Birds of a Feather Flock Together

"Birds of a Feather Flock Together"

In Johanna Blakley’s speech on Social Media, she presents the idea that Social Media has the ability to one-day end stereotypes. Here she goes through present day magazine covers skewing our perception of a realistic body type. Blakley believes the increasing use of social media will actually help eliminate this facade. However, there are some discrepancies in her argument. For instance, woman of all ages have been found to use and exert more time on social media. Facebook is a prime example. Women do use Facebook more because there is more for them available. It is more likely for women to post pictures and comments and even search more than men would. Just because women use social media more does not mean that they will dominate global media.

            Another flaw in her argument was being able to use social media to rid stereotypes. She referred to it as “demographics” but it boils down to stereotypes of people. A freshman girl in college has a completely different view of college than a freshman boy; just as a mother of two would have a different view of life than her children. The demographics of people are around for a reason; they are accurate. People tend to group together because they share common likes and interests. The use of social media is not suddenly going to eliminate this human tendency. It is not unusual or wrong for people to group together because they are more alike. In the novel Joy Luck Club, this idea played a major role throughout. Here modern day American Asians and their elders ran into discrepancies amongst each other. Due to technology and living in America, the younger generation had a different view of life than their grandmothers. Social media will not be able to bridge this gap.

            Watching her speech I noticed the audience was only women. Being that it was directed towards women, she was more likely to exercise a more feminist approach than if it was both genders or even only men. With this in mind as I watched I felt she used this to her advantage to aid her ideas. Using social media to end chick flicks, distorted magazines, and stereotypes is a stretch. Women have made leaps and bounds since the 1900’s when the nineteenth amendment gave them the right to vote. Now there are even laws promoting equality in the workplace and ensuring women have the same opportunities as men, but even these laws highlight the differences between genders. Social media may bring people together but it will not be able to rid us of gender and stereotypes.