Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-5wvtr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T15:26:23.806Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

21 - Adventure, Intimacy, Identity, and Knowledge

Exploring How Social Media Are Shaping and Transforming Youth Sexuality

from Media

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Sharon Lamb
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Boston
Jen Gilbert
Affiliation:
York University, Toronto
Get access

Summary

Contemporary approaches to young peoples' use of technology and social media are often framed within a discourse of risk and harm. This chapter explores how this anti-technology approach flattens the complexities of young peoples' experiences with social media and limits the ways that young peoples' sexuality can be understood. The authors analyze contemporary discourses about sexuality and social media and present a review of empirical research, including their own. They show how young people's stories and ideas complicate gendered, heteronormative discourses about sex and social media.
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Sexual Development
Childhood and Adolescence
, pp. 419 - 438
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albury, K. (2015). Selfies, Sexts, and Sneaky Hats: Young People’s Understandings of Gendered Practices of Self-representation. International Journal of Communication, 9, 17341745.Google Scholar
Albury, K. & Byron, P. (2016). Safe on My Phone? Same-Sex Attracted Young People’s Negotiations of Intimacy, Visibility, and Risk on Digital Hook-Up Apps. Social Media + Society, 2(4), 110.Google Scholar
Attwood, F., Hakim, J., & Winch, A. (2017). Mediated Intimacies: Bodies, Technologies and Relationships. Journal of Gender Studies, 26(3), 249253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
boyd, d. (2008a). Taken out of context: American teen sociality in networked publics. (Doctoral dissertation). Berkeley: University of California.Google Scholar
boyd, d. (2008b). Why Youth Love Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life. In Buckingham, D. (Ed.), Youth, Identity, and Digital Media (119142). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
boyd, d. (2014). It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Bragg, S. (2015). What about the Boys?: Sexualization, Media and Masculinities. In Renold, E., Ringrose, J., & Egan, D. R. (Eds.), Children, Sexuality and Sexualization (89104). Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Bragg, S. & Buckingham, D. (2009). Too Much too Young? Young People, Sexual Media and Learning. In Attwood, F. (Ed.), Mainstreaming Sex: The Sexualization of Western Culture (129146). London: I.B. Taris.Google Scholar
Bruns, A. (2013). Produsage: Towards a Broader Framework for User-Led Content Creation. In Du Gay, P., Hall, S., Janes, L., Madsen, A. K., Mackay, H., & Negus, K. (Eds.), Doing Cultural Studies: The Story of the Sony Walkman (117121). London: Sage.Google Scholar
Burns, A. (2015). Self(ie)-Discipline: Social Regulation as Enacted through the Discussion of Photographic Practice. International Journal of Communication, 9, 17161733.Google Scholar
Butler, J. (1991). Imitation and Gender Subordination. In Fuss, D. (Ed.), Inside Out: Lesbian Theories, Gay Theories (1332). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Byron, P. & Hunt, J. (2017). “That Happened to Me Too”: Young People’s Informal Knowledge of Diverse Genders and Sexualities. Sex Education, 17(3), 319332.Google Scholar
Chambers, D. (2013). Social Media and Personal Relationships: Online Intimacies and Networked Friendship. Houndsmills: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cho, A. (2015). Sensuous participation: Queer youth of color, affect, and social media. (Doctoral dissertation). Austin: University of Texas.Google Scholar
Cooper, A. (Ed.) (2000). Cybersex: The Dark Side of the Force: A Special Issue of the Journal Sexual Addiction and Compulsion. Philadelphia: Brunner-Routledge.Google Scholar
Delmonico, D. L. & Griffin, E. J. (Eds.). (2012). Revisiting the Dark Side of the Force: Cybersex Twelve Years Later: A Special Issue of the Journal of Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity. Philadelphia: Brunner-Routledge.Google Scholar
De Ridder, S. & Van Bauwel, S. (2013). Commenting on Pictures: Teens Negotiating Gender and Sexualities on Social Networking Sites. Sexualities, 16(5–6), 565586.Google Scholar
Dobson, A. S. (2015). Postfeminist Digital Cultures: Femininity, Social Media, and Self-representation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Döring, N. M. (2009). The Internet’s Impact on Sexuality: A Critical Review of 15 Years of Research. Computers in Human Behavior, 25(5), 10891101.Google Scholar
Duits, L. & Zoonen, L. V. (2011). Coming to Terms with Sexualization. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 14(5), 491506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Egan, D. R. (2013). Becoming Sexual: A Critical Appraisal of the Sexualisation of Girls. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Evans, A., Riley, S., & Shankar, A. (2010). Technologies of Sexiness: Theorizing Women’s Engagement in the Sexualization of Culture. Feminism & Psychology, 20(1), 114131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischer, N. (2006). Purity and Pollution: Sex as a Moral Discourse. In Seidman, S., Fischer, N., & Meeks, C. (Eds.), Handbook of the New Sexuality Studies (5664). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gill, R. (2007a). Critical Respect: The Difficulties and Dilemmas of Agency and ‘Choice’ for Feminism. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 14(1), 6980.Google Scholar
