The Internet (Buzzfeed Yellow): The Better Super Peer Option?

Recently I've been watching tons of Buzzfeed videos during study breaks when I want to take my mind off of papers and such. Buzzfeed videos can change a lot for content depending on what type of channel it's from. Sometimes they're science videos, and sometimes they're short skits about experiences that everyone goes through. Well a few weeks ago, I saw a really interesting video called "Girls Try Cosmo Flirting Tips On Real Guys" from Buzzfeed Yellow, where some women at Buzzfeed read tips from Cosmo and then try them out. Then they discuss it with the men that they tested it to. 

What's really interesting is that the women in this video question these tips straight away and by showing what happens when these tips are tried out on video, they show the ridiculousness and perhaps strangeness of these tips. What's different about this video compared to other media about sexuality is that these women point out the falsity and the lack of reality in Cosmo magazine, something that a lot of young girls use as a source of information. According to Brown, L' Engle, and Halpern (2005), "One-half to three-fourths of girls aged 12 to 15 years read magazines such as “Seventeen,” “Teen,” and “YM.”" (421). That means that most young girls that are in puberty use typical media such as TV shows and Magazines to get information about sex. And even when I was a teenager, I learned a lot of these social norms about romance and relationships from the shows that I saw on TV and even on the internet. In fact, the same study (2005) mentions that "the media may serve as a kind of super peer, especially for earlier maturing girls who may be unable or unwilling to turn to their actual peers for information and norm setting," (426). Which means for girls that don't have the outside resources such as family and sex-ed, the media might be more relied on for giving information on sexuality. This can be problematic when mass media gives only few portrayals of sexuality in ways that might not be so accurate to real life. This is why this Buzzfeed Yellow video resonates so well, because it not only points to the idea that we all thought these were valid suggestions when we were young, but it also shows that not all mass media messages are accurate for every consumer. And it's hilarious to see the tips we've always wanted to test out be played out in real life, with results that were sometimes positive, and sometimes not. 

These things have become more prevalent in more recent years, through cultural sites such as Buzzfeed. Through these media sources, there have been a lot of these sources that were discussed or questioned. It's almost as if these sites are a third party voice of reason or doubt that teaches young people to be more media literate. I used to think that the internet was basically a portable TV. But recently with more and more opinion articles or YouTube videos that take these types of mainstream messages and take them apart, it provides a bigger, more holistic view of what people think about sexuality. By having a variety of opinions and visuals, the internet provides different voices to an interested reader/viewer, giving them a wider spectrum of ideas and thoughts to take and makes sense of themselves. Maybe it's a better super peer option because people can seek our their own information and form an opinion about things themselves, rather than being given these norms by mass media. 

Resources

Brown, J, D., Halpern, C. T., L'Engle, K. L., (2005). Mass media as a sexual super peer for early maturing girls. Journal of Adolescent Health. (420-427).