Introduction
Social media is a digital forum where online or digital users can exchange information or convey their thoughts on a subject. Social media also enables engagement activities to take place without regard to location or period. Relationships and conversations are most deeply felt via social media. The confluence of innovation and digitization enables the incorporation of existing types of media into modern media platforms. Furthermore, social media enables for the contact of familiar and unfamiliar individuals. Information exchange has improved as a result of data exchange via social media channels. Developing communication systems, including social media, are playing an expanding influence in ethnic equality today. Nevertheless, there has been debate on whether social media can persuade people to promote ethnic inequality. People on one side of the debate believe that social media can lead to ethnic inequality. On the other hand, some believe that social media helps to promote ethnic equality in the modern world. This research article aims to analyze the influence of social media on the changes experienced in the modern day in terms of ethnic equality.
How has social media influence the changes we are seeing in terms of ethnic equality today.
According to researchers, long-term social media exposure indicates a decline in self-esteem for all women and minority males but an improvement in self-esteem for white males. These disparities are consistent with Hollywood’s ethnic and gender policies, which primarily present white men as superheroes while eliminating or subjugating other ethnicities as antagonists, sidekicks, and sex tools. Research also suggests that representations of American mascots in social media impair self-esteem and negatively influence the emotions of Indigenous American teenagers and younger people. Apart from the impacts on certain populations of viewers, ethnic representations presented as amusement might distort how all audiences perceive and classify humans.
Common social media platforms media can have a detrimental influence on white persons’ viewpoints of individuals of color, and ethnic prejudices in cinema and social media can amplify underlying racist prejudices. According to one study, widespread social media representations of nonverbal characteristics of persons of color, such as facial expressions and bodily communication, promote racial stereotypes among white netizens. When there is a lack of connection across ethnic groups, people prefer to depend on social media prejudices to form ideas about others outside of their own ethnicity. For instance, media stereotypes of Latinx individuals can encourage viewers to link immigration with greater unemployment and criminality. Moreover, social media’s proclivity to perpetuate racial stereotypes can lead to widespread endorsement for heavier penalties for individuals of race. As social media has evolved to rule sociocultural environments in almost every region globally, new and traditional racist behaviors are rapidly being perpetrated on these networks. Racist discourse flourishes on social media, even via hidden strategies like memes weaponization and the employment of bogus personas to stir racist prejudice (Lamerichs et al.). Facebook fosters a poisonous cultural phenomenon, YouTube fosters regressive right racist personalities, and Twitter is rife with organized bullying (Shepherd et al.). Individuals (re)produce prejudice in relatively innocuous ways, such as employing emojis (Ariadna & Farkas).
Is the representation in social media promoting ethical equality, or is it not? Do you feel the representation should change or be heightened to bring about a platform for change?
Most of the representations in social media do not promote ethnic equality but rather promote ethnic inequalities. Despite the fact that social media has a large influence on culture and is an important platform through which people learn about one another, multiple studies have found that these channels tend to promote cultural and racial prejudices, with typically detrimental results. Racial minority populations are commonly neglected and dismissed on social media platforms such as sports, entertainment, and gaming. The prevalence of stereotypical depictions throughout social media platforms and types is partly due to complicated media development procedures, conventions and ideals, commercial drivers, and a dearth of ethnic minority social networking creators. Nevertheless, their influence, while difficult to quantify, has the potential to be tremendous. Social media serve a role in the development of communal images and interethnic perspectives, and through categorizing specific communities, they influence users’ impressions of various populations. There are indications that these prejudiced media representations not merely foster overall hostility against different racial populations, but also lower the self-esteem of ethnically disadvantaged people. As a consequence, studies exploring overcoming prejudices and creating more favorable media portrayals are being criticized. However, I feel that representations should be heightened to enhance social media platforms. For example, social media platforms could benefit from considering the following: reporting on incidents of discrimination, reporting on circumstances of friction amongst populations in a considerate approach, eliminating clichéd representations of representatives of ethnic, racial, or spiritual populations in publications and programming opportunities, and lastly, challenging the suppositions underpinning hateful statements made by presenters during interview sessions, and dialogue programs.
What are the pros and cons of using social media or technology to insight change in ethnic equality?
Social media platforms have advantages when it comes to insighting ethnic equality. One of the advantages is that it offers equal accessibility to social information, which is crucial in developing an equitable society since it allows for widespread involvement by well-informed people of the community. Society-related information, such as what a society possesses, produces, or profits from, is made accessible to everyone. Also, it encourages collaborative engagement in the development, execution, and assessment of communal programs through acceptable representations of all categories and origins. Information exchanged through social media, as well as enhanced availability of public events, can help to erase concerns and fears that could otherwise lead to feelings of discrimination (DESA). Social media can be an essential tool for educating and enlightening the people of society. Lastly, people can utilize social media to promote social change. People are becoming more aware of the significance of social media in encouraging change. People have initiated many efforts to encourage their colleagues to exert stress on governments and organizations to become more equitable, equal distribution of resources regardless of the class culture or origin, and combat ethnic stereotypes (DESA).
On the other hand, employing social media to insight ethnic equality has disadvantages. Prejudices of underprivileged and minority persons are frequently taken as gospel facts by popular social media audiences. The media frequently depicts impoverished individuals as ignorant, idle, apathetic, and uninformed in terms of socioeconomic classifications. Social media never emphasizes on the fundamental societal causes that restrict migration from one social status to the next, such as academic and financial issues. The media is crucial in shaping views and establishing trends in cultural interactions. It establishes the backdrop upon which social, political viewpoints and activities are based.
Do you feel your ethnicity is represented on social media today? If so, give examples of this. If you feel that your ethnicity is not represented, what is the determining factor behind it?
Considering that my ethnicity is Italian and Polish, I feel that it is well represented in social media. Social media usage in Polish and Italian, like anywhere else, has been increasing in recent years. For example, Facebook and Instagram are the highly prominent social media platforms utilized. Resorts, clubs, and eateries, for example, are big subscribers of social media, marketing their products and responding to individuals’ remarks on their facilities. They constantly pursue social media likes and comments in order to broaden their exposure and approach a more significant number of individuals. These businesses can construct their reputation and affect individuals’ perceptions of them by regulating their social media profiles and responding to individuals’ viewpoints.
Work Cited
DESA. “Creating an Inclusive Society: Practical Strategies to Promote Social Integration.” Welcome to the United Nations, 2009,
Ariadna Matamoros-Fernández, and Johan Farkas. “Racism, Hate Speech, and Social Media: A Systematic Review and Critique – Ariadna Matamoros-Fernández, Johan Farkas, 2021.” SAGE Journals, 22 Jan. 2021,
Shepherd, Tamara, et al. “Histories of hating.” Social Media+ Society 1.2 (2015): 2056305115603997.
Lamerichs, Nicolle, et al. “Elite male bodies: The circulation of alt-Right memes and the framing of politicians on Social Media.” Participations 15.1 (2018): 180-206.
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