Hello All! As many of you know, I recently conducted a survey to help determine whether or not social media has amplified the social and sexual pressures on females. The contents of my survey (which are displayed in my last post) asked the subjects an assortment of questions ranging from basic information, like their genders, to experiences and thoughts regarding social media. The results, although not as concrete as I would’ve liked, suggested that my original theory was correct in assuming that females are more affected by social media than males and are, in fact, experiencing increased social pressures.
One of most notable things I drew from my survey data was that a significantly larger percentage of girls answered yes to questions asking if they had ever experienced repercussions from social media (i.e. were they ever bullied and/or forced to share content they were not comfortable with). While this could be tied to the fact that they also tended to be far more active on social media in general, I think a large portion of this could be due to what my research labeled “slut shaming”. Slut shaming, or any sort of online criticism targeted at women, is a term that was used in many of the articles I read and is statistically far more prevalent than male criticism.
Below are a series of charts displaying the data I gathered regarding social media’s affects on students.
- Do you ever try to imitate the accounts you follow?
- Have you ever received criticism on social media?
- Have you ever felt pressure to post/send something via social media that you weren’t comfortable with?
Despite the fact that a majority of my subjects had not been negatively affected by social media, you can clearly see when looking at the graphs that more females were affected than males. This aligned appropriately with my sources from the last research phase, and reinforced the idea the social and sexual pressures created by social media are usually directed at girls. Building off this, the data also suggested that a greater amount of girls believed social media does, in effect, create social pressures. This section of my survey was conducted through Likert-scale style questions that required my subjects to rank whether they agreed with certain statements regarding social media’s effects on a scale of 1 through 5 (1 being “highly disagree” and 5 being “highly agree”). Although the male and female average scores seen were fairly similar, each of my four Likert-scale questions were ranked higher by women. Had I created a 4-point scale opposed to a 5-point scale (no “neutral” option), I predict I would have been able to see a more concrete gap between the genders.
| Likert-Scale Questions 9-12 | Girls | Guys |
| Social media has increased social pressures on teenagers/young adults. | 3.9 | 3.5 |
| Social media has increased the beauty standards that women are held to. | 4.4 | 3.7 |
| Social media has increased the sexual pressures on teenagers/young adults. | 3.5 | 3.3 |
| The prevalence of sex in the media is responsible for the casual “hook-up” culture often seen on college campuses. | 3.3 | 3.1 |
In conclusion, I found that my predisposed opinion, along with the sources I have read, are correct in suggesting that females are more affected by social media than males. While my results were not as concrete as I would’ve liked, due to a small testing pool and the fact that almost all of my subjects were incredibly active on social media, I think this survey has added another layer of depth to my argument that I can reference moving forward. Continuing my research, I would like to dig deeper into the opinions of my peers, and gain an even closer look at how my age group, myself included, feels about the overwhelming prevalence of social media in our lives.