The Explorer: Journal of Social Sciences ISSN: 2411-0132, Vol-1, Issue (2): 54-57 www.theexplorerpak.org
MAL-ADAPTATION OF ICT IN RAISING THE SEXUAL SENSITIZATION Chaudhry Shahid Mehmood1, Sunia Aslam2, Mahwish Zeeshan3 1
Department of Anthropology, PMAS Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi,2 Department of Anthropology, PMAS Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, 3Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, PMAS Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi Corresponding Author: Chaudhry Shahid Mehmood PMAS Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi smchaudhry13@gmail.com Abstract: ICT has revolutionized the mode of data transfer and storage in the modern world and has simultaneously given rise to many evils. The paper is an attempt to reveal the ways through which people misuse ICT. The study, qualitative in nature, focuses on the difference between gender sensitization and sexual sensitization and the affect of ICT on early adolescence in young males and females. The data was gathered from 68 respondents of collectively from Post Graduate College for Women, and PMAS-AAUR University with the help of a semi-structured questionnaire. The Chi-Square analyses affirm the associational relation between misuse of ICT for overt entertainment; use of ICT for sexually explicit material and increased sexual sensitization among youngsters. Hence, ICT misuse which has increased dramatically over the past few years negatively affects the adolescents. Moreover the results reveal that since access to internet has been made easy, indoor activities and pastimes are preferred which are often unsupervised and mostly social inappropriate.
Key Words: Gender, ICT, Sex, Sexual sensitization, Sexual Interest INTRODUCTION ICT means manufacture, storage, replace and manipulation of digital and electronic information (Mambi 2010). Some examples of digital technology that help folks and businesses use information include - personal computers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, transport systems, televisions, email. The term “sex” and “gender” are concepts used by academicians, researchers and feminist writers to make a distinction between the biologically different “male” and “female” and between the socially different “man” and “woman” (Mukhopadhyay and Singh 2007). Mal adaptation of ICT includes joint issues like isolation, protection, pornography, Internet crime and virtual community (Louge 2006). The Internet has become a highly effective and commercial means of distributing sexually specific objects, as well as a major channel for compelling sexual manners, sex trafficking, and sex crimes. 20 years back internet was not in the access of most of the people. People used VCRs, VCPs, video/audio cassettes and magazines for entertainment. Data transfer and storage modes have been advanced significantly over the past few decades. Earlier, Floppy disk, CDs and DVDs were being used which are now replaced by the Memory card and USBs. These modes are frequently misused for in the entertainments like sexual explicit materials. Gender and Sex are the terms interchangeably used to refer
male or female in general perspective however, these terms are totally different in their true sense. Sex refers to the physical/biological differences between males and females determined by biology, which does not change without surgical intervention, such as women can give birth and men provide sperm (Christodoulou 2005). These sex roles are universal. On the other hand, gender refers to the social differences between males and females which are determined by social factors; history, culture, tradition, societal norms and religion. Gender in any given society involves the socialization for boys and girls, men and women that determines roles, responsibilities, opportunities, privileges, limitations and expectations. Gender is a neutral term, neither good or bad, right nor right or wrong for some, the word “gender” has become associated with women’s issues and women’s related programs, feminists, for some, gender has become a negative word that connotes exclusion or hatred of men. In fact, “gender” refers to both males & females. Its meaning is not fully understood. Hence, gender definitions can change significantly depending upon the social structure. Gender sensitivity encompasses the ability to acknowledge and highlight existing gender differences, issues and inequalities and incorporate these into strategies and actions. Gender sensitivity is not about pitting women against men(UNESCO 2004) 54
for equal sex couples, but the heterosexual partnership rate has been flat (Rosenfeld and Thomas 2012). METERIALS AND MEHTHODS The qualitative study has focused on the Maladaptation of ICT in rising sexual sensitization and how negative use of particular industry badly effecting adolescent since past decay. The data was gathered from sixty eight respondents in Universities and colleges area of Shamsabad (Rawalpindi). The qualitative results are explained in the outcomes of the respondents. RESULTS Table. 1: Reasons for Using ICT Devices Dependent questions Independ ent question Internet has increased the rate of sexual sensitization. Illiterate people use mobile phones beyond any utilitarian purpose. Students use ICT for sexually explicit material entertainment.
