Name: Freya Sutter
Social Justice Group: 2020-2021, Mental Health and Teens
Date of Fieldwork: February 2, 2021
Name of Organization:
Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Traci Gillig
Type of Fieldwork: Interview
What I did:
What I learned:
What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:
I learned that Traci Gillig believes that social media can be both positive and negative for the mental health of LGBTQ teens. She explained that it allows for teens to reach out, but it is negative if they become dependent on it. She explained that having a balance of social media and in person meeting can be good, but this has become more complicated during Covid. We also discussed how the Biden administration will likely positively impact the mental health of LGBTQ teens after his efforts to reverse Trump’s anti-LGBTQ laws. She said she would like to see federal changes being made towards installing non-gendered bathrooms in the US. She explained that certain social media platforms can be bad at monitoring their content. She thinks TikTok is one of the better platforms for the mental health of LGBTQ teens because it is more authentic than a platform like Instagram.
