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Rawan Warden
Focused Inquiry 112
Andrea Westcot
December 3, 2014
Annotations
1.) When First Comes Love (or Lust): How Romantic and Sexual Cues Bias First
Impressions in Online Social Networking
Citation: Fransesca R. Dillman Carpentier, M. Scott Parrott & C. Temple Northup (2014) When
First Comes Love (or Lust): How Romantic Cues Bias First Impressions in Online Social
Networking, The Journal of Social Psychology, 154:5, 423-440. Print.
History of Search: I found this article by using the VCU Library database. I searched the
keywords, “social networks and sexuality” and this was one of the articles that came up. I
decided to use this source because I feel like I can use it to better explain my paper’s issue.
Identification & Justification: This source is scholarly because it was written by professors
from numerous universities. The format includes much of what scholarly sources entail (abstract,
results, bibliography).
Summary: In the article, “When First Comes Love (or Lust): How Romantic and Sexual Cues
Bias First Impressions in Online Social Networking,” authors Francesca Carpentier, M. Scott
Parrott and C. Temple Northup describe multiple studies that highlight the importance of how
certain terms can influence peoples’ judgment of others’ on social media networks.
The study that was done consisted of two parts: first, the participants were asked to
complete a word-search. Three different word searches were used for the study. One word search
consisted of sexual terms, one consisted of romantic terms and the last was a control word search
that consisted of neither sexual nor romantic words. The second part of the study was to
introduce each participant to a social media profile after they had completed the word search
they were given. They were asked to rate certain characteristics of each profile.
The concluding results were that the participants who were given the sexualized word
search ended up describing the social media profiles using sexual terms whereas the participants
who were given the romantic word search described the profiles using more subtle, romantic
terms. These results showed that sex and romance are indeed different entities and that it is so
easy to judge social media profiles sexually if you are constantly being bombarded by sexualized
imagery, music and other influences.
2.) Why Kids Sext
Citation: Rosin, Hanna. “Why Kids Sext.” The Atlantic Nov. 2014: 64-77. Print.
History of Search: I found this article by using the VCU Library database. I searched the
keywords, “Teenage sexting and social media.” I decided to use this article because I wanted to
highlight the issues of sexting and social media sites in my paper.
Identification & Justification: This source is not scholarly because it was not written by anyone
with credentials in that field of study. There is no bibliography and/or in-text citation. Also, there
are many colorful photos included in the article.
Summary: In the article, “Why Kids Sext,” author Hanna Rosin discusses major issues with
legal action towards teenage sexting by presenting multiple cases that have occurred in the
United States.
The first and most famous case was that of Louisa County in Virginia where a huge sexting
problem was going on at a local high school. It all began when a mother of a teenage girl was
told that her daughter had been posted on an Instagram page completely naked. Her daughter,
Jasmine, was 15 years old at the time. The Instagram page consisted of many naked and/or
sexual photos of girls ranging in age.
This issue turned out to be a much tougher situation than the law could handle. Multiple girls
from the high school whom were on the page were interviewed by the police and most of which
showed little to no remorse. These students, including the boys, did not see what was so wrong
about the sharing of nude photos because they claim that everyone does it. Although the sharing
of child pornography is illegal in every state, it was a tough situation for the police because they
found it incredibly unreasonable to charge all of these adolescent students with felonies.
Rosin brings up multiple points such as it is legal for two 16 year olds to have sex in most
states but it is illegal for them to share nude photos. A lot of laws against child pornography and
sexting seem contradictory and therefore the issue still continues to bring up important questions
about teenage sexuality and what exactly is right or wrong.
3.) Young People, Child Pornography, and Subcultural Norms on the Internet
Citation: Prichard, Jeremy, Spiranovic, Caroline, Watters, Paul and Lueg, Christopher. “Young
People, Child Pornography and Subcultural Norms on the Internet.” Journal of the American
Society for Information Science and Technology 64.5 (2013): 992-1000. Print.
History of Search: I found this article by using the VCU Library database. I searched the
keywords, “Teens and child pornography.” I chose this article because I think it is an important
topic to discuss in my paper.
