Name: Noelle Raffo

Social Justice Group: 2018-2019

Date of Fieldwork: November 14, 2018

Name of Organization: SMAHRT (Social Media and Adolescent Health Research Team)

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Megan A. Moreno and her team (Megan Moreno, Anna, Maggie Bushman, Aubrey Gower, Reese Hyzer, Kole Binger, Lauren Kelly, Megan Huag, and Ting An Lai)

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

We had a phone call interview with Megan A. Moreno and her team of eight others who are on the SMAHRT at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. We were able to ask them questions and get input from multiple people.

What I learned:

I learned that the social media has so much more of an effect on teens today than it used to with traditional media. People have more available two-way communication with the people who they are looking at and it effects teens so much more. The younger people hear a message and the more they hear it, the more they believe it. It is much harder to unlearn something rather than learn it. When teens are constantly on social media, they hear the negative messages and how they need to look a certain way, that it is extremely hard to unlearn something. When young girls start to see these messages, they start to focus exclusively on perfecting their body, that they don’t develop hobbies and parts of their brains do not develop as well.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

I learned that social justice work and being body positive takes a long time and a lot of dedication. It is not always easy and hands-on work, but there is always a way to help. For example, even just changing the bodies that people see in social media can change completely how the brain works. Every thing starts small and will eventually become bigger. Following one body positive account may not seem like much, or promoting body positive messages can spread and have a huge benefit on young girls’ body image.