Reed Brown remembers the first time he was sucked into the algorithm – he was just 13 watching videos after school when YouTube started pushing him towards controversial content.
As time went on, the videos became more extreme, says Brown, now 21.
“It started out pretty good,” he recalls. “You’re watching something about teen fashion, and the next thing you know, the algorithm is going to push you to a Ben Shapiro video.”
Although Shapiro describes himself as a conservative political commentator, his views are controversial — and some are downright discriminatory. He suggested, for example, that transgender people suffer from a “mental disorder”.
But he has a combined 9.4 million subscribers and followers on YouTube and Twitter, many of whom are young people, like Brown, when he was pushed in Shapiro’s direction.
Although Shapiro is not affiliated with any hate group, experts in media, gender studies and the radicalization of young men say the commenter’s content is prevalent in online extremist communities.
And the exposure of controversial — and increasingly harmful — views on masculinity, the objectification of women and the LGBT community has those same experts raising concerns about how extremist, far-right groups are using TikTok, YouTube and other social media apps in a drip campaign to slow radicalization of vulnerable teenagers and young men.
While TikTok’s decision to remove influencer Andrew Tate’s account for misogynistic content that the company said violated its policies put the debate in the spotlight, the personal stories of people like Brown offer unique insight into the effect content can have on teenagers.
The videos Brown watched as an early teenager were often misogynistic, he said, and that began to affect the way he thought and interacted with people at school.
Ellen Chloe Bateman, a documentary and podcast producer, has researched online radicalization among young men and the subculture. (increase)
“I remember repeating some sexist attitudes, things about the wage gap… Especially when I went out with my friends, we would repeat all these things that we saw on the internet. Lots of sexism and misogyny.”
Seeing his friends play these things in person makes it “more real” than just seeing an idea online, he said.
It can escalate in the comments
That’s exactly how online radicalization works, says Ellen Chloe Bateman of Brown’s experience.
A documentary and podcast producer who explores online radicalization among young men and the incel subculture, Bateman describes radicalization as a “slippery slope” that can begin when algorithms push boys toward increasingly harmful video.
Then “someone might engage you in a comment thread and tell you to join their discord group [where] the content gets darker and darker,” she said. “It’s fun for some young guys and before you know it, you’re in an extremist subculture.”
The targets are often young men who feel lost or isolated; they see these groups as a way to escape those feelings, she says.
Joanna Schroeder, a writer who specializes in gender and media, says young men can feel “out of place” if they are unable to speak through how they feel about the media they consume. (increase)
“The appeal of these hate groups is that they give isolated young men a sense of community and power — often for the first time in their lives — and give them a target, someone to blame for the challenges they perceive in their lives.”
Some young men may also perceive messages of empowerment for women and girls as an attack on masculinity, says Joanna Schroeder, a writer whose work focuses on gender and media representation.
“Maybe they see things and I … maybe they see a T-shirt or a bumper sticker that says ‘The future is female,'” she said. “There is a lot of encouraging content for girls … and if [young men] not given the opportunity to talk about their feelings on the matter, they may see it as “men don’t matter”.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what’s happening … but they may feel that way.”
So how can our society give young men a way to work through their feelings in a healthy way?
That’s what Maurice Greene is asking himself – and what he says he hopes his organization can offer.
Finding a healthy way out
Green is a health education consultant who is part of GuysWork in Nova Scotia, an organization now 11 years old.
Green says he began working with Nova Scotia schools in 2012, hoping to give young men a safe space to talk about their feelings, mental health and break down problematic ideals of masculinity.
Morris Brown focuses on creating safe and inclusive spaces for young men through Guys Work. (Submitted by Maurice Brown)
These harmful social norms can include everything from pressure on young men to drink alcohol to not wanting to be seen as vulnerable or asking for help, he said.
There is also often homophobia and concern that being anything other than heterosexual may be perceived by peers as ‘abnormal’.
“We basically wanted to normalize help-seeking behavior,” he said.
Green said the GuysWork sessions focus on fostering a sense of safety and inclusion for young men who may not have an adult role model or someone they feel they can talk to.
“We’re really trying to be creative … with the lessons and the facilitation to create that safety for some really important conversations that just don’t happen most of the time.”
And it pays off.
In 2020, GuysWork participated in a study with the University of St. Francis Xavier in Antigonish, NS. There, Chris Gillam, associate professor and lead researcher, found that GuysWork was able to positively change young men’s views of some masculine norms that he says could be detrimental to short- and long-term health outcomes.
Many of the 180 students who participated said they felt they no longer needed to exhibit “a certain kind of typical and traditional masculinity” but could instead be “gentle, caring, kind and considerate,” Gillham said.
Bateman and Schroeder agree that role models are critical to the healthy development of young men. They say it’s important for parents to talk to their children about the type of content they consume online.
“[Parents] we need to watch for signs of radicalization, including language and behavioral changes,” Bateman said.
How to have healthy conversations
While parents can’t get ahead of all the technology their teens might use, Schoeder said they can offer help by teaching them media literacy — and early.
“We start doing media criticism with them when they’re very young, so they have the ability to analyze something when it’s put to them.”
And it’s important to be inquisitive with teens instead of reacting with anger if they share that they’re watching controversial videos, she said.
WATCH | Algorithms and their program:
How algorithms target young men
Joanna Schroeder, a writer who focuses on gender and media, explains why social media algorithms are targeting young men and how this may affect what they watch online.
“Ask them questions about how they feel [the content] and then acknowledge their kindness in talking to you about it.”
As for Brown, he is now a fourth-year mechanical engineering student at Dalhousie University. He said he was able to avoid being drawn into more extreme content by using social media less often – and instead read literature and various media publications.
For him, it really comes down to the impact of social media.
“Young men are not inherently sexist. I think algorithms can really make them that way.”
Add Comment