New Apps Update UD Culture

By: Meggie Welch – Staff Writer

New apps such as Uber, Crunchbutton and Yik Yak have recently reached the University of Dayton community and are challenging conventional aspects of student life at UD

Uber, an app-based taxi service that allows users to request rides of varying comfort and price and to view the location of their reserved driver, announced expansion of their operations into Dayton and 21 other cities starting Aug. 28, according to the Uber website.

Tyler Bagdasarian, a senior mechanical engineering major who used Uber in Washington, D.C. over the summer, said Uber could integrate easily into campus culture and see regular student use because “it’s one hundred percent safe.”

Bagdasarian said Uber could be used by UD students to get around and explore the city of Dayton and surrounding communities.

“It would help to get people out of the UD bubble and keep them from staying in the Ghetto,” Bagdasarian said.

Mateo Chavez, a freshman business major, said he twice used Uber while living in Chicago over the summer and predicted the app would positively impact campus culture.

Chavez said while Uber could create new opportunities for students, “community life wouldn’t be affected too much,” and not to expect “much of a change in UD campus life.”

Like Uber, Crunchbutton promises its services to students with the ease of ‘pushing a button.’

The UD-tailored Crunchbutton app serves as an interface through which students can order food from any Brown Street restaurant and have it delivered to their residence, according to the crunchbutton website.

Crunchbutton employee T.J. Corrigan, a fifth year mechanical engineering major, said the service first became available to UD students over Labor Day weekend.

Steven Laubenthal, a sophomore finance major, said he used Crunchbutton to order Penn Station.

He called the app “very convenient” and said the company’s employment of UD students benefited the quality of its service.

“When you order from a pizza place, often they don’t know where to deliver if you’re in a dorm, but since Crunchbutton mostly hires UD students, there isn’t much confusion,” Laubenthal said.

Also trending on campus is Yik Yak, an anonymous Twitter-like app that organizes posts based on location, according to the app’s developers.

Resident Assistants Katie Goettemoeller, a junior psychology major, and Megan Zabiegala, a senior education major, said they use Yik Yak as a social media and informational platform.

Zabiegala said her experience with the app, which has allowed her to read ‘Yaks’ from residents of her floor, has been mixed.

“I found out things I didn’t know, and didn’t necessarily want to know,” she said.

Zabiegala said information provided through the app has also aided in the recovery of stolen property.

She said RAs were able to track down the location of mattresses stolen from Marycrest by using information posted to Yik Yak.

Antony Parnigoni, a freshman psychology major, said Yik Yak has become a new medium for campus gossip.

“It’s just another way for people to be passive-aggressive,” Parnigoni said. “It stops [students] from confronting each other.”

Despite Yik Yak’s potential to foster harmful gossip, Parnigoni said he finds the app nonetheless entertaining.

“It can definitely be funny,” Parnigoni added.

Julia Ripepi, a freshman physical therapy major, said she checks it four to five times a day and occasionally finds positive messages.

“I saw a Yak that was about National Suicide Prevention Day,” Ripepi said. “While it’s rare, it does unite people and could be used to make a change.”