Mostly people misuse for ICT sexual entertainment?
. On the contrary, education that is gender sensitive benefits members of both sexes. It helps them determine which assumptions in matters of gender are valid and which are stereotyped generalizations. Gender awareness requires not only intellectual understanding and effort but also sensitivity and open-mindedness to change one’s views and limited perspectives and values(Heng 2010). It opens up the widest possible range of life options for both women and men and builds their capacities to be more wholesome and humane. Gender roles are learned behaviors in a given society, community, or other special group, that condition which activities, tasks and responsibilities are perceived as male and female. Gender roles are affected by age, class, race, ethnicity, religion and by the geographical, economic and political environment. Changes in gender roles often occur in response to changing economic, natural or political circumstances, including development efforts. Both men and women play multiple roles in society(Bank 2012) e.g. in agricultural sector it can be seen that male and female work together. The gender roles of women can be identified as reproductive, productive and community managing roles, while men’s are categorized as either productive or community politics. Men are able to focus on a particular productive role, and play their multiple roles sequentially. Women, in contrast to men, must play their roles simultaneously, and balance competing claims on time for each of them. Traditional gender roles and norms can affect what, and how, their children learn. In our local social system the element of gender stereotypes, deny individuals respect or legitimacy based on their membership in that group, is prominent. Sex is defined by birth but the gender is influenced by the social attributes. The mother is most important among attributes which starts from selecting clothes for her children immediately after the birth. Even the toys have the classification used for baby boy and baby girl. Similarly, teachers and the close family members, especially in joint family system, have great influence on the gender role. Now a days, in the advanced world, this difference has been minimized to a great extent. The choice of clothes, toys, daily use item and even the jobs has no clear demarcation for males and females. This is mostly resulted by the information technology and the fast internet which enables to interact with other cultures in real time without being physically part of that particular culture.By misuse of internet partnership rate has increased during the Internet era
Chi-square values
.000 .697
.015
The table reflects the statistical correlation values between the variables. The significant value between ,“Internet has increased the rate of sexual sensitization” and “Mostly people are misusing ICT for bad entertainment” is .000 which is less than the significant value 0.05 (.000<0.05) which indicates the rejection of null hypothesis projecting that there is association between these two variables. Internet thus has increased the rate of sexual sensitization as people are mostly misusing ICT for bad entertainment. Misuse of ICT has no significant relationship with the use of expensive mobile phones by the low income peoples as expressed by the chi square value .697 which is greater than significant value 0.05 (.697>0.05) indicating the acceptation of null hypothesis. Students use their access to ICT specifically on mobile phones for sexual material which is, represented by the association .015, less than significant value 0.05 (0.05<0.05) indicates towards the rejection of null hypothesis. Results shows 94% people says that internet has increased the rate of sexual sensitization. 78.6% people are in the view that Illiterate people use mobile phones beyond any utilitarian purpose and 17.1% are in contrary. 55
DISCUSSION It was observed that entertainment on ICT is to listen songs, play games, use face book, watch videos and to do chatting with strangers(Rangaswamy and Cutrell 2012). Mostly people were of the view that misuse of internet has increased sexual sensitization and it also was observed that people were not involved in intimate relationship before 30 years as compared today. People were also in the opinion that internet awakened the adolescent soon as the previous times and mostly people said that entertainment is watching movies, songs, face book and pictures. People have much involved in ICT in such a way that even in the presence of blood relation they use to make intimate relationships. Mostly people use CD and internet for entertainment. Internet has provided ease for people as every mode of entertainment (Subrahmanyama, et al. 2001). However, it also influenced negatively by proving inappropriate video and animations without option to view the content. It