The Effects Of Homophobia

Introduction

Today social networks give the possibility to connect people with friends and brands, to chat and confront with others and to publicize events and products. The usual atmosphere on these platforms is positive, since advertisers are interested in potential consumers so that they want people to like and not to dislike things. Facebook’s main purpose is to generate profits from advertisers (Fuchs, 172). Indeed, on Facebook people can actually have only positive reactions to posts and pictures; the same happens on other social networks, such as Instagram and Twitter, where users can only like other people’s posts. These platforms work in a way to increase the number of online friends and followers, instead of haters.

However, these

Homosexuality always existed: same-sex practices between males and are common behaviors not only between humans but also in the animal kingdom, where 1,500 animal species are attracted to their same gender (Driscoll, 20). Thus, this evidence proves that homosexuality is normal and natural. In parallel to homosexuality, homophobia existed as well. It is difficult to state when homophobia became a social and spread mindset between humans, but some past events in Italy represent an example of it. The term homophobia appeared the first time in the 1960s thanks to George Weinberg (Nichols, 351). Homophobia was intended as a phobia, the fear of homosexual people that were considered diseased and even the fear of being considered homosexuals, manifested in some people who had a repressive and latent homosexuality. Homophobia is an attitude and it causes and provokes racist thoughts and acts towards gay

A study conducted in 2012 by the Institute od Sexual Minority Studies and Services at the University of Alberta in Canada states that anti-gay atmosphere is common on Twitter. Over 2 million people on Twitter, indeed, use the word faggot (Arceneaux). There are also some variables forms such as #dyke, #nohomo or #nogay. The Dean of the University of Alberta said that the use of this kind of language increases the division between students and provokes the creation of