongest dad.” 2 likes.
“’Wow, really, you haven’t been to Shotluckan’. It is not okay to be a freshman and tell that to your seniors, it just isn’t” 37 likes.
“I wrote a text in the latest issue of Lundagård, but even I haven’t read the paper” 84 likes.
These are three entries from the app Jodel. In a short time the app has managed to work its way into the everyday life of Lund’s students and collect anonymous opinions about them.
Anonymous campus talk
Jodel was created by the German startup-company tellM and was launched in November 2014. The app’s slogan is “The Anonymous Campus Talk” and gives you the opportunity to share anonymous entries with other users within a seven kilometer radius.
The entries are then shown in a feed where the readers are given the opportunity to either give thumbs up or thumbs down. A person who receives many thumbs up on their entry gain symbolic karma points.
Photo: Jenny von Platten/Archive
40 000 new users daily
Today Jodel is expanding quickly. According to an article in the German newspaper Der Spiegel, 40 000 new users join everyday – many of them students.
And Lund is no exception. “Jodel is very interesting. The number of users is rising quickly in student cities because of the homogenous target group with similar experiences. You get to see entries that you can relate to”, says Tom Samuelsson, creator of Stratkombloggen, and a student of Strategic Communication at Campus Helsingborg.
Jaunty jargon
Within the boundaries of Lund, hundreds of new entries are shown every hour. The forum jargon is often typically jaunty. Alleged students of economy and law pick on each other, the clothing habits of LTH-students are being mocked, and Vildanden is being described as a country far, far away. Apart from that the adventures of the weekend and related problems are talked about “Jodel is relatively clean for an anonymous feed. Any kind of sexism, racism and homophobia are voted down and disappears. If an entry is voted down five times it is removed, so the feed is self-sanitizing”, says Tom Samuelsson and continues:
“That is why the atmosphere on Jodel is more pleasant and enjoyable. We will see if it remains that way, but I believe it is important for its continued development.”
But there are concerns with Jodel’s feed.
“It would be interesting to know how much writing is true, and how much isn’t. It’s easy to start to lie to get likes and people may grow tired of the app because of that”, Tom Samuelsson says.
What do you think of Jodel’s future?
“I see a very bright future for Jodel. The feed shows what kind of people we really are. It shows that we actually share similar thoughts and fears, regardless of the image we project on other social media.”
Photo: Casper Danielsson.
Martin Lindahl, a student of Political Science, is active on Jodel himself and is on the same track as Tom Samuelsson.
“I think Jodel is fun in Lund – there is a lot of talk of exam anxieties and how hungover you are. It’s easy to relate to and a way to gain some kind of confirmation. But in Malmö Jodel is just sadly bad”, Martin Lindahl says.
“I’ve only written one entry so far. And it went fairly well. I got 16 likes. I think Jodel can continue to grow”, he says.
Photo: Casper Danielsson.
The two friends Matilda Andersson and Hanna Christensen are not that positive.
“I’ve heard about Jodel, but I don’t use it. I’m a bit hostile towards technology, and it doesn’t appeal to me – especially not since I heard that there’s a lot of bullshit about Vildanden” psychology student Hanna Christensen says and laughs.
Text: Casper Danielsson
Translation: Elise Petersson
