Maytinee Kramer/Staff Writer
Photos provided by Maytinee Kramer
We are the social media generation. Everywhere you look, people are scrolling through their phones, posting selfies on Instagram, or tweeting the latest Internet meme of the year. Social media and smartphones have changed our personal and social lives, giving us the means to broadcast our thoughts and lives to the world. However, the influence of social media on girls is of particular importance because of their vulnerability, and because they’re the heaviest users of social networking.
As TIME Magazine wrote, 92 percent of American children have an online presence before the age of two, with parents posting images of their children online, otherwise known as “sharenting.”
As children grow up, social media teaches them to be narcissistic and perpetuates their exhibionist ways. The boom in today’s selfie culture further gives rise to a competitive spirit as well as the trend of sexualization. Many students today can’t think about a life without social media as it has become so engraved in our everyday lives.
Nancy Jo Sales, the author of the book, “American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers,” spent two and a half years researching and studying how social media and dating apps are putting pressure on American teenagers. Girls, specifically, claimed that social media is bad, but without it they’d have no life.
That life though, is full of unsolicited harassment, bullying and pornography. The idea of needing to portray themselves as “hot” or popular has become a factor in their lives.
Social media’s popularity contest has led many people to seek validation of themselves based on the number of “likes” they receive. Our online culture is promoting self-undermining, negative self-esteem and instant judgment.
Some common activities that have replaced intimacy are sexting and sharing “nudes.” Sexting is the act of sending sexually revealing photos of themselves or sexually explicit messages to another individual or group.
A nationwide survey conducted by the National Campaign to Support Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy found that 20 percent of teens participated in sexting. Boys lean more towards sending explicit or suggestive messages, but girls are more pressured to send inappropriate photos of themselves due to a new notion of sexual liberation through being provocative.
With today’s technology, the Internet is fertile ground for such explicit content to go viral and this leads to girls suffering not only personal trauma, but humiliation and even judicial ramifications.
Online pornography also plays a role in girls sexualizing themselves. Studies have reported that American children are exposed to online porn as young as the age of six.
According to the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography, 93 percent of boys and 62 percent of girls view pornography before the age of 18. As the saying goes, “monkey see, monkey do,” meaning what people watch influences how they behave and act and how they think about sexuality and sex.
For female Panthers, it’s great to feel sexy, look sexy and be considered sexy every once in awhile as we’re all grown women, but all this sexualization and social media can distract us from the importance of our academic success and well-being.
There is nothing wrong with acknowledging and enjoying sexuality, but trouble arises when this leads to shaming, victimizing and portraying the female body as an object. The American Psychological Association reported evidence of the negative effects of such treatment, reducing a girl’s ability to concentrate, leading to impaired performance.
Social media also has its positive factors as it can be used to have friendships, be playful with one another or to make each other laugh. Rather than using it for pressuring and sexualizing others, female Panthers, as well as all students of the FIU community should make an effort to curtail the negativity social networking can cause.
A good start to remedying the situation is logging off and physically communicating. People are made to communicate face-to-face because apart from verbally speaking, much of the communication also occurs with nonverbal cues and body language.
Disconnecting can also help one to be mindful of the present moment and encourage other healthy activities such as exercising, healthy eating, social gatherings and studying. Overall, social media can be powerful tool, it just depends on how often we use it – and how.
DISCLAIMER:
The opinions presented within this page do not represent the views of FIU Student Media Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect individual perspectives of contributing writers and/or members of the University community.
Image courtesy of Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/haronstudio/8644562086/in/photolist-eaTD8U-m6K8Ne-roCJtM-vXt9vn-81JzLb-4R3rSB-hs3b5p-hs3ghD-pbCbEy-5kogNj-hs2inp-pwL4g7-5yXjzv-8367w1-pbxFo3-9GP4MZ-5yXjxF-p6mRMm-rtqtUm-5yXjjx-mhNmep-BUomb-a3CRa8-34Ydj3-9yiXXv-pnztzV-fVKsw-bJsTcF-dtMExU-hs2jcS-e9P1Hb-7giqMf-bpZvVo-p5pRjp-hepZ8-81JCL1-hs3kMk-hs2Z8z-pbCc7q-4Fauzf-7EEVq1-eEsh9V-5HL6fD-AsE4W-hs2xP1-7dfG4p-hs2w21-4mpy8D-af87dG-71HeoM
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