Building Boys Bulletin 8-26-24

Including boys

“Young men feel that the internet gets them and their deepest fears.”

That’s from a recent Newsweek article, discussing an Equimundo survey which highlighted the fact that young men spend much (if not most?) of their lives online, in part because they find their online lives more interesting and engaging than their offline lives.

And yes, the online world is literally designed to be enticing, engaging, and interesting. We can’t simply point our fingers at social media companies, tech moguls, and websites, though. We need to reckon with the fact that most boys & young men do not feel that their parents, teachers, or adults adults understand them.

Photo by Pixabay

Some of that may be the angst of youth. It is incredibly common for young people to feel as if the older generations don’t understand them. You likely felt that way as a teen & young adult, and if I’m honest with myself, I still kinda sorta feel that way about my octogenarian parents.

I don’t think it’s fair or accurate, though, to pin all of this on our boys. I think we need to admit that MOST adults don’t get boys. They don’t understand what makes boys tick. They don’t appreciate the massive amounts of pressure our boys experience. They don’t see how sexism affects our boys daily lives.

Bringing boys in

If we want our boys & young men to spend significant time in the offline world, we need to: