Despite not having watched adolescence, I can hardly move right nor left without hearing talk of it. From posts on social media platforms to the latest “have you seen (insert title here)?” chats between friends and colleagues, I have understood that the show has raised significant topics in youth culture and the experiences of young males: incel culture, misogyny, and parenting to name some of the themes. Solutions abound from politicians to grassroots practitioners, but few seem to be getting to the root causes of the issue. Like bad doctors, they are administering the cure before coming to an accurate diagnosis. At best, such efforts will be futile, at worst, they will downright cause harm.
As a safeguarding and pastoral care lead, I have spent some time considering the issues which seem to be impacting young men and giving rise to misogyny, incel culture and toxic masculinity.
Parental engagement and accountability
This is one of the biggest issues I believe. The moment parents began to put smartphones in the hands of their children with unbridled internet access was somewhat of a Pandora’s box moment. Whilst this may be irreversible, we must seriously consider the impact this has had on young people. From porn to extreme violence, young people are being exposed to things far beyond their limited capacity to think critically about the material they are being exposed to.
Big tech companies
With profit being the master, human attention has become the servant which blindly obeys the master’s commands. The manipulative practices of tech companies driven by thirsty shareholders and CEOs all to eager to quench their lusts has created an attention economy where every nano-second of attention is monetised. This means that the biggest mouths on the internet take up most of the oxygen. Unfortunately, such mouths are usually the vilest and most poisonous. There should be swifter action to take down harmful content and preventative steps to stop it reaching audiences in the first place.
Stop blaming schools and looking to education institutions to fix society’s harms
Calls for more workshops and screening the series in schools is not the answer. Some politicians seem to think that schools operate very much like aesthetic beauty clinics; just a nip here, and a tuck there and, voila! You can come out looking like a new person. They seem to pay no attention to the social conditions which create existential voids and societal decay; austerity, poor housing conditions, lack of local services, the pursuit of consumption and affluence without character. Perhaps they should begin to look closer to home and a little more inward to determine what has created the atmosphere for such horrendous views to become acceptable, desirable even.
I am aware that my thoughts are still coalescing. Shoot, I haven’t even watched the show yet. But, Easter is coming up and I will have time to watch it away from the pressure and demands of my role. More to come…