It is no longer schools, playgrounds or parks where young people spend most of their time. Some of their day is now spent on the internet, a place without swings, slides and devoid of regulation and accountability.
In the physical world, laws like the Children First Act 2015 safeguard children in Ireland, but there’s no equivalent online. Virtually none of the internet has been built with children’s safety in mind.
The nature of algorithms can send young men down a particularly lonely and negative path. A report released by DCU last year called ‘Recommending Toxicity’ simulated the digital reality of boys and young men most likely to be targeted by ‘the manosphere’ [an online movement promoting harmful masculine messaging and misogyny].
Researchers created 10 experimental accounts on 10 blank smartphones, and within the first 23 minutes of the experiment, all of the accounts were fed ‘toxic content’. The report states this includes content that argues “self-discipline, physical prowess and emotional suppression are key to manliness; that men are being falsely accused of rape and sexual assaults; that men are hardwired to fight and protect, while women are hardwired to reproduce and nurture.”
“Content featuring ‘manfluencers’ (male influencers), accounted for the vast majority of recommended videos in the dataset,” the report reveals.
Eoghan Cleary, secondary school teacher and assistant prinicipal of Temple Carrig Secondary School in Greystones, Co Wicklow.
Eoghan Cleary, a secondary school teacher and assistant principal of Temple Carrig School in Greystones, Co Wicklow, argues that these online influencers, like Andrew Tate, have filled a vacuum of positive male role models for boys in Ireland.
“The negative masculine influencers see a chance to make a huge amount of money out of our most vulnerable young men by telling them what is expected of them. It sets boys up for failure, serious mental health issues, and really disastrous relationships with women in their lives.”
Eoghan says that young men are straitjacketed in outdated concepts of masculinity. “Years ago, women started realising that the stereotypical expectations of society weren’t serving them. But young men are still being taught [an out-dated lesson] to provide for and protect [women], even when it is not necessary.
Broader role
“We need to create a discussion around the fact that, speaking as a man, we might not be needed in the traditional way but we’re going to be needed for a much broader role than we once were. We’re just at the beginning of the conversation and all of our would-be male role models are also in this space of figuring out what it is to be male.”
Eoghan says that young men need to be provided with the same level of care and affection as young women. “Men feel the same emotions as young women do, we just teach them to repress it and to push it down, and that has to stop. It makes young men less able to look after themselves and it has a direct impact on the safety of women and girls in our society.”
Unquestionably, the Netflix drama, Adolescence, brought these questions of masculinity and social media to the fore. Tánaiste Simon Harris now wants the series to be shown in every secondary school classroom, but Eoghan argues he has “missed the point entirely”.
“It’s parents [who need to see it]. Children are living in this, they know exactly what’s going on,” he says.
Adolescence.
Even then, the issues raised in Adolescence go far beyond the remit of parents and educators. Social media is outpacing conversations that the most proactive parents might strike up at the dinner table. “Government has to step in and create a safe online space for children and young people to interact,” he says.
Eoghan is a founding member of the Genfree campaign, which is calling for legislation to be put in place to create a safe online space for children.
“An online space for young people should be totally free from the risk of being exposed to pornography, extremely violent content, unsolicited contact by strangers, predatory activities by adults, inappropriate messaging on their health and wellbeing, bullying by their peers, and all of the features of the addiction-based models that these companies are using to hook our kids as soon as they can possibly get access to them.”
Concepts of masculinity
Michael McKenna has been exploring and unpacking concepts of masculinity long before the series Adolescence went on screen.
He is the assistant director of Youth Action NI, a charity in Northern Ireland supporting young people to influence social change. He works very closely with young men from the ages of 10 to 25 in Co Armagh.
“We challenge outdated notions about what it means to be male growing up today by giving young men opportunities to be positive with themselves,” explains Michael.
“Particularly with the stuff from Adolescence, there’s a real fear about young men. We’re at risk of a moral panic.
“We like to sit down with them, have these conversations and use youth-work approaches, like games, activities, and in some cases, social action projects.”
A big strand of Michael’s work is creating local volunteering opportunities for young men.
