- Feb 5, 2002
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The last ten years have seen an unprecedented rise in people identifying as something other than their biological sex. Such a phenomenon seems to require an explanation. There are, of course, many factors at play, far more than can be investigated in one column. But surely it is significant that these increases become noticeable around the time when smartphones come onto the scene. And, as young people’s social lives have moved more and more online, cases of gender dysphoria and the adoption of novel gender identities has skyrocketed. What’s going on here?
Perhaps the most obvious issue is the content young people can access on the internet. Anyone who has tried researching such matters on YouTube knows the rabbit hole you can go down. YouTube is chock full of videos purporting to help young people identify their “true” gender identity. And once you’ve looked at one such video, the algorithm is going to show you more and more of them.
Reddit is another culprit here. In fact, one of the strongest predictors of opting for a new gender identity is time spent in certain Reddit subgroups. And we could go down the line: TikTok is increasingly prominent, and then there are things you’ve likely never heard of, but your kids have, like DeviantArt.
The content available on the internet is certainly a factor here. But there is more to it. The eminent Catholic communications theorist Marshall McLuhan‘s most famous aphorism is “the medium is the message.” McLuhan learned this truth from the Incarnation. When God really wanted to get his message across, he chose the most intimate possible medium. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus say more, and say it more powerfully, than any other medium ever could.
So, it makes sense for us to think about smartphones, and about the various social media platforms on them, as media whose messages are more than just the content they convey. As Pope Francis wrote in Laudato Si’ (107), “technological products are not neutral, for they create a framework which ends up conditioning lifestyles and shaping social possibilities.”
Continued below.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
Perhaps the most obvious issue is the content young people can access on the internet. Anyone who has tried researching such matters on YouTube knows the rabbit hole you can go down. YouTube is chock full of videos purporting to help young people identify their “true” gender identity. And once you’ve looked at one such video, the algorithm is going to show you more and more of them.
Reddit is another culprit here. In fact, one of the strongest predictors of opting for a new gender identity is time spent in certain Reddit subgroups. And we could go down the line: TikTok is increasingly prominent, and then there are things you’ve likely never heard of, but your kids have, like DeviantArt.
The content available on the internet is certainly a factor here. But there is more to it. The eminent Catholic communications theorist Marshall McLuhan‘s most famous aphorism is “the medium is the message.” McLuhan learned this truth from the Incarnation. When God really wanted to get his message across, he chose the most intimate possible medium. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus say more, and say it more powerfully, than any other medium ever could.
So, it makes sense for us to think about smartphones, and about the various social media platforms on them, as media whose messages are more than just the content they convey. As Pope Francis wrote in Laudato Si’ (107), “technological products are not neutral, for they create a framework which ends up conditioning lifestyles and shaping social possibilities.”
Gendered algorithms
Continued below.
This is what happens when smartphones make gender unbearable
Smartphone apps create a distorted sense of masculinity and femininity, causing young people to seek an alternative.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