Gill, R. (2007b). Postfeminist Media Culture: Elements of a Sensibility. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 10(2), 147166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gill, R. (2009). Beyond the ‘Sexualization of Culture’ Thesis: An Intersectional Analysis of ‘Sixpacks’, ‘Midriffs’ and ‘Hot Lesbians’ in Advertising. Sexualities, 12(2), 137160.Google Scholar
Handyside, S. & Ringrose, J. (2017). Snapchat Memory and Youth Digital Sexual Cultures: Mediated Temporality, Duration and Affect. Journal of Gender Studies, 26(3), 347360.Google Scholar
Harvey, L. & Ringrose, J. (2015). Sexting, Ratings and (Mis)Recognition: Teen Boys Performing Classed and Racialized Masculinities in Digitally Networked Publics. In Renold, E., Ringrose, J., & Egan, R. D. (Eds.), Children, Sexuality and Sexualization (352368). Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Hasinoff, A. A. (2015). Sexting Panic: Rethinking Criminalization, Privacy, and Consent. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Henry, N. & Powell, A. (2018). Technology-Facilitated Sexual Violence: A Literature Review of Empirical Research. Trauma, Violence & Abuse, 19(2), 195208. doi:10.1177/1524838016650189.Google Scholar
Hillier, L. & Harrison, L. (2007). Building Realities Less Limited than Their Own: Young People Practising Same-Sex Attraction on the Internet. Sexualities, 10(1), 82100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hillis, K. (1999). Digital Sensations: Space, Identity, and Embodiment in Virtual Reality. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Hjorth, L. & Lim, S. S. (2012). Mobile Intimacy in an Age of Affective Mobile Media. Feminist Media Studies, 12(4), 477484.Google Scholar
Jackson, S. & Vares, T. (2015). New Visibilities? “Using Video Diaries to Explore Girls” Experiences of Sexualized Culture. In Renold, E., Ringrose, J., & Egan, D. R. (Eds.), Children, Sexuality and Sexualization (307321). Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karaian, L. & Van Meyl, K. (2015). Reframing Risqué/Risky: Queer Temporalities, Teenage Sexting, and Freedom of Expression. Laws, 4(1), 1836.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kofoed, J. & Ringrose, J. (2012). Travelling and Sticky Affects: Exploring Teens and Sexualized Cyberbullying through a Butlerian-Deleuzian-Guattarian Lens. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 33(1), 520.Google Scholar
Krebbekx, W. (2018). Making sex, moving difference: An ethnography of sexuality and diversity in Dutch schools. Doctoral dissertation. University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Lehmiller, J. J. & Agnew, C. R. (2006). Marginalized Relationships: The Impact of Social Disapproval on Romantic Relationship Commitment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32(1), 4051.Google Scholar
Livingstone, S. (2008). Taking Risky Opportunities in Youthful Content Creation: Teenagers’ Use of Social Networking Sites for Intimacy, Privacy and Self-Expression. New Media & Society, 10(3), 393411.Google Scholar
Livingstone, S. (2011). Internet, Children, and Youth. In Consalvo, M. & Ess, C. (Eds.), The Handbook of Internet Studies (348-368). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Maliepaard, E. (2017). Bisexual Safe Space(s) on the Internet: Analysis of an Online Forum for Bisexuals. Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie, 108(3), 318330.Google Scholar
McGlotten, S. (2013). Virtual Intimacies: Media, Affect, and Queer Sociality. Albany: State University of New York Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McRobbie, A. (2009). The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Mulholland, M. (2017). “When Difference Gets in the Way”: Young People, Whiteness and Sexualisation. Sexuality & Culture: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, 21(2), 593612.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naezer, M. (2015). Love, Lust and Learning: Youth, Sexuality and Social Media [Liefde, Lust & Leren: Jongeren en Seksualiteit op Social Media]. Raffia, 27(1), 36.Google Scholar
Naezer, M. (2017). From Risky Behaviour to Sexy Adventures: Reconceptualising Young People’s Online Sexual Activities. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 20(6):715729. doi:10.1080/13691058.2017.1372632.Google Scholar
Naezer, M., Rommes, E., & Jansen, W. (2017). Empowerment through Sex Education? Rethinking Paradoxical Policies. Sex Education, 17(6), 712728.Google Scholar
Pascoe, C. J. (2010). Intimacy. In Ito, M., Baumer, S., Bittanti, M., et al. (Eds.), Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media (117148). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Payne, E. & Smith, M. (2013). LGBTQ Kids, School Safety, and Missing the Big Picture: How the Dominant Bullying Discourse Prevents School Professionals from Thinking about Systemic Marginalization or … Why We Need to Rethink LGBTQ Bullying. QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, 1(1), 136.Google Scholar
