Weser Veronica U, Opara Ijeoma, Sands Brandon E, Fernandes Claudia-Santi F, Hieftje Kimberly D
Yale School of Medicine, USA.
Yale Center for Health & Learning Games, USA.
Soc Media Soc. 2021 Jul 1;7(3). doi: 10.1177/20563051211033823. Epub 2021 Jul 24.
The purpose of this study was to explore the use of social media within the context of heterosexual Black teen girls' romantic partner selection processes. To better understand Black teen girls' experiences, five focus groups ( = 27; aged 14-18 years) were conducted over Zoom. An inductive thematic analysis revealed four major themes: (1) the use of different platforms to gather different types of information, (2) the rules of social media scouting, (3) detecting partner qualities through social media, and (4) exploring Black teen girls' experience with social media and dating. Participants in our study primarily used Instagram to understand a potential partner's true self, while Twitter was used to assess a potential partner's political leanings. Our participants shared numerous "rules" related to the partner-scouting process. Black teen girls in our study explained that photos index a potential partner's style and hygiene, while memes were used to gauge sense of humor compatibility. More specific to Black teen girls, across all focus groups, participants shared their experiences of racism and bias, such as being associated with Black stereotypes, cultural invalidation, and being accused of "acting White." Although teen girls of various racial and ethnic groups may use social media to vet romantic partners, findings reveal that Black teen girls navigate social media in a unique way, including being highly attuned to signs of bias. Our findings suggest that in the first few months of COVID-19 social distancing had little impact on our participant's practice of using social media to vet potential romantic partners.
本研究的目的是探讨异性恋黑人少女在选择浪漫伴侣过程中社交媒体的使用情况。为了更好地了解黑人少女的经历，通过Zoom进行了五个焦点小组访谈（n = 27；年龄在14 - 18岁之间）。归纳主题分析揭示了四个主要主题：（1）使用不同平台收集不同类型的信息，（2）社交媒体搜索的规则，（3）通过社交媒体发现伴侣的品质，以及（4）探索黑人少女在社交媒体和约会方面的经历。我们研究中的参与者主要使用Instagram来了解潜在伴侣的真实自我，而Twitter则用于评估潜在伴侣的政治倾向。我们的参与者分享了许多与伴侣搜索过程相关的“规则”。我们研究中的黑人少女解释说，照片能反映潜在伴侣的风格和卫生习惯，而表情包则用于衡量幽默感是否契合。更具体针对黑人少女的是，在所有焦点小组中，参与者都分享了她们遭遇种族主义和偏见的经历，比如被与黑人刻板印象联系在一起、文化上被忽视以及被指责“表现得像白人”。尽管不同种族和族裔的少女可能都会利用社交媒体来审查浪漫伴侣，但研究结果表明，黑人少女以独特的方式使用社交媒体，包括对偏见迹象高度敏感。我们的研究结果表明，在新冠疫情社交距离措施实施的头几个月里，对我们参与者利用社交媒体审查潜在浪漫伴侣的行为几乎没有影响。
