How Online Culture Is Shaping Young Masculinity

Netflix’s mini-series Adolescence offers an unsettling look into how a new generation of boys is being shaped by what they consume online, particularly through the rise of incel culture and algorithm-driven content. In our earlier analysis, we examined how the series breaks this influence into four defining environments: the home, the school system, social media, and the internal struggle of identity formation.

These same themes resurface in a timely and thought-provoking way during the sixth episode of the podcast MENtality With Ebuka, where masculinity and the emotional wellbeing of young boys take center stage.

The Questions We’re Avoiding About Boys

The episode raises difficult but necessary questions: Why are so many boys suffering in silence? Who is shaping their worldview? What messages are they absorbing daily, and more importantly, what support are they missing from the men and families around them?

Often, when societal problems arise, responsibility is conveniently outsourced. We hear phrases like “society allows it” or “society has changed,” but rarely do we pause to interrogate what actually constitutes that society. Who creates the norms? Who reinforces them? And who benefits from their evolution?

Boys and girls are raised within these systems—systems that prescribe roles, expectations, and emotional boundaries long before children can question them. Beyond biology, society actively scripts how masculinity and femininity should look. The question then becomes unavoidable: should boys and girls be raised differently?