Wayzata Nice Twitter Account Uses Social Media For Good

Social media has an impact at any age, but especially for high school students.

Facebook and Twitter are two of the heavy hitters. Millions use such social media to reach out, communicate, share stories, photos, video, opinions and more recently—compliments.

That's right. Following in a few other schools' footsteps, one person (who wishes to remain anonymous) is maintaining a Wayzata Nice Twitter account. 

"This summer I had heard about the MinnetonkaNice twitter account and was going to start something like that for Wayzata, but found that someone had already started a WayzataNice account," said the account moderator who is a junior at Wayzata High School.

But that account was retired as the moderator left for college. So the#WayzataNice2 Twitter account  was created.

The purpose of the account is to anonymously send out compliments "to people who deserve it." But why remain anonymous as the moderator?

"I want to remain anonymous because it's not something that I want recognition for," the WHS student said. "It's something that should just be about sending out compliments to people instead of 'who's saying what about who.' Wayzata has enough of that."

The moderator believes the account is good for the Wayzata school community because it helps "bring more positivity to Wayzata."

Tweets like: "@WearingJoy is a walking ball of sunshine! She will always make you feel special!" or "@micaela_kuehn is always a light if you're in a dark place, this girl can always cheer you up," are just some of the examples of what the moderator hopes helps people feel good.

Remaining anonymous has been the only real challenge with maintaining the account and simply getting more followers so it becomes more of something people talk about at school.

"I've learned that sometimes people are just having really bad days and by only saying a few nice things about them you can turn their day around," the high school junior said. "I've gotten quite a few replies from people after I've tweeted about them saying that I've completely made their day and for me that's the best feeling in the world."

The moderator tries to post at least once a day if not more. There is no set criteria for what tweets will be posted or how things are said. Suggestions are made for people to tweet about which get posted, but often tweets are about a random person the moderator believes deserves to be recognized.

The account is not a part of a social media experiment or class project. There is no goal for how many followers to get or tweets to do, just the simple goal of brightening someone's day and bringing something positive to WHS students and the community.