Only a few years ago, the voices of transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals fell upon deaf ears. However, within the past two years, their mistreatment has become a forefront issue discussed across America. Transgender activism is creating a bigger impact on our society, pushing reflective thoughts on transphobia into the minds of Americans. Recently, in North Carolina, a bill was passed that blocks transgender individuals from using the public restrooms corresponding with the gender they identify as. Responding with copious amounts of support for transgender individuals, the general American public found the bill reprehensible. This bill has been covered on nearly every news station, has had an abundance of articles written about
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Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr were only created roughly 7-12 years ago. However, if you look at Figure 1, you can see that 72% of adults used social media in 2013, with a sharp upward trend. Therefore, social media has created this distinct platform in which the majority of Americans have access to. In fact, with the 800% increase in usage for adults from 2005 to 2013 (shown in the graph), accessibility to information via social media is at its utmost peak. Accessibility creates this unique dynamic where you can truly reach out to all kinds of people. Information can be received from virtually anyone and anywhere, and measureless amounts of people can access the information you choose to share. Additionally, the whole purpose behind social media is the ability to share thoughts with your family, friends, and even strangers in some cases! Therefore, with the creation of social media, the concept of virality was …show more content…
And, even with the abundance of good ideas, there is negativity and hate that can also be spread just as easily. Certain people feel freer to share hateful opinions in this manner because communication via the internet is, at it’s core, uniquely impersonal. Of course, humans, being social creatures, have implemented countless methods of making this type of communication more personal: creating emoticons, intentional misspellings, spatial arrays, and ALL CAPITAL LETTERS to convey yelling. Lisa Flaherty, a neurologist, defines this phenomenon as electronic paralanguage in her investigation of the differing factors between face to face and computer-mediated communication (Flaherty). Despite having the ability to express emotion through this fascinating sublanguage, you still can not directly see the person you’re talking to. The implications of your actions seem much lesser through the internet because you simply can not see other people’s expressions and reactions. When you can’t see the reactions of others, it diminishes the realness of the emotions they experience because you can’t physically see their emotional expressions, and therefore your brain won’t fully grasp the impact you’re
Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr were only created roughly 7-12 years ago. However, if you look at Figure 1, you can see that 72% of adults used social media in 2013, with a sharp upward trend. Therefore, social media has created this distinct platform in which the majority of Americans have access to. In fact, with the 800% increase in usage for adults from 2005 to 2013 (shown in the graph), accessibility to information via social media is at its utmost peak. Accessibility creates this unique dynamic where you can truly reach out to all kinds of people. Information can be received from virtually anyone and anywhere, and measureless amounts of people can access the information you choose to share. Additionally, the whole purpose behind social media is the ability to share thoughts with your family, friends, and even strangers in some cases! Therefore, with the creation of social media, the concept of virality was …show more content…
And, even with the abundance of good ideas, there is negativity and hate that can also be spread just as easily. Certain people feel freer to share hateful opinions in this manner because communication via the internet is, at it’s core, uniquely impersonal. Of course, humans, being social creatures, have implemented countless methods of making this type of communication more personal: creating emoticons, intentional misspellings, spatial arrays, and ALL CAPITAL LETTERS to convey yelling. Lisa Flaherty, a neurologist, defines this phenomenon as electronic paralanguage in her investigation of the differing factors between face to face and computer-mediated communication (Flaherty). Despite having the ability to express emotion through this fascinating sublanguage, you still can not directly see the person you’re talking to. The implications of your actions seem much lesser through the internet because you simply can not see other people’s expressions and reactions. When you can’t see the reactions of others, it diminishes the realness of the emotions they experience because you can’t physically see their emotional expressions, and therefore your brain won’t fully grasp the impact you’re