“When we see a group of young men hanging about, there’s that notion of ‘they’re up to no good’. We flip that on its head by getting them to do something in their communities, like clean-ups and litter picks.
“During COVID-19, young men were the heart of our local food banks and volunteering to do food parcels.”
“We don’t use terms like toxic masculinity,” Michael stresses. “Young men have asked me: ‘Am I toxic? Am I bad? Am I poison?’ There are healthy and unhealthy masculinities and we need to educate young men to realise and explore that.”
Michael has seen an increase in what he calls “the negative aspects of masculinity” during the last decade. “These influencers like Andrew Tate have come out of nowhere and there’s this narrative that this is the way young men are going to be.”
To counteract this, Michael sees a need to create more opportunities for young men to flourish, particularly in rural communities where isolation is a problem. “If we aren’t creating the physical spaces for young men to have these conversations, they’ll have no alternative [but to go online]. We are seeing the closure of social and local clubs, and rural communities go first.”
One of the young men that Michael works with is Dáire Finn (17), a member of St Patrick’s Youth Club in Keady, Co Armagh.
“The youth group has really helped me with looking at all the issues of being a young man,” Dáire tells Irish Country Living. “I didn’t take any interest in sport and I decided, youth club is open, I’ll go down and see what that is like.
“That’s when I met Micky [Michael] and one of the other youth workers and they got me drawn into this youth work stuff. I volunteer on different projects, like stuff on cross-border community relations.”
Close to home
Dáire watched Adolescence and found it “really interesting”, saying that it has brought into focus “struggles associated with social media”.
He says that the Netflix drama did not reflect his own experience as a young man: “Not all young men have those issues, on my own feed, I see silly content, educational stuff and also farming content,” he says.
However, he admits that for others “it has hit them really close to home”.
When asked about his take on what it feels like to be a young man these days, Dáire replies: “To be honest, there are many different perspectives to being a man. You have to show emotions sometimes. You don’t have to live up to the perspective of being the strong, silent type. You have to show that you can actually feel, not give into social norms of what society thinks a man has to be.”
One thing is for sure, Adolescence has started a very valid conversation about the rabbit holes of social media and the impact on our young people.
It is no longer schools, playgrounds or parks where young people spend most of their time. Some of their day is now spent on the internet, a place without swings, slides and devoid of regulation and accountability.
In the physical world, laws like the Children First Act 2015 safeguard children in Ireland, but there’s no equivalent online. Virtually none of the internet has been built with children’s safety in mind.
The nature of algorithms can send young men down a particularly lonely and negative path. A report released by DCU last year called ‘Recommending Toxicity’ simulated the digital reality of boys and young men most likely to be targeted by ‘the manosphere’ [an online movement promoting harmful masculine messaging and misogyny].
Researchers created 10 experimental accounts on 10 blank smartphones, and within the first 23 minutes of the experiment, all of the accounts were fed ‘toxic content’. The report states this includes content that argues “self-discipline, physical prowess and emotional suppression are key to manliness; that men are being falsely accused of rape and sexual assaults; that men are hardwired to fight and protect, while women are hardwired to reproduce and nurture.”
“Content featuring ‘manfluencers’ (male influencers), accounted for the vast majority of recommended videos in the dataset,” the report reveals.
Eoghan Cleary, secondary school teacher and assistant prinicipal of Temple Carrig Secondary School in Greystones, Co Wicklow.
Eoghan Cleary, a secondary school teacher and assistant principal of Temple Carrig School in Greystones, Co Wicklow, argues that these online influencers, like Andrew Tate, have filled a vacuum of positive male role models for boys in Ireland.
“The negative masculine influencers see a chance to make a huge amount of money out of our most vulnerable young men by telling them what is expected of them. It sets boys up for failure, serious mental health issues, and really disastrous relationships with women in their lives.”
Eoghan says that young men are straitjacketed in outdated concepts of masculinity. “Years ago, women started realising that the stereotypical expectations of society weren’t serving them. But young men are still being taught [an out-dated lesson] to provide for and protect [women], even when it is not necessary.
Broader role
“We need to create a discussion around the fact that, speaking as a man, we might not be needed in the traditional way but we’re going to be needed for a much broader role than we once were. We’re just at the beginning of the conversation and all of our would-be male role models are also in this space of figuring out what it is to be male.”
