Sexuality and Justice in Social Media

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Expression of opinion has become infinitely easier given modern access to information and the plethora of forums on which to share opinions. With this easement, comes the ability to share across vast distances and populations on the points of view of numerous individuals. Expression of sexuality, social justice, and social advocacy have been on the forefront of social media movements throughout the short existence of such outlets. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram currently occupy the niche of social media giants and therefore serve as the central for a debate over social issues. These sites have been the battleground for rights of sexuality and perceived social justice over previous years and one can only assume they will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The influence of social networking photos has a definite influence on social norms. As people are increasing their use of online social networking technologies, such as Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat, they start to learn about their peers behaviours and attitudes. These viral networks and social networking profiles influence perceived social norms and thereby also affect sexual health behaviours. The central sites for social media today have not always held their current oligopoly over internet debate. Websites like Nexopia or MySpace were the birth of social media and internet expression in the early 21st Century. However, in the birth of the era of social media, such sites were used mostly for expression of interest and connection with friends as opposed to serious political or social debate. Serious expression over central issues began with the vast expansion of social media into the daily lives of consumers. This, in combination with the increased access to information founded with the internet (such as the movement of news and current events from print to an online presence) broke the silence of social issues.[1]

Movements

Marriage Equality Campaign

In the early 2010's, an internet campaign began to support the rolling support of Gay Marriage in various regions of the United States of America. The campaign was vastly supported by many people via open recognition on their Facebook profile and the acceptance of the movement's logo: 2 Red bars symbolic of equality.[2]

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This group galvanized several social media platforms with the Red Equal Sign and also the hashtag #UnitedforMarriage The internet occasionally blows up with issues on activism, especially those that pertain to court cases and legislations. The image of the red equal sign replaced several profile pictures on Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc, showing the makeover of the advocacy group's logo which is usually a blue background with bright yellow lines.

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Reach and Awareness

The presence of social debate online holds the tremendous value of its reach. A historically unthinkable scenario: The opinions and beliefs of an individual can be known from across the globe within seconds. As described in the linked article, people previously held a propensity to keep their opinions to themselves, lacking a viable medium with which to express themselves.

In congruence with the vast reach of social media is the issue of awareness. Access to information brought by the internet allows millions of people to view what others have written, judge their thoughts, and formulate their own opinions based upon those of others and potentially unbiased information.

Anonymity

A further argument in favour of social media debate is the ability to post one's opinions anonymously. This encourages users to speak up about opinions that they otherwise would consider unpopular; further breaking the silence on expression.

Social Media Outlets

As described before, there exist a number of credible social media outlets which house the debate over and information surrounding social issues. Facebook has altered its format in recent years to allow for its Trending section to educate its viewers on current events. One may find and read various news articles pertaining to an event anywhere in the world, then post their own thoughts on their own page. A page like Instagram takes a more artistic approach to its users' expression via visual representation of social issues. People are able to share artwork expressing how they feel, whether original or posted from another source. Twitter is a site differing from others in that it allows users to follow friends and family but also prominent figures in the media, whether they be in entertainment, politics, or social advocacy groups. They are therefore able to access, in real time, how celebrities and relate able figures view certain issues.

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In the years to come, we will continue to see social media everywhere.

Priming Theory

The Priming theory states that exposure to media content preps and primes viewers to see, feel and think about something subconsciously. Those exposed to sexual cues lead to overestimate sexual characteristics of the stranger and are viewed in stereotypical sex objects.

Cognitive Psychology

Derived from cognitive psychology, this theory of media priming is from the associative network model of memory in humans. This is a notion that is stored as a node in the network in relation to other notions by semantic paths.

Gender Socialization

Social media is significant in the way that it represents and can identify a culture. There are certain behaviours and attitudes that are considered appropriate in terms of posting an image for each gender. The comparison between older ages and behaviour towards women is to be a lady, by being classy and modest. In modern society, feminism is encouraged, women can do what they desire with their body and they embrace their sexuality and freedom.

Criticisms

Volume

There are millions of people on the web, all with their own opinions and agendas. It is a monumental task trying to wade through the plethora of information on the internet. The goal of which: to discover credible sources on a desired topic. Social media sites hold their own agendas (commonly associated with the business of the internet) yet the selection of who's ideas and opinions you subject yourself to, through selection of Friends and who you "Follow" on various sights narrows your susceptibility to undesired information.

Credibility

One prominent criticism of debate on social media (and the internet as a whole, for that matter) is that anyone and everyone with access to a computer can post whatever they like and pass it as fact. The existence of various harmful sites on the web allows for unhealthy information being available to those searching for facts surrounding a particular topic. Unfortunately, this is near unavoidable due to the open nature of a World-wide Web.

Prescriptions

The only way to combat false information is through education. Users of the web need to be taught a realize that not everything they see is true. The entirety of information known to mankind is biased to a degree, as all information to this point has been gathered by individuals with individual ends.

Future users of the web and social media should be exposed to credible sources who maintain a minimally biased nature. This is an endeavor not easily realized, yet it is a necessary goal.

References