Hello all! As most of you know I have recently started a research project to see whether or not social media is amplifying both the social and sexual pressures on females. You may have seen in my earlier posts that, throughout my research, I discovered a number of different opinions on social media’s impact. While everyone agreed that social media has made sexualized content more accessible, there were opposing views on if it is actually making our society more sexist as a whole. To dig deeper into this dispute, and figure out what actual teens/young adults think I have decided to create a survey for my peers. Through asking a handful of college students an assortment of questions, I will attempt to determine if and how social media has affected gender relations and, in turn, whether it has amplified the social and sexual pressures on college aged girls.
Since I am primarily curious about social media’s effects on college-aged students, I’ve decided to strictly survey young adults ranging from 18 to 
22 years old. To add variety to my testing group, I’ve chosen to put my survey on Google Forms and then post it to my Facebook, so I can reach students of a variety of grades and colleges. Most importantly, posting the survey to my Facebook will enable both male and female students to answer my questions. Unfortunately, because a large percentage of my friends on Facebook are freshman girls, there may be a slight bias in my test results. Additionally, anyone who sees my post online is clearly very active on social media and may have different answers to my survey than college students who are not.
When creating my survey I decided to start by asking my subjects very basic, categorical questions, such as their year and gender, to help me sort the data at a later time. The next portion of my survey asked my subjects to reveal their individual experiences with social media. This ranged from a variety of platforms they were a part of, how active they were on certain platforms, and what sort of accounts they were following.
Next, I asked them a series of yes or no questions to see whether or not they were ever emotionally afflicted by social media (i.e. were they ever bullied and/or forced to share content they weren’t comfortable with). I added these portions to the survey to give me a better idea of how involved with social media each particular subject was, and if one’s involvement ultimately affected their results. The last portion of my survey, and hopefully the most telling, was a series of Likert-scale questions. The questions asked the subjects to rank, on a scale of “1-highly disagree” to “5-highly agree”, whether or not they believed certain statements addressing social media’s effect on social and sexual pressures.
Survey Questions:
- What is your gender? [Male / Female]
- What year are you? [Freshman / Sophomore / Junior / Senior]
- What social media platforms are you a part of? [Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Snapchat / Tinder / Pinterest / Etc.]
- How many times a day do you check social media? [0-1 / 2-5 / 6-10 / More than 10]
- Do you follow any “famous” social media accounts? If so, who? (Bloggers, Celebrities, Political Figures, etc.)
- Do you ever try to imitate the accounts you follow? [Yes / No]
- Have you ever received criticism on social media? [Yes / No]
- Have you ever felt pressured to post/send something via social media that you weren’t comfortable with? [Yes / No]
- Social media has increased social pressures on teenagers/young adults. [Strongly Disagree / Disagree / Neutral / Agree / Strongly Agree]
- Social media has increased the beauty standards that women are held to. [Strongly Disagree / Disagree / Neutral / Agree / Strongly Agree]
- Social media has increased the sexual pressures on teenagers/young adults. [Strongly Disagree / Disagree / Neutral / Agree / Strongly Agree]
- The prevalence of sex in the media is responsible for the casual “hook-up” culture often seen on college campuses. [Strongly Disagree / Disagree / Neutral / Agree / Strongly Agree]
Overall, I’m hoping that through the variety of questions (and hopefully subjects) I will get both clear and accurate results. Additionally, I am hoping to see patterns between one’s ideas on social media’s effects and either their gender or activeness online.