Millennials vs Social Media and LGBTQ Issues

Everyone has gone on Instagram, Twitter or even Snapchat and has seen let’s say a celebrity who’s vacationing in some exotic country or driving some exotic car. What do you instantly do?  It could be many things like judge, compare or even analyze how they are doing these things, wishing you could be them, or wanting to be in their place instead of sitting in class. But have you ever witnessed how sexuality is shown or seen on social media. The way we percieve someone on social media has drastically changed over many years. In this blog post I will discuss Chapter 3 of Social Media Freaks by Dustin Kidd  and how it inherently talks about how we as humans are using social media to judge, compare and analyze how we view someone based on LGBTQ issues and terms. Beginning at square one with the term Slash Ficton, which is a term many people haven’t heard of at all. Essentially describing when a movie, tv show or book focuses on a same-sex relationship. Now to explain what that means I’d like to bring up an example. The TV show everyone knows by the name of Grey’s Anatomy has Slash Fiction between the two characters named Dr. Callie Torres and Arizona Robbins. The two are involved in a same-sex marriage or relationship in which they struggle to voice their sexuality to the entire hospital or even their closest friends for that matter. This is a perfect example to explain what Slash Fiction really is. In relation to Chapter 3 of Social Media Freaks, Slash Fiction is most commonly used for media’s like TV shows on Netflix or Hulu. These are more openly available or accessed by the younger demographic. To apply this in a larger sense,  I’d like to use myself and the generation I am labeled as. A Millenial, this generation has seen to be way more involved within the LGBTQ community and more open with anything that involves this topic. Our generation is more ethnically and racially open compared to all other generations. Applying that to Slash Fiction, that may be the reason why we are seeing a drastic rise in Slash Fiction within more TV shows or movies. Overall, the perception we have on sexuality amoungst social media and the platforms we use, have and will be changing probably sooner than we know it. Which means the way we percieve, judge or analyze those individuals within the LGBTQ community has to change.