Article by Caleb Anderson | Photography by Milan Deravin | Owl Staff
The average teenage boy spends roughly 4.4 hours on social media per day according to a survey conducted by Gallup.
Systematic, calculated, and intentional. A couple words that describe the cunning algorithms of social media, especially those that host short form content. These algorithms, designed to analyze user behavior, often present content in premeditated packages upon joining a platform. This of course is done to see what content sticks and is interacted with user by user.
Unfortunately, there has been a common trend of certain premeditated content being fed to new users, especially young male users. “Red Pill,” “Manosphere” content, which spreads misogyny, male supremacy, and negative content about men has become a prevalent part of content on social media, especially platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
Even in my own personal experience, I encountered much of this content when installing and joining various social media forums. I joined social media later than most of my peers, but when I downloaded TikTok and Instagram at 16 during my sophomore year of high school in 2022, most of my media consisted of various red pilled influencers.
““Red Pill,” “Manosphere” content, which spreads misogyny, male supremacy, and negative content about men has become a prevalent part of content on social media, especially platforms like TikTok
and Instagram. “
My installment of these apps occurred around the same time that red pill influencer Andrew Tate began to gain major traction on social media, especially on TikTok. I couldn’t go more than 3 videos without seeing some of his content, which could be due to his content generating tons of interaction and in turn the algorithms were just feeding me trending content.
However, it felt odd given that I set my preferences around sports and music related content, nothing even related to red pilled content, and even in clicking not interested, this content still showed up in my feed.
Even my friends, some of whom have had social media since late elementary school also began seeing red pilled media become prevalent in their feeds during the early 2020’s.
Why is this significant? Because social media platforms are pushing content, which is molding a young generation filled with hate, hate towards women, hate towards targeted groups, and hate towards themselves.
You might say that this a choice, decided upon by individual users, however, I think in many cases, young men (mid teenage years to early twenty’s) are to some degree victims of this movement and this media. Through the systematic, steady exposure to such media, men are finding themselves caught up in an ideology they may not even believe in.
There is science behind this, according to the American Physiological Association, misinformation, and propaganda towards your personal groups, drives people towards believing things they would have otherwise not have even fathomed. When social media is constantly telling young men, even boys, as young as 12 or 13, that society is against them, they find themselves more likely to believe these hateful ideas.
Less time spent on social media apps limits the red-pilled influence.
Furthermore, this content presents an idea of the alpha male, and young men who are constantly fed this content, begin to hate themselves for not meeting this standard.
It also encourages misogynistic practices, losing their humanity and degrading those around them. This is not an acceptable practice in any free modern society, and the fact that social media pushes algorithms that desensitize young men to these ideas is absurd.
“There is science behind this, according to the American Physiological Association, misinformation, and propaganda towards your personal groups, drives people towards believing things they would have otherwise not have even fathomed.”
According to Mateo Botto, and Lucas Gottzén in their article featured in the 33rd volume of the Journal of Gender Studies in 2024, young men believe in these red pill ideas because they long for identity and community. But in doing so, they become so desensitized to the hateful ideology, that they in turn lose themselves.
I am not saying that males are totally victims in this situation, there is 100% a degree of choice, and these ideas are not acceptable in any regard. However, when you look at psychological factors, and the constant targeting with such media, it becomes clear that there is a degree of tragedy in this shift into the red pill ideology.
Much of this stems back to social media, even now when I dislike red pilled videos I am still fed such content, and I refuse to believe there is not a systematic targeting of impressionable, young men to be fed these ideas through these platforms. Limiting usage of such apps is the best way to avoid falling into this world of hate.