User:Sdcox004/sandbox

Louisville, Kentucky

Positives

I am editing the Social Media article with a focus in the positive and negative effects it has on gender identity. Only 5% of people who are on social media report feelings of depression whenever they go on social media platforms; which include snap chat, Facebook, twitter, Instagram, Pintrist, Tumblr, and many more. Generally to be considered a major social media platform you need over 100,000,000 users. 52% of people feel that through social media they are able ton improve how connected and involved in their social group they are currently. While many people don't report signs of depression from social media it often happens.

Rough Draft for Major Contribution

Three researchers at Blanquerna University, Spain, examined how adolescents interact with social media and specifically .They suggest that interactions on the website encourage representing oneself in the traditional gender constructs, which helps maintain gender stereotypes. The authors noted that girls generally show more emotion in their posts and more frequently change their profile pictures, which according to some psychologists can lead to self-objectification. On the other hand, the researchers found that boys prefer to portray themselves as strong, independent, and powerful. For example, men often post pictures of objects and not themselves, and rarely change their profile pictures; using the pages more for entertainment and pragmatic reasons. In contrast girls generally post more images that include themselves, friends and things they have emotional ties to, which the researchers attributed that to the higher emotional intelligence of girls at a younger age. The authors sampled over 632 girls and boys from the ages of 12-16 from Spain in an effort to confirm their beliefs. The researchers concluded that masculinity is more commonly associated with a positive psychological well-being, while femininity displays less psychological well-being. Furthermore, the researchers discovered that people tend not to completely conform to either stereotype, and encompass desirable parts of both. Users of Facebook generally use their profile to reflect that they are a "normal" person. Social media was found to uphold gender stereotypes both feminine and masculine. The researchers also noted that the traditional stereotypes are often upheld by boys more so than girls.The authors described how neither stereotype was entirely positive, but most people viewed masculine values as more positive.