Social Media and Young People's Sexualities: Values, Norms, and Battlegrounds

被引:24
作者
De Ridder, Sander [1 ]
机构
[1] Univ Ghent, Res Fdn Flanders, Dept Commun Sci, Ghent, Belgium
来源
SOCIAL MEDIA + SOCIETY | 2017年 / 3卷 / 04期
关键词
youth; sexuality; social media; focus groups; values; TEEN GIRLS; NETWORKING; GENDER; SELF;
D O I
10.1177/2056305117738992
中图分类号
G2 [信息与知识传播];
学科分类号
05 ; 0503 ;
摘要
This article explores how young people are making sense of sexuality in the context of social media, considering social media's material as well as symbolic operations. Drawing on 14 focus groups (n = 89, conducted in 2012 and 2015) with young people between 14 and 19 years of age in Dutch-speaking Belgium, this article is informed by young people's discussions, meanings, values, and norms on sexuality and social media, situated in everyday life peer group settings. The results argue how young people are making strong value judgments about sexuality in the context of social media and how they use a sharp hierarchical system to distinguish between "good" and "bad" sexual practices in social media. Therefore, young people draw on essentialist sexual ideologies. This article discusses these value judgments not only in relation to how social media functions but also in relation to social media's symbolic operations, namely how they are meaningful for young people's sexualities. The role of social media is discussed in relation to broader cultural dynamics of young people's changing sexual cultures, which are characterized by risk, resistance, individualization, and mediatization. The article concludes how young people's consistent need for making value judgments about sexuality in the context of social media may point to a conservatism that is driven by social media's overwhelming role in culture and society. Social media have become a crucial battleground for sexual politics; they need to be taken seriously as spaces that produce values and norms about sexuality, deciding what kind of sexualities are supported, repressed, or disciplined.
引用
收藏
页数:11
相关论文
共 50 条
[31]   The tide that failed to rise: Young people's politics and social values in and after the Arab uprisings [J].
Abbott, Pamela ;
Teti, Andrea ;
Sapsford, Roger .
MEDITERRANEAN POLITICS, 2020, 25 (01) :1-25
[32]   Using social media to be 'social': Perceptions of social media benefits and risk by autistic young people, and parents [J].
Gillespie-Smith, Karri ;
Hendry, Gillian ;
Anduuru, Nicole ;
Laird, Tracey ;
Ballantyne, Carrie .
RESEARCH IN DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES, 2021, 118
[33]   The Influence of Social Interactions and Subjective Norms on Social Media Postings [J].
Arpaci, Ibrahim .
JOURNAL OF INFORMATION & KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT, 2020, 19 (03)
[34]   Strangers are friends I haven't met yet: a positive approach to young people's use of social media [J].
Wang, Victoria ;
Edwards, Simon .
JOURNAL OF YOUTH STUDIES, 2016, 19 (09) :1204-1219
[35]   An Exploration of Fitspiration Content on Social Media and Chinese Young People's Insight Into Their Experiences of it: Gender-Based Differences [J].
Lee, Jooyeon .
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION, 2024, 18 :3234-3256
[36]   Guiding young people's social media use in school policies: opportunities, risks, moral panics, and imagined futures [J].
Robards, Brady ;
Goring, James ;
Hendry, Natalie Ann .
JOURNAL OF YOUTH STUDIES, 2025,
[37]   Sexuality education in South African schools: deconstructing the dominant response to young people's sexualities in contemporary schooling contexts [J].
Ngabaza, Sisa ;
Shefer, Tamara .
SEX EDUCATION-SEXUALITY SOCIETY AND LEARNING, 2019, 19 (04) :422-435
[38]   A study about social values and psychological well-being in young people: implications for educational social work [J].
Paez Gallego, Javier ;
De-Juanas Oliva, Angel ;
Garcia Castilla, Francisco Javier ;
Diaz Santiago, Maria Jose .
SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION, 2020, 39 (06) :721-736
[39]   A review of the risks associated with children and young people's social media use and the implications for social work practice [J].
Willoughby, Mark .
JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE, 2019, 33 (02) :127-140
[40]   Digital Battlegrounds: The Interplay of Social Media, State Power, and Influencers in Türkiye's Earthquake Response [J].
Karatas, Duygu ;
Bek, Mine Gencel .
SOCIAL MEDIA + SOCIETY, 2024, 10 (03)