Essay on Social Media – The Ultimate Brainwashing Machine

Are you aware of how much social media affects your political views? From the James Charles controversies to petitions to save human rights, the vast ocean we call the internet is an absolute breeding ground for new toxic trends, arguments and debates. Some prime specimens of this phenomenon are how our generation became hooked the 'Not like the other girls' pandemic, the rise of the phrase 'not all men' and the term 'Feminist' becoming an insult. The similarity between all these major social-political turns is that social media has had a huge impact on why this gender related chaos has happened in the first place. But on a more optimistic note, could social media also have some positive effects on our beliefs, values and attitudes? What do we learn from diving into the dizzying whirl pool of self-degrading trends? Today we will be dissecting the cyber wild-west that we know as social media, and what it does to us as political consumers.  

 'I'm not like the other girls!' 

Have you ever heard the phrase 'I'm not like the other girls!'? Fascinatingly, almost every active user has been caught in the net by this infamous expression at least once. But where did it originate, and why is it so prevalent? The saying 'I'm not like the other girls!' Is rooted in internalised misogyny, and is often used by girls who feel that their assigned gender is inferior. In an attempt to escape this made-up subservientness, young girls, who are usually 9-15, will follow the crowd and say this disreputable sentence. A study on this issue that was published to the site 'Write Like A Girl' by Journalist Miranda More, and it observes that ''It tells the receiver that her gender is bad, but since she is different from the rest, she is good''. She explains that a young girl will go out of her way to separate herself from her own gender under the hateful influence of the media’s trends – like a school of fish trying to escape a shark of stereotypes. Trends like ‘Introduce yourself as the reason my other girls hate you’ on TikTok are a prime example of girls fighting to escape the rip of fake stereotypes. Us teenagers literally tear down our own to be accepted by strangers online. Social media seriously needs a re-evaluation.  

When and why did the term 'Feminist' become an insult? 

 About twenty years back, the term 'Feminist' was used to describe someone campaigning for women's rights: voting, autonomy, equal pay, education and job positions. So why has 'Feminist' been watered down to an insult? Phyllis Schafley, A conservative activist funded by college republicans claims that:

"The feminist movement is just not compatible with happiness. They are not for equality; they want to kill everything masculine.” 

Schafley offers us a painfully blunt view on modern feminism. She states that feminism leads to unhappiness, and that feminists want to drown anything that men stereotypically do. Schafley believes that we should be blissfully unaware of the societal flaws that feminism critiques. On the contrary, Dr Helen Pankhurst PhD, granddaughter of Suffragette leader Emmaline Pankhurst, observes from real life:  

"I'll ask the class if they consider themselves to be feminists and there'll be silence. So I ask the girls if they think they're equal to boys and the hands shoot up. There's more engagement with ideas but people still don’t like the label." 

Dr Pankhurst gives us a real example of people not wanting to identify as a feminist, yet thinking like one. The problem is that of generally misogynistic internet users will see things like Schafley's quote and eat it up. They get a quick rush of serotonin from seeing something from the stereotypically opposing party that vibes with their views, and will repost it on every platform they know. These posts eventually reach people like us, and make us second guess who we should identify as. We get swept up by a current of bias and lies. Dr Pankhurst PhD, however, explains the effects of quotations like the conservative activist's. BBC news reports that "now, fewer than 1/5 [20%] of young women would call themselves a feminist". Pankhurst gives us a much broader view on the subject than Schafley's misogynistic explanation, and brings us more awareness of toxic trends on social media.  

The rise of ‘not all men’

'Not all men' is a result of miscommunication and manipulation on social media. Under almost every post where a woman mentions being assaulted by a man, somewhere in the depths of the comments there will be an inevitable variation of 'not all men'. But what causes this curious spectacle? We all know that not every man is out to assault people, but as proven by the constant stream of news on social media, way too many are. The amount of young people that are put in danger because these ‘not all men’ lecturers dilute the situation by drawing away the attention from the main topic is disheartening. Social media has only encouraged the rise of 'not all men' and this has only led to ignorance of the discussed situation. The platforms manipulate our beliefs, values and attitudes, making us become increasingly distracted and ignorant. As proven by ‘not all men’, it takes away from the fact that innocent people are constantly being assaulted to tell us something that drags the main issue underwater. Social media has a terrifying amount of power over our mindsets, but by noticing and discussing cycles like this, we can work together to fight the rip of growing ignorance.   

So, in conclusion:

As the previously discussed mayhem has proven, social media can have both positive and negative effects. It encourages toxic trends, but then eventually extinguishes them. However, the controversies age like milk – they are left to fester for too long, and whoever finds them becomes sick. People become hurt by them, and then even more issues arise – just like the 'not like the other girls' lunacy. But in the end, the positives outweigh the negatives. If we never opened up the deeper and darker end of social media, we wouldn’t know how damaging social influence can truly be. There is still hope for the world of wifi; by doing diverse research and calling out toxic cycles, we can make the internet a safer place for our learning, our entertainment, and our interaction. You can help prevent future generations from enduring the waves of toxic content that are constantly crashing over us. Never hesitate to argue against that misogynistic, pick-me user. Never give up the fight.