Abstract

This study focuses on stereotype on social media. It starts by explaining why the media is highly associated with the stereotypes. Social media is an interactive platform where to a large extent is used to discuss nonissues. It provides a platform to discuss rumors and for people to create opinions. Social media members create conclusions from other people without background information. Since the media including social media is influential in the presenting information, the conclusions drawn from unconfirmed issues are taken to be useful in society. The work also looks at how social media creates stereotypes which did not exist in the society before. Later, analyzes how the social media surface the forgotten stereotypes in the community. People use stereotypes which existed before to support their augments and posts on the social media. They remind people or inform people of the already existing stereotypes. The study suggests that people should confirm all information presented on social media for authenticity.

Keywords: Social media, Information, Stereotypes

Stereotyping on Social Media

Social media has much power in endorsing and surfacing stereotypes.  The media is used to promote social values and shape opinions in a community and therefore used to spearhead stereotypes. Social media impact on how different groups of people in the society relate with each other and with the cultural and social norms. They amplify opinions where every person gets a chance to contribute about a point whose conclusion is taken to be true by all people. This work analyzes how social media creates and amplifies stereotypes.

Hoe social media endorses the stereotype

Creation of a platform to create stereotypes

The social media act as a platform where stereotypes are activated. It is used by most people to post pictures and statements about other people or groups of people negatively representing them. Since negative news and information impact more, the social media community picks up the topic for discussion and further gives more information and comment about the presented person or group of people. People may, for example, post the picture of black American stealing with police officers behind them. Since the news is negative, people will tend to contribute more about it. Others will selectively post other previous pictures concerning theft done by black people while others might also post court cases on theft made by the black. In the end, the social media community concludes that all black Americans are thieves. The issue may not be factual as it is reached without comprehensive information and with much biasness.

Social media has the power, and it is used to create stereotypes which did not exist initially just out of misleading information of personal creation. The media is used to socialize, and most of the groups formed do not discuss serious issues or address issues occurring in the community. People create some social media groups to create jokes only, and even the very serious groups do not stick to their focus but end up involving stunts. Out of the jokes, members generate information about a specific person or group of people or other issues in the community. The stereotype is taken to be real and accepted very quickly by the members of the social group since many people have affirmed it. Those who are in the social group tend to believe more about the created stereotype because their peers are involved in the creation. The social media also creates stereotypes through underrepresentation and overrepresentation of particular groups of people. Values over-represented for a certain group of people are taken to be true.

Promoting and reinforcing stereotyped values, images, and other issues

Social media are used to surface the stereotype already existing in society. People comment issues raised on social media using unconfirmed information which functions as a stereotype. The information is taken to be true as a way of defending other ideas. For example, a person may comment on the social media a posted photograph of black Americans that they look like thieves. Other participants will take the post to be real and start spreading through the same social media or outside social media that black Americans are thieves. The stereotype was only existing in, maybe one person or a small community but it is amplified by the social media to become widely known. Social media, therefore, is used to pass the stereotypes form one person to another and introduce them to upcoming generations and children who are on social media.

Stereotyped values are practiced in the social media making them spread to more people than it was before. The cultural values and norms of the respective cultures represented by the different participants govern the social media. For example, when there is an old person in a social media group, the other group members who are young and the majority will be heard commenting posts from the old person that the post is out of date showing how the old man is not useful at the present days. Gender stereotypes have been more spread by the social media where female are not allowed to comment on female assumed fields, and if they comment, their members of the group do not take them seriously. An engineering social media group may, for example, ignore posts from female engineers with a claim that they cannot give strong ideas since the fielded is meant for a male. Stereotyped cultural values are practiced more on social media making them stronger and firm in society.

Conclusion

The interactive nature of social media makes them robust tools to conclude issues from society and share what is already in the community. In most cases, the shared information is not valid since the media pushes people to contribute to posts to be recognized. Such information is taken by the participants to be true making social media a powerful tool for creating stereotypes. It is also used to surface the already existing stereotypes in the society which seems to be forgotten. People can avoid the stereotypes by clarifying the source of information presented on social media.

 
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