Social Media & the End of Gender

For those of you who have yet to explore the world of Tedtalks (what have you been doing with your life?), TED is a non-profit that produces videos from annual conferences that brings together experts in various fields (originally Technology, Entertainment, and Design) with the goal of spreading ideas.

Johanna Blakey studies the impact of mass media on our world, and in this presentation she explains how social media is impacting gender. Traditional media uses rigid segmentation to understand audiences based on age, race, and gender demographics that create a vast generalization of people. Just because I am a female, doesn't mean I liked The Notebook. Social media on the other hand is much harder to track that information on users, instead it gains information on users likes and interests. This new media landscape can help replace the of concept that certain demographics like certain things, and replace it with taste communities that match our actual preferences. Ultimately, social media has the potential to end gender stereotypes, and allow us to re-define ourselves online.