Social media: a risky sheltered ground for homosexual group

Social media: a risky sheltered ground for homosexual group

The Supreme Court officially declared same-sex marriage a constitutional right on June 26, 2015. In the same morning, the social media network launched a free tool to let users put a rainbow filter over their profile pictures. More than 1 million people changed their profiles quickly, and at least 26 million people use the tool to date.

It seems that social media is a safe ground for homosexual people to obtain equal respect. On social media, their identity can be public above board. Posts with #lgbt tag always cause heated discussion. It is always the hotspot as long as some acts are done. This kind of over concerns about the group on social media is not often positive. It does not mean that homosexuality is one hundred percent approved by publics. What we pursue is an active and correct attitude towards the group, even without totally acceptance. With a highly concerned on social media, sometimes abnormal agreement is more terrible than respectable rejection.

Source: Google Image

People equate supporting same sex marriage to support liberty and freedom easily. Then those who exclude same sex relationship are believed as thinking backward. No one wants to be old-fashioned. Once this kind of agreement is made, social media users parrot it without deep consideration. Many of them pretend to accept same sex marriage even though they do not. They simply follow blindly rather than present their real opinion. That could be the reason why we find that in social media, a large number of people announce that they support same sex marriage but in the real world there are still a lot of people treat homosexual groups as mental illness patients. Over publicity may cause a counterproductive result. Social media environment pushes them to make a standpoint rather than to make a selection by themselves.

Social media could amplify typical behaviour and take it to a global stage. People abandon the procedure of brain-mouth filter to parrot, which leads prejudices spreading rapidly. If a friend shares a picture with a negative stereotype, let’s say it expresses the rejection of the homosexual group. And the tweet got a huge number of repost/likes/shares, then it is easy to be amplified. It exaggerates the loneliness of homosexual people, they will feel being refused and disliked. Under social media environment, no matter positive progress or wounding words can be enlarged.

For homosexual group, to treat them equally without discrimination is what really vital. Perhaps avoiding amplifying in social media is the right way to give them proper respect.