Summary
Social media influencers are fuelling a rise in misogyny and sexism in the UK’s classrooms, according to teachers.
More than 5,800 teachers were polled… and nearly three in five (59%) said they believe social media use has contributed to a deterioration in pupils’ behaviour.
One teacher said she’d had 10-year-old boys “refuse to speak to [her]…because [she is] a woman”. Another said “the Andrew Tate phenomena had a huge impact on how [pupils] interacted with females and males they did not see as ‘masculine’”.
“There is an urgent need for concerted action… to safeguard all children and young people from the dangerous influence of far-right populists and extremists.”
You’re totally right. Without that inner life we’d just be forced into being exactly like our parents because we wouldn’t grow as individuals.
I think the problem is when, hypothetically, that inner life that finds you first is a profit-driven hate-brewing death cult brought to you by an algorithm. Then these people “totally get you” and gives you a “community.”
I miss when those unsupervised inner life communities were mostly around hobbies or games or whatever to escape life drudgery and make real friends. MySpace wasn’t about viral brainwashing campaigns, YouTube was mostly creation for fun’s sake, and even with online games and such, we all knew there was a separation between “the Internet” and “Real Life™”.
Everybody knew not to take the Internet seriously, because it was a place you went to escape everything else. Nothing really mattered on the internet.
I think now people don’t really see a separation. The Internet is real life, in the worst way.
Now so much of it is a minefield of recruitment and manipulation to enlist in culture wars for clicks. There’s labels and lifestyles that act as “funnels” and “pipelines” to increasingly toxic extreme identities that find “belonging” in being captive mindslaves and profit-cattle to any number of “influencers.”
Completely agree. The people I found online in those early days were just random people without any motive or incentive to sell me on an ideology. There was a trust back then, because opinions weren’t really worth anything and no one could access your wallet.
Finding that some community now is a total minefield for users, young or old. So much of the internet has been gamified for a profit/scam at any cost.
I wish that kids could just connect with other random kids across the world like I did, but I think those days are likely done.