Gay Men & Self-Perception Based on Grindr Use
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
GAY MEN & SELF-PERCEPTION BASED ON GRINDR USE Christopher Ponce* Undergraduate Student of Sociology/Social Work Option Department of Sociology California State Polytechnic University Pomona Faculty Mentor Gabriele Plickert, Ph.D. Department of Sociology California State Polytechnic University Pomona *This research was conducted as part of an Independent Study course, Spring Semester 2020 GAY MEN & SELF-PERCEPTION BASED ON GRINDR USE ABSTRACT Although social networking applications are on the rise, there has been limited research on how social media affects our mental health, especially in sexual minority populations. Gay men often turn to these applications to form relationships with other members of the queer community. Commonly, gay men face stigmatization and discrimination while trying to find a connection in virtual spaces, using digital spaces specifically designated to reduce prejudice against sexual minorities. However, queer digital spaces like Grindr are often subjected to toxic behaviors and stigma coming from within. This paper aims to understand the relationship between toxicity experienced online and user's emotional self-perception. Twitter tweets using Grindr are used to identify keywords that connect to toxicity, self-esteem, and emotional well-being. The findings show that most users experience higher rates of negative self- feelings from using Grindr. Most tweets acknowledge that toxic behavior is prevalent on Grindr, and use it to find personal validation. The data pointed to users comparing themselves to other profiles, trying to fit the expectations of a desirable user (indicators can include conventionally traffic, athletically fit) to receive positive reinforcement in the form of increased profile traffic (number of views, messages). Users who received positive reinforcement experienced positive self-feelings, while users who experienced negative reinforcement (i.e., rejection, prejudice, low levels of profile traffic) more likely experienced negative self-feelings. Suggestions for future research about social media platforms associated with sexual minority populations are provided. 2 INTRODUCTION Grindr is a dating application for gay men seeking intimacy and connection online. This study examines the relationship between Grindr use and gay men's mental health. Gay men and other sexual minorities often face prejudice and discrimination at home, the workplace, and numerous other public spaces (Connor 2018). Using social networks like Grindr allows gay men to connect with others safely in a private online space online. Although Grindr intends to provide gay men with the opportunity to connect with other gay men, the pressure of traditional masculine roles often curates a toxic environment that enables racism, sexism, and prejudice over non-ideal body types (Shensa, Sidani, Dew, Escobar-Viera, and Primack 2018, Pantic 2014). This study focuses on the toxicity found on Grindr and its effect on users' self-perception, potentially consequential to gay men's wellbeing. Using a popular social media website like Twitter, keywords in tweets were used to analyze the relationship between toxicity and self- feelings. A content analysis of tweets was conducted, creating several codes by clustering tweets into categories that acknowledge toxic behavior and track positive or negative feelings. The research question addressed in this study asks: To what extent does using Grindr affect gay men's mental health? Research on Grindr and gay men's mental wellbeing, specifically among minority populations like the LGBTQ+ community, is still understudied (Connor 2018, Miller 2018). Thus, it is essential to study these associations because it could facilitate reducing the toxicity of online communities and provide insight into the development of "safer" social networking applications in the future. These social media sites are tools queer people can use to reduce societal stigmas when trying to meet other queer people in physical spaces. Gay men and other queer people are often subjected to higher levels of minority stress because of their gender and sexual identity, making social media applications a critical part of building support systems and forging relationships with community members (Luk, Gilman, 3 Haynie, and Simons-Morton 2018). Online communities can become susceptible to toxicity if regulations are not put in place to check toxic behaviors, hence the rationale for conducting this study. Background Online Activity & Mental Health A possible link between social media usage and mental health shows that social media usage affects a person’s self-esteem, which can further lead to depression and anxiety (Shensa, Sidani, Dew, Escobar-Viera, and Primack 2018). Shensa and colleagues (2018) used an online survey and measured participant's experience of symptoms of anxiety and depression based on their online connectivity habits. The ‘Wired’ and ‘Connected’ categories (those who connected to social media more often) showed an increase in the likelihood of depressive and anxious symptoms (Shensa et al. 2018). Research by Pantic (2014) goes into further detail by examining social media sites (SNS) linked to mental health from the past ten years. This study primarily focused on Facebook activities connected to individual's self-esteem, finding a strong correlation between SNS use and mental health (Pantic 2014). One of the theoretical approaches used to explain how social networking affects mental health is objective self-awareness theory. Objective self-awareness theory states that when people are stimulated by the objectification of their own person, self-esteem, and impression of oneself that people most likely will change. Results show that these aspects generally decrease the longer one objectifies themself (Pantic 2014). Bergagna and Tartaglia (2018) conducted a study of university student Facebook users through self-reported surveys, examining the relationship between self-impression and increased Facebook use, drawing on social comparison as a model for an explanation. Social comparison theory explains that comparing oneself to others is an essential human need, which allows one to collect information on themselves, and social media networks is a convenient way to do this, thus increasing Facebook 4 use (Bergagna and Tartaglia 2018). Although much of this research based on social media is primarily negative concerning self-perception, some researchers investigated potential positive effects of social media use. For example, Clark and colleagues (2017) found positive views that social media was used to maintain connections that, in turn, promote intimacy and acceptance of one’s needs. LGBTQ+ and Mental Health Research provides evidence that sexual minorities, such as most queer adolescents, experience increased rates of cyberbullying and victimization (Luk et al. 2018). Luk and colleagues (2018) used data from the NEXT Generation Study and applied latent growth models to examine depressive symptoms in sexual orientation disparities of 17 to 21-year-old adolescents. The results reveal that sexual minorities experience higher rates of low family satisfaction and cyberbullying victimization, associated with an increase in depressive symptoms. Luk et al. (2018) propose that minority stress theory explains the higher risk of mental health problems among LGBTQ+ youth because they face higher rates of societal stigmatization and prejudice. Luk and colleagues (2018) findings support the assumptions of the minority stress theory, which argues that in addition to generalized life stressors (e.g., economic, familial, or state of health), minorities (including sexual orientation) experience higher rates of stigmatization, which can lead to adverse mental health outcomes during adolescence that may continue to affect youth as they grow into adulthood (Meyer 2003). Moreover, studies have shown that the online experience is essential to queer people, especially sexual minorities, who use social media to manage self-identity and disclosure (McConnell, Neray, Hogan, Korpak, Clifford, and Birkett 2018). Observed online patterns of self- identifying queer people, and interviews that focused on individuals’ social media habits, the authors found that LGBTQ+ clustered in High Overall Outness had the most connectivity among online networks such as Facebook and Twitter (McConnell et al. 2018). These findings further promote the idea that queer 5 individuals obtain social capital and emotional investment through social media networks (Cseri and Talmud 2015). Gay Men, Grindr, & Mental Health Research on gay men using the app Grindr provides evidence that Grindr negatively affects users’ self-esteem and mental health (Conner 2018). One of the most common types of toxic behavior found on Grindr is the presentation of users online in the form of hegemonic masculinity. Hegemonic masculinity refers to traditionally performed masculinity with an emphasis on domination while deprecating femininity (Miller 2018). User identity is a huge aspect of Grindr as users want to optimize their profiles to best fit in with a socially acceptable image that will generate the most traffic. By self-performing their identity online, users are often stating explicitly racist and discriminatory profile descriptions to filter traffic that may be undesirable (Jaspal 2017). Thus, understanding the relationship between gay men using Grindr and mental health is important because research in this area remains understudied (Connor 2018). Current Study This current study