The new owner of a single-family house asked for advice on renovation matters on Facebook and received a surprising response. “I realized that the nasty comments were coming from men,” he says.
from Vantaa Reetta Korhonen is a recent owner of a detached house. As the owner of the house, he has noticed that there are always enough things to nibble here and there.
However, no one can know all the construction technical details. That’s why sometimes you have to ask for advice – from acquaintances, neighbors, experts or, for example, from social media.
This time, Korhonen turned to Facebook’s Construction and renovation group. The group has nearly 40,000 members.
Korhonen told a large Facebook group that he had ordered an inspector to check the condition of the house’s skylights. The inspector found a vacuum in the windows and said they should be replaced. The windows were manufactured in 2000, when tempered glass was not yet used. The inspector warned Korho that the windows might explode due to their condition.
In connection with this, Korhose had questions for the group members.
“I asked on Facebook if this is the kind of thing that would be the responsibility of the apartment seller as a latent problem, or if I would pay for the replacement of the windows myself,” says Korhonen.
The answers were surprising. They weren’t unbelievably helpful – but annoyingly prickly.
Again, it sounds like some people shouldn’t be sold anything at all.
Now goddammit. I guess this is a joke?
It wouldn’t occur to me to start whining about some 23-year-old windows.
Reetta Korhonen decided to check the condition of the skylights in her house.
Korhonen says that he was prepared to pay for the renovation himself, but he just wanted to make sure of it quickly.
Korho was troubled by the attitudinal tone of the commentary. Many did not even try to be matter-of-fact. And those who answered Korhonen’s question were passive-aggressive.
“We will strongly condemn and diss my choice that I want to take care of my house.”
He soon noticed what combined the nasty comments.
“I realized that the nasty comments came from men.”
Where from do such reactions really arise? Anyone who uses social media has seen similar incidents all over the internet.
Associate Professor of Economic Sociology at the University of Turku Arttu Saarinen says that, in the general picture, misogyny is a significant feature of social media discussions. Saarinen has studied, among other things, the polarization of society.
Saarinen has noted that misogynistic speech occurs more when it comes to topics preferred by men. Such a topic could be, for example, renovation.
“On the other hand, men have historically had a strong hegemony in almost every subject, which has been supported by social structures,” says Saarinen.
That’s why, according to Saarinen, you can see prejudice against women in all kinds of conversations. However, according to him, this type of commenting is practiced by a relatively marginal group of social media users.
“In some circles, it’s more acceptable to show outright misogyny. The logic of social media works so that something becomes more accepted when certain circles encourage each other,” says Saarinen.
Facebook update author Korhonen freely admits that he doesn’t know nearly everything about renovations. However, he wants to learn more. That’s why he needed advice from the members of the renovation team.
“Who here is born to know everything about houses or the real estate law?” Korhonen wonders.
Another woman belonging to the Facebook group sent Korhonen an encouraging message. The woman said that as a woman in the renovation group, it would not be worth asking anything at all.
He had also inquired in the group about the matter related to the seller’s responsibility before and received the same kind of scorn in response.
Docent However, Arttu Saarinen does not see the overall picture of social media discussion culture as worryingly gloomy.
He reminds that there is also a lot of good and factual discussion taking place on social media, which should be carefully moderated in order to emphasize it.
“The picture can get blurred when you focus on the most inappropriate cases, although of course you should pay special attention to them,” says Saarinen.
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