Social Media Reinforces Stereotypes?
I think we’ve all seen them by now–your friends tag you in pictures of South Park characters, superheros or those colorful cartoon characters you recognize but can’t remember what they’re called. This trend seems to catch on more and more every day with a new iteration hitting Facebook every 12 hours. You look in the picture, and scroll through the image to find out which one you are–the cute one? the fun one? the Arab????
Let’s face it–these photos are fun and harmless, and most generate some spirited discussion in the comments section. Still, one has to admit that this practice is a pretty boldfaced example of stereotyping. I’m just waiting for the stories to surface of friendships ended or relationships terminated because the tagger didn’t quite think through their choices. I mean does anyone really want to be tagged as the ginger (not that there’s anything wrong with that)? As my mom used to say growing up, it’s all fun and games until someone gets their feelings irrevocably hurt by an internet meme.
This entry was posted on Monday, March 9th, 2009 at 5:54 pm and is filed under Consumer Insight. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 11th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Great post! It’s interesting how these Facebook trends are picking up SO quickly (25 Things About Me)… Who would you be Jeremy?!
March 11th, 2009 at 11:29 am
Well, I’ve already been tagged as “the nice one” in the south park example, but I think in the superhero one I would definitely be batman since I’m constantly being confused for Christian Bale.
December 20th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
I really love South Park because despite the vulgar side of the series, it still raises a moral taboo subjects of society with much derision! ^ ^