Micro-Porn On Vine, Tumblr, and Reddit Beats Out Mainstream Amateur Porn

Impact

The subculture of amateur pornography has welcomed a new wave: micro-porn. Twitter's new app, Vine, is attracting a stream of amateur porn enthusiasts who upload short clips of themselves performing a range of sexual acts. The main distinctions that set micro-porn apart from commercial amateur pornography is how short and accessible the video clips are and the online media platforms used.

On Vine, people can search amateur micro-porn videos ranging from masturbation clips with only a shot of a penis to six-second deep-throat videos. The benefit of micro-porn on social media platforms like Vine, Reddit, and Tumblr is the flexibility to safely transition from watching cats do the cutest things to a GIF of a woman climaxing.

While micro-porn proves to be a convenient method to arousal, providing a safe and efficient environment through leveraging social media networks, is it just another excuse for people to market their bodies on the internet? Micro-porn has paved the way towards sexual empowerment through utilizing non-pornographic sites, but the new movement should be monitored so that it doesn't negatively infiltrate social media spaces.

Author, professor, and porn activist Katrien Jacobs states in her book Netporn: DIY Web Culture and Sexual Politics, "… the connectivity of micro-porn spaces is beckoning new consumer groups and spawning large behavioral shifts in sexuality for everyday women and men."

Jacobs further suggests that micro-porn is a blossoming non-commercial space for queer activism, freedom of expression, and female empowerment. While she remains more optimistic, critics and companies like Apple are wary of the emergent subculture pervading social media platforms. Although you can flag inappropriate videos on Vine, for example, micro-porn producers continue to invent new tags and usernames to avoid filters.

While it's important to uphold freedom of speech and expression, a level of regulation is needed on social media platforms to mitigate pornographic photos and videos to respect the individuals who use social media for non-pornographic purposes.