Social Media: The New Orifice

The image above is sourced from a Scholastic article, wherein young students were interviewed about their opinions on social media censorship. The article showcases both sides of the debate; the notion that social media censorship provides a safety barrier reducing the risk of encountering harmful or "dirty" content, as well as the notion that individuals, whether young or old, should be afforded the chance to choose for themselves whether the content they encounter is worthy of their attention. Despite the ostensive agnosticism of the article, the illustration heading it sends a clear visual message: without the protection of censorship, kids will be faced with all manner of dangerous and corrupting media; with it, they need not worry. At the bottom of the image, a vulnerable child scrolls on a large, glowing smartphone, unaware of the chaos beyond the barrier of censorship, which is represented as a large blue hand, issuing a "stop" signal. At the border of the hand's designated territory, symbols such as snakes, culls and crossbones, and radioactivity warnings are stopped short in their angry descent toward the oblivious child. This amalgamation of symbols implies a wilderness of hazardous, corrupting material that not only lurks online, but actively seeks out young victims. The two snakes allude to biblical symbolism around sin, giving the impression that the child is being hunted by such forces. Putting this image in conversation with Mary Douglas's theory of Purity and Danger lends itself well to an analysis of social media as a newfound social orifice, and the body of the child as the ultimate symbol of the social mass. 

In Purity and Danger, Douglas argues that social norms surrounding hygiene and the danger of pollution are indicative of a given culture's specific system of classification that demarcates what is seen as acceptible. She argues that dirt is a subjective classification, parallel to Durkheim's characterization of religions and their demarcation of the sacred and the profane. The organization of media, ideas, actions, and objects into two categories that ultimately represent the "corrupting" and the "purifying" is a key process through which a society defines its special value system. The body becomes an allegorical representation of the aggregate social group, its orifices dangerous locales vulnerable to contamination. Because the contaminated body mirrors a contaminated, or corrupted society, hygienic norms imposed on the body are indicative of the wider social structure. 

It's no coincidence that content that is deemed dangerous or corrupting is often referred to as "dirty," nor that inappropriate language is labeled "profane". "Dirty" media endangers the normative safety of society, just as dirt itself endangers the safety of the body. It's important to remember here that it is the process through which the "dirty" is classified as such that represents social realities, not any inherent quality in that which is classified. We define sexually explicit, violent, and crude content as hazardous because their consumption poses a threat to our collective values of modesty and politeness. Just as Durkheim's theory of religion involves the classification of objects, practices, mentalities, etc. as either sacred or profane, we place the information that is transferred between us into two boxes, representing that which is safe and that which is unsafe. This parallel is emphasized by the fact that "inappropriate" language is in fact referred to as "profane," reflecting its corrupting social function. Social media, as a portal through which information enters and exits a body, is the object of much apprehension around the need to maintain purity. In its own way, it becomes a bodily orifice---and is thus subject to much careful surveillance. The body of the child is seen as especially vulnerable not only because of its perceived lack of discretionary capacity, but its relatively uncorrupted nature. The child represents the social collective in its newest, and therefore purest form. Any effort to maintain the purity of such a body is doubly important, as it constitutes the future of the social collective. Anxieties around social media censorship for children fit neatly into Douglas's social theory, revealing the role of the child in futurity, and the orifice-like function of the internet. 

"Censored." From Shutterstock. Retrieved April 4, 2024 (https://choices.scholastic.com/pages/promotion/090122/debate-should-your-social-media-be-censored.html?language=english). 

Douglas, Mary. 1966. Purity and Danger. London and New York: Routeledge Classics.