This year, 81 percent of Internet-using teenagers in America reported that they are active on social-networking sites, more than ever before. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and new dating apps like Tinder, Grindr, and Blendr have increasingly become key players in social interactions, both online and IRL (in real life). Combined with unprecedented easy access to the unreal world of Internet porn, the result is a situation that has drastically affected gender roles for young people. Speaking to a variety of teenaged boys and girls across the country, Nancy Jo Sales uncovers a world where boys are taught they have the right to expect everything from social submission to outright sex from their female peers. What is this doing to America’s young women?
Hold the fuck up. I'm calling BS on this, given that this article (and every other one I've read that is just like it) seems to suffer from an incredible lack of data. Teenage girls getting their hearts broken by asshole boys? Is that a new concept? Might as well be an 80's party movie. Drugs and partying? Uh, raves were an actual thing when I was young, and you don't see those anymore. Porn is everywhere now, and that seems to have some negative effects. I'm sure it's tough to be publicly shamed nowadays, as that's new, too. But come on. All of these issues are just more visible now. I know a lady who was sent away to a "home" in the early 60's for several months to have a baby (when she was 16) so that her family could hide the (forced) adoption. That was 50 years ago, and she wasn't the first, eh? I knew a girl in high school in the late 90's who blew her head off with a shotgun after her "best friends" decided she was a social pariah and turned on her. Seems like girls were bitchy and insecure back then, too. Knew another girl we used to call "Maureen the Blowjob Queen". She didn't need Chat Roulette to figure out how to slob a shameful amount of knobs. Here's a piece of advice to all you young people: don't take pictures of yourself that you'd be ashamed to be released into public. Other than that, kids are kids.
I hear you on all of this. The whole "teens addicted to social media" thing has always struck me as a "back in my day, blah blah blah" sort of thing. Technology changes, and we adapt to those changes. Older generations will always feel like newer generations are going to end the world as they know it, that they're lazier and more reckless. I'm surprised people forget what it's like to be a kid. Feels like a lack of self-reflection. Besides that, the whole article makes teens out as caricatures. The "anecdote as evidence/data" ploy doesn't do a very good job, in my opinion.
Anyways, you are right in that most of this isn't new, it's just slightly amplified and much more visible to all.I know a lady who was sent away to a "home" in the early 60's for several months to have a baby (when she was 16) so that her family could hide the (forced) adoption. That was 50 years ago, and she wasn't the first, eh?
-This exact thing happened to my wife's aunt. She was sent to a nunnery until the baby was born. She connected with her estranged daughter 40 years later. They're best friends and she's a great grandmother to her kids. The horrible story actually had a happy ending.
Great post! Online dating in general sometimes unfairly gets a bad wrap, but most people don't realize that over 40% of new relationships world-wide are started ONLINE! There are a lot of good paid sites, and a few great free ones if you know where to look. For those who are more interested in Asian singles, the best truly free site we've found is www.Filipino4U.com There are also some good paid sites like Match or eHarmony if you are willing to pay monthly fees.
This article is pretty ridiculous. “Ur hot,” he wrote. “U wanna meet?” “When?” Really? No conversation, just "wanna meet?" I can't imagine hooking up with someone without getting to know them first. What the hell is going on here?! That is definitely not how my friends and I use facebook. For either gender. I dunno about that. If anything online dating has basically made it a competition between males. And the females get to choose the "winner". If anything, this is just giving them more power to decide who "makes the cut". I'm guessing that on this "Tinder" app, there's probably a ratio of about 1 female for every 4-5 males. This'd make it pretty difficult for males to find a match and easy for females. This is usually how it goes for dating sites as well. Nonetheless, the whole premise of the article is absurd. I understand dating sites, but random hook ups is baffling. Anonymous chat (like omegle) can be fun sometimes, but in the few (10-20) times I've used it, it sexual content hasn't come up once. And it allows for selection of topics you are interested in, making it easy to get a conversation going.Alone in her room, the night before, reading her friends’ Twitter feeds and watching YouTube videos (Selena Gomez and “baby animals being cute”), she’d started feeling lonely, restless, and bored. “Sometimes I just want to talk to a guy so bad.” So she downloaded the app and started swiping through the pictures of boys in her area. She “hearted” his picture, and within a few minutes he had hearted hers, and then they were instantly texting.
“When a boy likes your [Facebook] profile pic or almost anything you post, it means that they’re stalking you, too. Which means they have interest in you,” said Zoe.
where boys are taught they have the right to expect everything from social submission to outright sex from their female peers. What is this doing to America’s young women?
Girls are supposed to be socially submissive that's why they are girls. Sex isn't expected though.
On the upside, people can shift their focus from Gen Y? Vanity Fair has a decent reputation as a magazine, but as print struggles, I'm not surprised to see an alarmist article from their pages. One thing I can see happening though, is a whole lot of regret. I am so glad that there are no online records of my social interactions from my middle school and high school days.
From what I observed, she was the one in the position of power. Many, many men all trying to get her attention, definitely not the other way around.The guy she was supposed to meet that day—the guy from Tinder, the dating app kids were using to hook up—“I know, like, five guys who’ve done it; girls use it too, but they pretend like they don’t”
-Tinder isn't just for kids. I was just at a work conference and a 30 year old woman that I work with was showing us her "Tinder" profile. She was just scrolling through dudes that she was deciding would or would not make the cut.