Sexting

Sack Yi Ying
ENG 101 S5
Reflective Essay 2 (Definition Genre)
16th November 2011
Sexting
What thoughts come to mind when you come across the word “sexting”? Ever since its first appearance in the early 21st century, I never predicted that sexting would finally be able to secure its position in the pages of the Oxford English Dictionary as a recognized word. By merely looking at this word itself, those who are literate in English would have simply stated that it is the combination of “sex” and “texting”. However, recent sexting cases reported have shown that the trend of sending flirtatious text messages or sexually explicit images has gone beyond the blend of the two words mentioned above. Attached to those seven letters is an indecent behavior of teenagers who “sext” and should be analyzed under cultural perspectives.
Eager to know, I looked up on Urban Dictionary.com to find out that the most popular cultural definition attached to sexting is the act of text messaging another person in expectations and hopes of having a physical sexual encounter. That explains all the seductive acronyms used in sexts. It is normal for teenagers to be curious about sex, but does it all come from their in-born sexual drive? As if teenagers are not troubled enough by puberty hormones, erotic messages delivered by the highly sexualized media are also encouraging them to question and query about sex. Even so, without multi-functional mobile phones as the facilitator and text messaging services as the primary means of communication, “sex” in sexting is unable to stand alone. In fact, sexting is an appropriate and acceptable behavior for young people who are nurtured under the media and technology culture. Although the fulfillment of sexual gratifications is only momentary, teenagers are surprisingly satisfied through sexting and so the vicious cycle of addiction goes on – we can imagine where it ends.
Let us take a flash back to the young days of our parents: Young girls with...