was observed that over 64% users have argued that the advertisements and unwanted materials on internet poke repeatedly which mostly contains sexual explicit materials. This led the people to sexual sensitizing. Easy access to internet makes people not to visit cinema. People avoid going in open theaters due to the social inappropriateness and other factors. It is also being seen that people with an insufficient income use expensive mobile, it has made their access to internet, they use costly mobile to raise their status and they also fond of pricey mobiles. By the rapid increase in TV cable cinema open theater are arrived home to home, and without any check and balance people or especially young generation attracted towards these abuses and it also abolished their sexual desires. Rapid increase and change in ICT has also effect young girls (Subrahmanyama, et al. 2001). They donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel to do boyish stuff. Girls are also involved to use computer internet negatively, they use to visit porn websites and other abused stuff. It abolished their sexual desire to fulfill sexual desire they indulged themselves in intimate relationships. Both girls and boys equally misuse internet according to respondentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s point of view. Videos and ads which based on sex are not uploaded by any option they open side by side and people pay their attention towards these ads. According to survey 64.7% respondents were in the opinion that yes these sexual ads open side by side without given any option. Difference between a girl and a boy has been cleared from childhood. Similarly according to the
survey 88.6% people are in the favor that gender discrimination has cleared from childhood by culture. But culture and parents donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t allow children to ask about the sexual sensitivity, in the result children gathered information from their peer group or searched it on internet, this led children towards sexual abuse. People avoid to visit cinema with their family 76.5% respondents said that they avoid to visit cinema with their family, but some people like to visit cinema with their family. When internet, computers, CDs, were not commonly in use or not available, people were use VCR, VCPs for cheap entertainment, but now people use internet, computer and CDs for this purpose because it is an easy, cheap and modern mode of entertainment. Due to the development of ICT Gender discrimination is lessen which can be noticed everywhere from home to Offices (Report 2011). Both men and women play multiple roles in society (Bank 2012). A major example is male and female are working together in villages for crops cutting, etc. Similarly in cities male and female are working together in every fields of life. Gender is set in so comprehensively in our institutions, our actions, our beliefs, and our desires, that it appears to us to be completely natural. Gender is the social explanation of biological sex. CONCLUSION Increased unsupervised ICT use has triggered sexual sensitization at an increased pace that is in apposition with the culturally accepted pace of gender sensitization. Sexually explicit material available online, media projections of gender along with their sexual roles has made the youth more attentive towards their sexual needs leading them to overt use of ICT. REFERENCES Bank, World 2012
Gender Equality and Development. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank.
Christodoulou, Josie 2005 Glossary of Gender-related Terms. Anna Zobnina, ed. Pp. 1-32: Mediterranean institute of gender studies. Heng, Chan Lean 2010 Gender Sensitizing. Bangkok:UNESCO Bangkok. Louge, Nathalie 2006 Research Facts and Finding. ACT For Youth:The Center of Excellence.
56
Mambi, Adam J 2010 ICT Law Book A Source Book for Information and Communication Technologies: Mkuki na Nyota publisher Ltd. Report, Chhattisgarh School 2011 Gender Sensitization Within SchoolSystem in Chhattisgarh. State Council of Educational Research and Training, Chhattisgarh Raipur. Rosenfeld, Michael J., and Reuben J. Thomas 2012 Searching for a Mate: The Rise of the Internet as a Social Intermediary. Published in the American Sociological Review 77(4):523547. Subrahmanyama, Kaveri 2001 The Impact of Computer Use on Children's and Adolescents' Development. Applied Developmental Psychology 22:1-30. Mukhopadhyay, Maitrayee, and Navsharan Singh 2007 Gender Justice, Citizenship and Development. New Delhi: Zubaan, an imprint of Kali for Women. Rangaswamy, Nimmi, and Edward Cutrell 2012 Anthropology, Development and ICTs: Slums, Youth and the Mobile Internet in Urban India. Microsoft Research India:1-9. UNESCO 2004 Gender Sensitivity. United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. © 2015 “The Explorer” Journal of Social Sciences-Pakistan
57