Peter, J. & Valkenburg, P. M. (2007). Adolescents’ Exposure to a Sexualized Media Environment and Their Notions of Women as Sex Objects. Sex Roles, 56(5), 381395.Google Scholar
Peter, J. & Valkenburg, P. M. (2008). Adolescents’ Exposure to Sexually Explicit Internet Material and Sexual Preoccupancy: A Three-Wave Panel Study. Media Psychology, 11(2), 207234.Google Scholar
Peter, J. & Valkenburg, P. M. (2009). Adolescents’ Exposure to Sexually Explicit Internet Material and Notions of Women as Sex Objects: Assessing Causality and Underlying Processes. The Journal of Communication: A Publication of the National Society for the Study of Communication, 59(3), 407433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plummer, K. (2003). Intimate Citizenship: Private Decisions and Public Dialogues. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Pullen, C. (Ed.) (2014). Queer Youth and Media Cultures. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Renold, E., Egan, R. D., & Ringrose, J. (2015). Introduction. In Renold, E., Ringrose, J., & Egan, R. D. (Eds.), Children, Sexuality and Sexualization (121). Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Renold, E. & Ringrose, J. (2011). Schizoid Subjectivities? Re-Theorizing Teen Girls’ Sexual Cultures in an Era of ‘Sexualization’. Journal of Sociology, 47(4), 389409.Google Scholar
Renold, E. & Ringrose, J. (2017). Selfies, Relfies and Phallic Tagging: Posthuman Part-icipations in Teen Digital Sexuality Assemblages. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 49(11), 10661079.Google Scholar
Renold, E., Ringrose, J., & Egan, R. D. (2015). Children, Sexuality and Sexualization. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Reynolds, P. (2010). Disentangling Privacy and Intimacy: Intimate Citizenship, Private Boundaries and Public Transgressions. Human Affairs, 20(1), 3342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richards, G. (2017). Cybersexism: Digital Sociability and Gendered Identities at Play. Paper presented at the World Anti-Bullying Forum, Stockholm, Sweden.Google Scholar
Ringrose, J. (2011). Are You Sexy, Flirty, or a Slut? Exploring ‘Sexualization’ and How Teen Girls Perform/Negotiate Digital Sexual Identity on Social Networking Sites. In Gill, R. & Scharff, C. (Eds.), New Femininities: Postfeminism, Neoliberalism and Subjectivity (99117). Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Ringrose, J. & Harvey, L. (2015a). BBM is Like Match.com: Social Networking and the Digital Mediation of Teens’ Sexual Cultures. In Bailey, J. & Steeves, V. (Eds.), eGirls, eCitizens (199226). Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press.Google Scholar
Ringrose, J. & Harvey, L. (2015b). Boobs, Back-off, Six Packs and Bits: Mediated Body Parts, Gendered Reward, and Sexual Shame in Teens’ Sexting Images. Continuum, 29(2), 205217.Google Scholar
Ringrose, J., Harvey, L., Gill, R., & Livingstone, S. (2013). Teen Girls, Sexual Double Standards and ‘Sexting’: Gendered Value in Digital Image Exchange. Feminist Theory, 14(3), 305323.Google Scholar
Ringrose, J. Mendes, K . (2018). Mediated Affect & Feminist Solidarity: Teens Using Twitter to Challenge ‘Rape Culture’ in and Around School. In Sampson, T., Ellis, D., & Maddison, S. (Eds.), Affect and Social Media. London: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Robinson, K. H. (2013). Innocence, Knowledge and the Construction of Childhood: The Contradictory Nature of Sexuality and Censorship in Children’s Contemporary Lives. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Salter, M., Crofts, T., & Lee, M. (2013). Beyond Criminalisation and Responsibilisation: Sexting, Gender and Young People. Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 24(3), 301316.Google Scholar
Sedgwick, E. K. (2008 [1990]). Epistemology of the Closet. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Senft, T. M. & Baym, N. K. (2015). What Does the Selfie Say? Investigating a Global Phenomenon. International Journal of Communication, 9(2015), 15881606.Google Scholar
Smith, C. (2010). Review: Papadopoulos, Linda: Sexualisation of young people. Participations, 7(1), 175179.Google Scholar
Szulc, Ł. & Dhoest, A. (2013). The Internet and Sexual Identity Formation: Comparing Internet Use before and after Coming Out. Communications – The European Journal of Communication Research, 38(4), 347365.Google Scholar
Tiidenberg, K. (2018). “Nude Selfies til I Die” – Making of ‘Sexy’ in Selfies. In Nixon, P. G. & Düsterhöft, I. K. (Eds.), Sex in the Digital Age. Oxford: Routledge.Google Scholar
Tropiano, S. (2014). “A Safe and Supportive Environment”: LGBTQ Youth and Social Media. In Pullen, C. (Ed.), Queer Youth and Media Cultures (4662). Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Van Doorn, N. A. J. M. (2009). Digital spaces, material traces: Investigating the performance of gender, sexuality, and embodiment on internet platforms that feature user-generated content. (Doctoral dissertation). Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Warfield, K. (2016). Making the Cut: An Agential Realist Examination of Selfies and Touch. Social Media + Society, 2(2), 110.Google Scholar
Waskul, D. D. (2006). Internet Sex: The Seductive ‘Freedom To’. In Seidman, S., Fischer, N., & Meeks, C. (Eds.), Handbook of the New Sexuality Studies (281289). London: Routledge.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×