Eoghan says that young men need to be provided with the same level of care and affection as young women. “Men feel the same emotions as young women do, we just teach them to repress it and to push it down, and that has to stop. It makes young men less able to look after themselves and it has a direct impact on the safety of women and girls in our society.”
Unquestionably, the Netflix drama, Adolescence, brought these questions of masculinity and social media to the fore. Tánaiste Simon Harris now wants the series to be shown in every secondary school classroom, but Eoghan argues he has “missed the point entirely”.
“It’s parents [who need to see it]. Children are living in this, they know exactly what’s going on,” he says.
Adolescence.
Even then, the issues raised in Adolescence go far beyond the remit of parents and educators. Social media is outpacing conversations that the most proactive parents might strike up at the dinner table. “Government has to step in and create a safe online space for children and young people to interact,” he says.
Eoghan is a founding member of the Genfree campaign, which is calling for legislation to be put in place to create a safe online space for children.
“An online space for young people should be totally free from the risk of being exposed to pornography, extremely violent content, unsolicited contact by strangers, predatory activities by adults, inappropriate messaging on their health and wellbeing, bullying by their peers, and all of the features of the addiction-based models that these companies are using to hook our kids as soon as they can possibly get access to them.”
Concepts of masculinity
Michael McKenna has been exploring and unpacking concepts of masculinity long before the series Adolescence went on screen.
He is the assistant director of Youth Action NI, a charity in Northern Ireland supporting young people to influence social change. He works very closely with young men from the ages of 10 to 25 in Co Armagh.
“We challenge outdated notions about what it means to be male growing up today by giving young men opportunities to be positive with themselves,” explains Michael.
“Particularly with the stuff from Adolescence, there’s a real fear about young men. We’re at risk of a moral panic.
“We like to sit down with them, have these conversations and use youth-work approaches, like games, activities, and in some cases, social action projects.”
A big strand of Michael’s work is creating local volunteering opportunities for young men.
“When we see a group of young men hanging about, there’s that notion of ‘they’re up to no good’. We flip that on its head by getting them to do something in their communities, like clean-ups and litter picks.
“During COVID-19, young men were the heart of our local food banks and volunteering to do food parcels.”
“We don’t use terms like toxic masculinity,” Michael stresses. “Young men have asked me: ‘Am I toxic? Am I bad? Am I poison?’ There are healthy and unhealthy masculinities and we need to educate young men to realise and explore that.”
Michael has seen an increase in what he calls “the negative aspects of masculinity” during the last decade. “These influencers like Andrew Tate have come out of nowhere and there’s this narrative that this is the way young men are going to be.”
To counteract this, Michael sees a need to create more opportunities for young men to flourish, particularly in rural communities where isolation is a problem. “If we aren’t creating the physical spaces for young men to have these conversations, they’ll have no alternative [but to go online]. We are seeing the closure of social and local clubs, and rural communities go first.”
One of the young men that Michael works with is Dáire Finn (17), a member of St Patrick’s Youth Club in Keady, Co Armagh.
“The youth group has really helped me with looking at all the issues of being a young man,” Dáire tells Irish Country Living. “I didn’t take any interest in sport and I decided, youth club is open, I’ll go down and see what that is like.
“That’s when I met Micky [Michael] and one of the other youth workers and they got me drawn into this youth work stuff. I volunteer on different projects, like stuff on cross-border community relations.”
Close to home
Dáire watched Adolescence and found it “really interesting”, saying that it has brought into focus “struggles associated with social media”.
He says that the Netflix drama did not reflect his own experience as a young man: “Not all young men have those issues, on my own feed, I see silly content, educational stuff and also farming content,” he says.
However, he admits that for others “it has hit them really close to home”.
When asked about his take on what it feels like to be a young man these days, Dáire replies: “To be honest, there are many different perspectives to being a man. You have to show emotions sometimes. You don’t have to live up to the perspective of being the strong, silent type. You have to show that you can actually feel, not give into social norms of what society thinks a man has to be.”
One thing is for sure, Adolescence has started a very valid conversation about the rabbit holes of social media and the impact on our young people.
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