Gender roles and stereotypes have slowly started to change in society within the past few decades. These changes occur mostly in communication, but more specifically during social interactions.[154] The ways people communicate and socialize have also started to change alongside advancement in technology. One of the biggest reasons for this change is due to social media.
Social media play a big role when it comes to communication between genders. Therefore, it's important to understand how gender stereotypes develop during online interactions. Research in the 1990s suggested that different genders display certain traits such as being active, attractive, dependent, dominant, independent, sentimental, sexy, and submissive when it comes to online interaction.[155] Even though these traits continue to be displayed through gender stereotypes, recent studies show that this isn't necessarily the case anymore.[156]
According to recent research, gender plays a strong role in structuring our social lives, especially since society assigns and creates “male” and “female” categories.[157] Until society can learn to treasure the similarities between gender rather than the differences, we will never truly be equal, which is a problem.[158] Social media helps create more equality, because every individual is able to express him or herself however they like. Every individual also has the right to express their opinion, even though some might disagree, but it still gives each gender an equal amount of power to be heard. [159]
References
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