Identification & Justification: This is a scholarly source because it was written by authors who
all have listed credentials; there is an abstract and a bibliography. Also, there is an introduction,
results and a conclusion.
Summary: In the article, “Young People, Child Pornography, and Subcultural Norms on the
Internet", authors J. Prichard, C. Spiranovic, P. Watters, and C. Lueg discuss major issues with
the viewing of child pornography with teenagers such as the normalization of child pornography
and the negative effects child pornography has on the children in front of the camera.
Although it is clear that teens these days are able to access almost everything on the
internet, questions arise regarding what exactly they are accessing. In the article, a study on a
very famous internet search engine, isoHunt, showed that child pornographic material was being
viewed often using specific search terms such as Lolita and teen. What this is really hurting are
the people whose pictures are on the internet for all to see. In the article many child abuse
victims describe that most painful thing about it all is that their photos of when they were
children, with no control, are still surfacing online.
The main point of the article and the studies shown with isoHunt is that there has been a
shift in what exactly is normal to see online. Teens have become so bombarded with sexual
images, degrading or not, that they have become normalized to such extreme subjects such as
child pornography, bestiality and degradation. The real question is what exactly can be done to
stop this and will it work? The answer is blurry and situations like these make many question just
how strict the government should be with issues such as these.
4.) Generation X-rated
Citation: Behr, Rafael. “Generation X-rated.” New Statesman 15 Mar. 2013: 28-31. Print.
History of Search: I found this article by using VCU Library database. I typed in the keywords,
“Teens and pornography.” I chose this article because I think that it is important to talk about the
effects of pornography on teenagers in my paper.
Identification & Justification: This source is not scholarly because the author has no listed
credentials, there is no bibliography and there appear to be no credible scholars cited.
Summary: In the article, “Generation X-rated,” author Rafael Behr discusses the major shift in
technological advancement and how it has affected the viewing of degrading pornographic
material within teens. These generations of technologically familiar children and teens have the
world at their fingertips- literally. The ability to ask a question and find the answer is nothing but
a few clicks away. The same cannot be said about their parents, however.
Behr explains how teens these days have been exposed to sex very early on due to the
internet. Most of what teens see online, whether on purpose or accidently, falls under what would
be labeled as degrading and/or misogynistic. The majority of porn online consists on women
being the submissive ones in bed while the men do and get whatever they desire. This serves as a
problem because more and more teenage boys and girls are seeing this material and thinking that
this is the right way to have sex.
Government officials have tried to place certain limitations on the viewing of online porn
but many of these attempts have failed. It has become a major issue between people who believe
the government should do all they can to control online porn while others believe that doing so
will provide the government with too much control over the online world. The struggle between
too little control and too much control continues to be an ongoing problem in today’s society.
5.) Sexting as Media Production: Rethinking Social Media and Sexuality
Citation: Hasinoff, Amy Adele. “Sexting as a Media Production: Rethinking Social Media and
Sexuality.” New Media & Society 15.4 (2013): 449-465. Print.
History of Search: I found this article by using the VCU Library database. I typed in the
keywords, “Social media and teenage sexuality.” I chose this article because I believe the author
gave some important insight on the issue at hand.
Identification & Justification: This article is scholarly because it is in a well-known scholarly
journal, the author has listed credentials, there is an abstract and a bibliography.
Summary: In the article, “Sexting as Media Production: Rethinking Social Media and
Sexuality,” author Amy Adele Hasinoff tackles on common beliefs of teen sexting while
bringing up new ways to go about the issue. For Hasinoff, it is important to look at the situation
through different angles. She believes that it isn’t right to think that all girls who partake in
sexting are victims. The belief that acts such as sexting and sharing sexual photos is a way of
taking ownership of one’s body and not always a forceful activity.
The government has created laws against the sharing of nude photos of underage teens,
however the act of sex is not illegal. This leaves a lot of people baffled because it can be seen as
quite contradictory. Hasinoff wants to refer to sexting as another form of “media production.”
She believes that not all sexting is bad and can actually be a good thing if people focused on the
positive sides of it rather than the bad.