Social Media and Young Peoplea??s Sexualities: Values, Norms, and Battlegrounds:

摘要

This article explores how young people are making sense of sexuality in the context of social media, considering social mediaa??s material as well as symbolic operations. Drawing on 14 focus groups (na??=a??89, conducted in 2012 and 2015) with young people between 14 and 19a??years of age in Dutch-speaking Belgium, this article is informed by young peoplea??s discussions, meanings, values, and norms on sexuality and social media, situated in everyday life peer group settings. The results argue how young people are making strong value judgments about sexuality in the context of social media and how they use a sharp hierarchical system to distinguish between a??gooda?? and a??bada?? sexual practices in social media. Therefore, young people draw on essentialist sexual ideologies. This article discusses these value judgments not only in relation to how social media functions but also in relation to social mediaa??s symbolic operations, namely how they are meaningful for young peoplea??s sexualities. The role of social media is discussed in relation to broader cultural dynamics of young peoplea??s changing sexual cultures, which are characterized by risk, resistance, individualization, and mediatization. The article concludes how young peoplea??s consistent need for making value judgments about sexuality in the context of social media may point to a conservatism that is driven by social mediaa??s overwhelming role in culture and society. Social media have become a crucial battleground for sexual politics; they need to be taken seriously as spaces that produce values and norms about sexuality, deciding what kind of sexualities are supported, repressed, or disciplined.