Challenging the Social Value of Child Marriage

Posted on by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos

By Zuleyka Zevallos

Challenging the Social Value of Child MarriageThe 11th of October 2012 was the inaugural Day of the Girl. This year, the focus was on the eradication of child marriage. Around the world, 70 million girls were married before they reached the age of 18. My post today explores how the interrelated issues of gender, education and child marriage might be addressed by sociology. My focus is primarily on girl brides. While young boys are also married, the research I review shows that the adverse effects of child marriage have chronic health and socio-economic impact on young girls. The “value” attached to child brides refers to the cultural and economic issues underlying child marriage. Young girls are married off according to dominant beliefs about preserving women’s “honour” (that is, ensuring virginity before marriage), as well as the costs of raising girls. Child marriage has been linked to people trafficking in extreme situations. In most other cases it maintains the status quo in poor or underdeveloped areas, where economic deprivation is used to justify men’s dominance over young women’s reproductive and life choices. In order to eliminate child marriage, communities need to be shown practical demonstrations that delaying marriage increases everyone’s welfare. Continue reading Challenging the Social Value of Child Marriage

Tumblr and the Presentation of Romantic Self

Posted on by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos

One of the things that fascinates me is the way a lot of young people seem to use Tumblr, which is basically as a positive, aspirational alternative to the social networking institution they’re accustomed to: Facebook. Rather than forcing them to represent themselves as they are, which I think is Facebook’s major goal, Tumblr allows them to represent the romantic self (or selves) they wish to be. I think this is a big part of the intense emotional attachment a lot of people seem to have to Tumblr.

Facebook is currently #1 in terms of time spent online, but Tumblr recently became #2. I think this is because they both appeal to intense human desires, but I would argue that off the two Tumblr appeals to the more positive.

Buzz Anderson, quoted by Fred Spears in an interview with Pixel Union. (via blech)

Buzz is awesome.

(via joshuanguyen)

Source: pixelunion-staff

Philosopher Argues Social Media Causes ‘Laziness’

Posted on by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos
Image Via Flickr

Maltese philosopher Edward De Bono told News.com.au yesterday that social media stops people from original thinking. De Bono doesn’t use social media because, he says, ‘he doesn’t want to be bullied by information’. He argues social media causes ‘laziness’:

we just feel we’ll just get more information and we don’t need to have ideas ourselves – we’ll get ideas from someone else, we don’t need to look at the data we’ll just see what someone else has said and so on.

De Bono argues that children should spend less time on social media and more time at school being taught ‘how to think’. Formal education is important but social media and new technologies provide new ways to learn. Technology and other experiential or artistic forms of learning are better suited for some young minds. De Bono’s argument that social media makes people ‘lazy’ and ‘stupid’ is ill-informed argument, particularly by a scholar who has never used this technology.

Continue reading Philosopher Argues Social Media Causes ‘Laziness’