False Advertising In Cyberspace

Today adolescent girls are at a relatively turbulent developmental period as they navigate through mass culture’s construction of girls and femininity, it does not mean that they buy into the dominant cultural ideal of the perfect adolescent girl.  Someone might believe that through the internet – a medium that allows anyone to publish what they wish through blogs and Web pages, and mandates that people communicate without the benefit of face-to-face communication – adolescent girls may resist the unrealistic images of young women perpetuated by the media (I.I. p.68).  I have to agree with Thiel on this idea because even I feel more comfortable when I am able to talk over IM or text because I can say what is really on my mind.  I think that this is true with new relationships and certain friends and family as well.  It certainly is a time for a cultural moment for girls to say what they wish online to one another and to the world.  As cultural producers through this new media girls would seem to be in a position to resist mass culture’s constructions of femininity, girlhood, and sexuality (I.I p.69).

When it comes to fashion and appearance in cyberspace the desire for sexiness and physical perfection might seem somewhat out of place in IM where bodies are not present.  In actuality most conversations that were researched in Instant Identity referred to culturally acceptable physical appearances with regard to fashion conventions and the purchase of consumer goods that would help them achieve a culturally acceptable physical appearance (I.I. p.81).  These facts don’t surprise me at all because girls grow up watching and hearing everything that goes on in the mass media.  From a young girl I thought that the girls I saw on television were what I was supposed to be like.  I’m lucky to have had a mother that always told me how pretty I was and that everyone is different and that’s what makes the world go round.  By the time some of these girls reach the age to IM and chat over the internet these thoughts and images are already burned into their brain.  That’s why these studies show so much concern with appearances and fashion.  Although these stereotypical images of the “ideal” adolescent girl come largely from cultural consumption of the traditional mass media (such as magazines and television), most of us have yet to realize how much they also have seeped into the online world through careful clever marketing and advertising techniques.  Over the past decade, the Internet has become arguably a very commercial space, from the banner ads on the news Web sites to eBay.  As one of the most desirable demographics of consumers and the most avid users of Web technologies, the extent to which corporations target adolescent girls online is hardly surprising (I.I. p.92).

What can we do as adults to raise awareness of the false advertising that is online today?