Sexting and Young People Over

¶ … Sexting and Young People

Over the last several years, sexting has become an increasingly common phenomenon among young adults. This is the practice of sending and receiving sexually explicit images over a mobile phone. The main reason why this is occurring is many individuals will feel some kind of social pressure to send: their boyfriend, girlfriend or someone they like sexually revealing pictures of themselves. In most cases, this is supposed to be something that is shared between two people in confidence. However, it is more than likely sent to friends and acquaintances. This is humiliating to the person, who is the subject of the pictures from a social perspective. In the article that was written by Walker (2011), she is talking about how this is impacting Australia's youth. During the process of studying this subject there is focus on several different research questions to include:

What is the frequency of this occurring in the population sample?

Are young people sexting or is it just media hype? (Walker, 2011, pp. 8 -- 16)

The way that researchers are attempting to answer these questions is through conducting a survey (i.e. questionnaire). The methodology that was utilized is the quantitative approach in conjunction with select elements of mixed practices. The unique features of the study are that the data from similar projects was used to establish a foundation for the research. As a result, the study discovered that sexting is a problem. This is occurring through: the individual sending the image of themselves discretely to someone and the person being photographed without their permission. (Walker, 2011, pp. 8 -- 16)

The Critique

Do you have confidence in the researchers' findings (i.e., were there critical flaws in the study design, questions of confounds that might have occurred in the study)?

The findings of researchers are providing you with a certain amount of confidence. This is because there was focus on using the mixed and quantitative approaches to understand the scope of the problem. However, there were critical flaws in the way the study was reported. This occurred with Walker not providing the actual data from the responses vs. what the subject said. Moreover, there was no information provided concerning: the size, the demographics and time line of the study. This makes it difficult for others to take the results from these findings and mirror them in future research projects. (Walker, 2011, pp. 8 -- 16)

Does the study generalize to other people that were not the subject of the research (e.g., college student study generalizing to everyone, study in the U.S. applying to other cultures)?

The study is generalizing to a certain extent. The way that this is occurring is through providing several different quotations from respondents. Then, taking these views and applying them to the entire population sample. This makes it appear as if all young people are actively involved in sexting. Yet, no data is provided to back up these claims other than a few sample quotes. Furthermore, the size of the sample could be so small that it is identifying anomalies vs. trends. (Walker, 2011, pp. 8 -- 16)

What does the study mean in the big picture and how does it apply to society in general (i.e., how does it impact society in general)?