Modern Day Sexting Research

In this day and age most people are scrolling through social media such as twitter or Instagram; Therefore, we see a posts of ladies bragging about her boyfriend purchasing 500 dollars’ worth of makeup for her birthday, or a “just because” gift consisting of name brand clothing. Consequently, the expectations of relationships rise because of the social media posts that many see. Mugo, an author and poet instructor states, “having a significant other can be one of the best feelings. They are someone who creates memories and shares their life with you. But with social media being such a large part of society, unrealistic expectations have begun to rise.” Incidentally, if a girl doesn’t receive these gifts they become disappointed and don’t see their loved one being good enough. Lastly, social media has created lack of trust and insecurity in modern day relationships. Anissa Fritz states “Social media is now a breeding ground for distrust in relationships.” This statement is justifying that social media is causing the trust issues, such as snapchat streaks which is communication between two people being tracked by snapchat, displaying the number of consecutive days they have talked. Also

Americans recently discovered an emerging trend known as adolescent sexting. Sexting has been defined as the sending or receiving of sexually explicit or sexually suggestive images, messages, or video through a cellphone or the Internet. Sexting can also be referred to as sending nudes. As Guidance Counselors at a High School it is imperative that we educate ourselves and our students on the consequences sexting may have. Many students fail to realize that once the photos or messages are sent, there is no turning back. Those images/messages may be forwarded to audiences via the internet and various social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat etc, causing humiliation, depression and in some cases even causing suicide.

Parents also need to educate themselves about the problem of "sexting", including the potential issues of this behavior, and the resources which can help them address the issue with their children. (Social Policy Law, 2015)

Jesse Logan was a girl who had just graduated from high school when she was humiliated by her ex-boyfriend to an unforgivable state.  She sent a fully frontal nude photograph of herself to her then-boyfriend, which is now known as sexting.  After their breakup, the ex-boyfriend forwarded Jesse's sext to their entire school, causing her embarrassment and humiliation.  She then did an interview with the Today Show stating "I just want to make sure no one else will have to go through this again."  Two months later she was found in her bedroom.  She hanged herself.  As a nation, how is it going to be possible to implement a policy that will work sufficiently?  I believe that through annual, educational assemblies in elementary schools for

Sexting on Snapchat spread because of teenagers and by teenagers who wanted to escape from their parents control and have something to do that felt private. “what really makes a new social network become popular fast? Teenagers.”

241). People update friends and strangers alike about the minutia of their life, and even use it to find romantic and sexual partners. Sites and phone applications like OkCupid and Tindr have made it easy to find both love and one-night-stands. Hyde and Delamater (2014), in referencing the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, warn of the dangers of sharing photos of one’s body via the Internet (p. 242). However, it is not uncommon to hear arguments that revealing one’s physical self is a form of empowerment. Surely the age of the person sending such photos should be considered, as well as whether the photos are wanted by the receiver and the sender’s intent. For instance, is a man sending a photograph of his genitals meant to convey a sense of intimacy, an indication or his sexual prowess, or the modern equivalent of

Sexting is an informal method that is used to illustrate the love and affection between two people. This idea of sexting is not only unromantic but it is also alarming. Those who do partake in sexting usually do not think about the possible consequences that could eventually lead to humiliation, depression, and/or judgmental comments. Out of all the sexting incidents that I have observed, none of them seemed to have a positive outcome. These sexting incidents always ended up with someone getting emotionally hurt. According to what I viewed in my high school years, the cause of sexting was usually formed either through peer pressure, the desire to fit in with the “popular kids” in school, or just to try a new tactic that one would hope that

In the article “The Effect of Technology on Relationships”, Lickerman explains how the planet has never been more interconnected but it hasn’t come without costs. Some of these costs can be social isolation, mistaking virtual relationships for physical ones. Dangers of technology can include sending different messages than we intended. Because texting, emails, and instant messaging have poor ability to express emotion, so something you say can be taken out of context and end up ruining relationships. She concludes with to make technology serve us well, it requires us to exercise it with good judgment.

creating a mass sharing nationally. Sexting can be viewed as child pornography and the image taker, the

