FREE Media, Sexual Relationships, and Sexual Development Essay (original) (raw)

Media is prevalent in today's society. With an abundance of cell phone, televisions, computers, and tablets in homes and offices across the US, it is not difficult to find that sexual content is available at any time or place. Adolescent sexual development is directly affected by the sexual content displayed daily in media. Relationships also prove to demonstrate benefits alongside downfalls because of media. The robust identity media has developed for it-self is prominent and hard to miss. With the evolving world of TV, cinema, and social media, coupled with the change in adult and adolescent behavior as society progresses, the effects generated from media have to evolve as well. .
Media and its Effects on Sexual Development and Relationships.
Information is being absorbed through media without hesitation. Whether it is social media, television, radio, print, or numerous other sources, it is apparent that any genre of content is simply a flip or click away. Including sex. Models on Instagram, selfies on Facebook, sexually charged commercials, porn applications for your phone – sex is abundant in lives today. "The media, according to the website of the Newspaper Association of America Foundation, is an integral part of the lives of American teenagers" (Holden). With an increasing number of today's adolescents having access to cable television, 80% of whom learn about sex, drugs, and violence (Gruber, 2000), and 10% of adults who participated in an informal survey admitting to checking their phones during sex, can we determine how media affects sex in today's society?.
Our youth has more access to sexual content than ever before. Considering Instagram alone, there has been a 40% increase of users – see figure 1 - from 2011-2014 (Jaffray 2014). Attention spans are decreasing rapidly (SallyU 2014) due to social media, teaming with distorted, stereotypical, and potentially harmful modern portrayals of sexuality (Ward, 2002).

1. Distorted Sexual Values

This has had a major role on people's sexual values/ morals. ... They are destructive of human relationships. The findings of the behavioral science demonstrates that deprivation of physical pleasure, particularly during the formative periods of development, often resulting family breakdown, child abuse, adolescent runaways crime, violence, alcoholism, and other forms of dehumanizing behavior, we assert that physical pleasure within the context of meaningful human relationships is essential both as a moral value and for its contribution to wholesome social relationships (Leone 18). ....

2. Pornography

A common argument against pornography is that the media portrays women as being nothing more than sexual playthings and objects to satisfy male sexual desires. ... It would be downright absurd to assume that women in this society are treated as sexual objects only because the media releases or broadcasts pornographic material. ... The answer to this question may be more complicated, however, what remains obvious is that the media does not portray women as only being able to fill male sexual desires. ... Pornography is seen as degrading sex and creating an unhealthy extramarital sexual ...

3. Media and crime

Researchers indicate that among criminal justice officials, even more than among the public, the media significantly influence both policy development and support. ... Crime, and Justice in the Media Most of the common misperceptions about crimes are portrayed in the mass media. ... Researchers have demonstrated a consistent and strong bias in the news toward murder, sexual crimes, gang violence, and drug-related violence. ... But, correlation is a very long way from causation and direct relationship are not easy to prove. ... The mass media tends to avoid unpopular and unconventional i...

4. Television and sexual messages

Albert Bandura's social learning theory is the standard theory involving media's effect on adolescent behavior. ... Instead, a sexual double standard prevails in which sexual dictates, norms, attitudes, and behaviors vary greatly by gender."" ... Rather, they were portrayed as sexually irresistible moments of intense combustion between two people, who couldn't care less about condoms or each other's sexual histories. ... These affect the sexual relationships and habits of viewers. ... However, they will be likely to watch the development of a white suburban cast such as ...

5. The Pros and Cons of Social Networking

Through social media, the research method and developments are clearer and available to a larger community. ... Students are not the only ones social media may help and harm. ... On the other hand, potential employees are advised to sustain from profanity, illegal substances, sexual content, poor grammar, and pictures of or with alcohol for these things can harm job security and employment promise. ... Specifically, inappropriate student-teacher relationships. Unsupervised communication can conveniently increase into sexual relationships. ...

6. Sex And The Media

What are the most important people and events in its development? ... The survey by the Center for Media and Public Affairs found that sexual material on cable and broadcast television fell by 29 percent and "serious violence- decreased by 17 percent. ... Research also shows that heavy exposure to media sex is associated with an increased perception of the frequency of sexual activity in the real world. ... On talk shows, sexual themes are common, including unusual sexual habits. ... For example, children may not fear that media will disconnect them from their peers but rather believe th...

7. Pornograpy and Deviant Behaviours

Men and women generally become warped in their perception about sex and relationships. ... The material creates distorted images of sexual reality and develops unrealistic attitudes about sex and towards relationships. ... Pornographic material can be considered as sexually explicit media designed primarily to arouse the audience sexually (Malamuth, 1993). ... Partners of identified "sexual addicts " (91 females, 3 males) were interviewed in one study to determine the effects their partner's cybersex use had on their romantic relationships (Schneider, 2000). ... It is said that the way th...

8. Equal Treatment of Racial and Sexual Minorities

Du Bois describes the relationship between a black man, Jim, and a white woman, Julia, after a comet hits New York City and kills everyone except them. ... Delany characterizes the relationship between sexless Spacers and people with other sexualities in a future world. ... Portraying Spacers' rejections by people with different sexual identities, Delany signifies society's dissociation, and asks for greater acceptance of people regardless of their sexual orientation, the gender they identify with or their desires. Crafting an analogy to the real world, Delany argues for equal treatm...

9. Social Media Addiction

Social media has become a way of life nowadays. ... It incorporates the uses of social media to damage of tease another person. ... Media exposure is strongly linked with violent and depressive behavior. ... For instance, there has been an increased danger of younger people talking to sexual predators who put themselves as "nice people" on the internet. Sexual predators are a big problem in today's society and they will always be since those select people have such sick minds to do certain things to younger girls. ...

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