‘Direct’ and ‘instant’: the role of digital technology and social media in young Filipinos’ intimate relationships

Abstract

Young people today grow up in a social landscape in which digital technology and social media are ubiquitous in daily life and interpersonal relations, including intimate (romantic and sexual) relationships. This study sought to study Filipino young people’s relationship motivations and contexts in the digital age. We found that digital technology and social media are transforming the way Filipino young people approach and behave in intimate relationships. Digital technology and social media are making it easier for young people to engage in social comparison with their peers and role models, expanding possibilities for social interaction, facilitating rapid relationship progression, and enabling digital togetherness and self-expression in a context where conservative religious and sociocultural norms and sexual double standards remain dominant. This social environment brings opportunities to engage in relationships in new ways but also exposure to risks that may lead to poor sexual and reproductive health outcomes. Our findings underscore the importance of comprehensive sexuality education in schools and at home, and highlight the need for critical dialogue about the social norms and stereotypes that perpetuate gender-based violence and inequality in online and offline spaces.

Keywords:

• Young people
• intimate relationships
• digital technology
• social media

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to our partner NGO for assistance with recruitment and logistics, and to the study participants who shared their perspectives with us. We are also deeply grateful to the late Jesusa Marco, for her supervision, mentorship and friendship.

Disclosure statement

We declare no conflict of interest.

Notes

1 Members send group messages but can exchange direct messages with those they want to get to know better in private. The social rules of ‘texting clans’ are discussed in greater detail in Dalisay and Tan (2014).

2 We use Temple-Smith, Moore, and Rosenthal’s (2015, 126) definition of ‘sexting’ here, as the ‘sending and receiving of sexually explicit material via the internet’, and Matković, Cohen, and Štulhofer’s (2018, 563) definition of ‘sexually explicit material’ as the ‘uncensored depiction of sexual acts intended to provoke arousal’.

Additional information

Funding

This study is part of the doctoral research project funded by the Nossal Global Health Scholars Programme of the Nossal Institute of Global Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. Partial funding for data collection was also provided by the Population Health Investing in Research Students’ Training grant of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry, and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, and the Riady Scholarship of the University of Melbourne.