As technology is becoming more advanced, people all around the world are using phones more and more for texting rather than talking in person or on the phone. Teenagers are one of the biggest users of text messaging. Around 72% reported that they text frequently, and report sending around 3000 texts each month (Drouin and Landgraff, 2011, p. 444). Texting can be a good thing because it is a quick and easy way to communicate, and studies have shown that texting helps strengthen bonds but it a is less intimate way of communicating. Other studies have shown that partners who talk on the phone have higher levels of intimacy, love and commitment and even lower levels of uncertainty (Drouin and Landgraff, 2011, p. 444). Even though texting is a good thing, a major problem has come up with texting. Students are now starting to sext. This is a very negative way of texting for many reasons, but one being that teens can be charged with criminal possession and distribiton of child pornogrophy for having or forwarding nude pictures. Even though less people are sexting,While surveying researchers found that 20% of teens and 31% of young adults claim they have sent or posted sexual explicit pictures through text (Drouin and Landgraff, 2011, p. 444). Another problem with sexting is that other studies have shown that sexting has a positive relationship with anxiety and attachment due to sexting. In order to figure out how sexting and texting affects avoidance and attachment, Michelle

Young teens have curious minds and this curiosity often leads them to sometimes controversial ways of occupying their time and exploring their emerging sexuality. Sexting has become a huge phenomenon within the teenager world. It has been brought up to be a moral panic with the parents of teens who are concerned about how it influences their child’s behavior. Sexting is sending and receiving explicit images through cell phones of young teens. This sexting epidemic developed from teens looking at pictures of their favorite celebrities and through influences in the written media. Parents are concerned that the highly sexualized images that circulate through the media are to blame for the upsurge in sexting, which ignites their moral panic. The consequences of sexting are early sexual behavior and crime of child pornography. They are concerning within themselves, but the larger questions of general societal morals are even worse. Sexting appeals to teens curiosity about sex and it reinforces the high value society places on sexuality, which has parents in a moral panic. As teens

Alvin Cooper describes the connection between sex and the internet in his paper, “Sexuality and the internet: Surfing into the New Millennium,” specifically the effects of the internet and how three factors make it such a power force, which he calls the ‘Triple A.’ Cooper recognizes a “convergence of two great forces … the millions of computers connected into one mind-bogging World Wide Web … [and] many things from Eros to romance to sexuality … evidenced by the several hundred on-line sites devoted to sex, and the fact that sex is far and away the number-one searched topic.” Opponents of online sexuality argue the negative patterns founds by Cooper, which include the ways that the internet precludes the development of off-line connections, prevents greater self-awareness, and induces men to sexualize their entire world. At the same time, Cooper has also discovered positive effects of internet on sexuality and its users. These positive effects largely effect the early stages of romantic relationships by the Triple A factors of Access, Affordability, and Anonymity. The first two factors removes the limitations of proximity, allowing for a larger selection and variation of potential spouses, which combined with the factor of Anonymity, allows people to meet “where their mere presence makes it very likely that they have something in common with other users… changing the sequence in which attractiveness may be evaluated can decidedly alter the perception and ultimate

Jiang, Bazarova and Hancock suggest that people using computer-mediated communication have higher self disclosure than during face-to-face interactions. They want to prove that the higher amount of self disclosure can lead to more intimacy in the relationship, proving that people in an online relationships are more intimate than people in face-to-face relationships.

In the article, Internet Infidelity 10 Years On: A Critical Review of the Literature by Vossler, A., (2016) says, “the Internet and social media now being a part of everyday life for people in the Western world, there are ever-growing opportunities to engage in online behaviors that may be considered unfaithful in the context of a committed relationship”. The Internet easily threatens relationships because it is easily accessible. Also, being able to hide behind the screen and not be identified helps people feel like they can get away with cheating.

Although sexting is a bigger issue if underage teens are participating, it’s not just teens that are getting in trouble with the law for sexting. A psychologist and New York author has conducted a survey of 323 anonymous volunteers to explore their attitudes toward the sexting experience. “Basically, sexters feel very positively towards sexting, whereas non-sexters think it’s a terrible idea” “People [aged] 13 to 19 are actively involved in sexting, but those [between] 20 to 26 are even more involved.” In June