At Case Western Reserve University, no platform has reshaped the digital campus landscape faster—or more destructively—than Fizz, a social media platform for students. What was initially introduced to students as a harmless, hyper-local social network for CWRU-specific college life has quickly taken a dark turn. Beneath its polished interface, the app has devolved into a volatile breeding ground for targeted cyberbullying and digital hostility.
To understand how this culture developed, one first has to understand what Fizz actually is and how it operates. Launched as a private, campus-specific social network, the app functions as a digital message board tailored exclusively to individual university communities. By requiring users to verify their institutional or college email before accessing the private feed, the app curates a hyper-insider space where students can share campus humor, vent about classes and stay informed on local events. Beyond text posts, the platform features image uploads, polls and direct messaging, all operating on a Reddit-style upvote and downvote system where user engagement earns “Karma.” Oversight is left primarily to student moderators rather than professional review teams. Because every post references specific local spaces, such as the Leutner Commons or particular dorms and classes, the app fosters a sense of shared community. In theory, it is a hyper-local platform built and managed by students, for students. In practice, however, that same closed environment creates an echo chamber where targeted posts can spread rapidly across the entire student body without real-world consequences for the original poster.
At its core, Fizz (formerly known as Buzz before its rebranding) was designed to be a digital quad for college campuses. It was founded in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 by two Stanford University dropouts, Teddy Solomon and Ashton Cofer. As we know, the COVID era was deeply isolating, and the most accomplished in a day would be waking up, scrolling on our phones, eating and opening up our laptops to join online classes, with no time spared for real human connection. However, the lack of human connection would absolutely be amplified on a college campus. College is where lifelong friendships are formed, where there are endless networking opportunities amongst professors and peers and where you build memories with people. It makes sense that the app’s prime goal was to combat student isolation and create an unfiltered community amongst students, bridging the gap caused by social distancing and quarantine. And it’s not to say this app was created with harmful intent, but whatever uplifting vision this platform once had has largely dissolved at CWRU.
Unlike other social networking apps where posts are tied to individual profiles, faces and names, Fizz is entirely anonymous. This anonymity promotes very frequent posting on the app because anyone can post whatever is on their mind without any judgement from others. This creates a double edged sword: a localized venue for community building that frequently devolves into targeted harassment, call-outs and unmoderated cyberbullying.
The veil of online anonymity really brings out the worst in the student body. Students snap photos of unsuspecting peers eating alone at Leutner, campus groups or events they deem as “goofy” (namely the Humans vs. Zombies event) or other instances of the sort, broadcasting their images to the entire campus for thousands to mock and upvote. This isn’t collegiate camaraderie or fostering community, it is mean-spirited, high school lunch-table behavior. It’s not like fully grown college students haven’t had time to reflect on their moral compass, put themselves in other peoples’ shoes, grow a little more mature from their high school mindset or think about how they can make this world a better place, day by day, instead of the opposite.
As young adults navigating higher education, we ought to leave this dynamic behind. The transition to university life is supposed to mark a step away from petty high school drama and towards maturity, empathy and mutual respect. When we normalize taking covert pictures of our classmates or using anonymous forums as digital burn books, we erode the trust that makes a university feel like a community. Fizz can make people feel judged for simple things such as eating alone in the dining halls. If Fizz cannot exist without serving as a vehicle for public humiliation and harassment, then it is time for CWRU students to log off, hold each other accountable and leave this cruel high school behavior where it belongs: in the past.
