Media is prevalent in today's society. With an abundance of cell phone, televisions, computers, and tablets in homes and offices across the US, it is not difficult to find that sexual content is available at any time or place. Adolescent sexual development is directly affected by the sexual content displayed daily in media. Relationships also prove to demonstrate benefits alongside downfalls because of media. The robust identity media has developed for it-self is prominent and hard to miss. With the evolving world of TV, cinema, and social media, coupled with the change in adult and adolescent behavior as society progresses, the effects generated from media have to evolve as well. .
Media and its Effects on Sexual Development and Relationships.
Information is being absorbed through media without hesitation. Whether it is social media, television, radio, print, or numerous other sources, it is apparent that any genre of content is simply a flip or click away. Including sex. Models on Instagram, selfies on Facebook, sexually charged commercials, porn applications for your phone – sex is abundant in lives today. "The media, according to the website of the Newspaper Association of America Foundation, is an integral part of the lives of American teenagers" (Holden). With an increasing number of today's adolescents having access to cable television, 80% of whom learn about sex, drugs, and violence (Gruber, 2000), and 10% of adults who participated in an informal survey admitting to checking their phones during sex, can we determine how media affects sex in today's society?.
Our youth has more access to sexual content than ever before. Considering Instagram alone, there has been a 40% increase of users – see figure 1 - from 2011-2014 (Jaffray 2014). Attention spans are decreasing rapidly (SallyU 2014) due to social media, teaming with distorted, stereotypical, and potentially harmful modern portrayals of sexuality (Ward, 2002).
