Amid a nationwide “masculinity crisis” that has caused boys and young men to gravitate toward traditional gender roles and often misogynistic content, researchers, columnists and political leaders have sought to understand a simple question: What’s up with boys?
To Jim Steyer, the CEO of the media literacy company Common Sense Media, the alarm bells for boys and young men have been ringing for over a decade with the rise of content creators like Andrew Tate, who have formed what’s been described as a “manosphere” of content online.
The examination of the influences has turned into a cultural cornerstone. The Netflix-produced series “Adolescence” examines how a 13-year-old boy influenced by the manosphere acts out violently toward a female classmate. The Democratic Party has launched a $20 million effort to win back young men after about 60% voted to re-elect President Donald Trump this past fall. And California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signaled the need to address boys’ falling educational attainment and worsening mental health.
Common Sense Media recently updated its digital literacy curriculum for approximately 80% of schools across the country, Steyer said. He also told Bay Area News Group that Common Sense Media will release a study on October 8 examining the causes, consequences and potential interventions for the manosphere’s influence on boys.
Profile
Positions: Founder of Common Sense Media, civil rights attorney, Stanford professor and author
Residence: San Francisco and Glen Ellen in Sonoma County
College: Stanford University
Family: His wife, Liz Butler, his four children, and his two brothers, Hume and Tom Steyer, the latter of whom was a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.
This interview has been edited for brevity and length.
Q: How did you start getting interested in creating policies that protect children with media? More and more, your focus has been on social media.
A: I’m from New York City, and I was a school teacher in Harlem in the south Bronx. And my mom was a schoolteacher in the south Bronx in Hell’s Kitchen and in Bed-Stuy. So I took a year off before I went to Stanford, and I taught in the worst schools in New York and East Palo Alto.
Before I founded Common Sense Media, which was in 2003, I founded Children Now, which, at the time, was still going. It was the biggest child advocacy group on the West Coast. There was no social media in those days, but we were very influential in terms of Hollywood and the impact of movies. Then I kept teaching in East Oakland for 10 years as a volunteer. And so this was always my life.
Q: During the rise of social media in the 2000s with MySpace and Facebook, when did you become concerned about the effect it had on children and teens?
A: I had already started Common Sense Media, and we officially launched in 2003 and our whole point was to be the most important child advocacy group in the United States. We also realized, I did by the late 1990s because of my work at Children Now, that media and tech started having this unbelievable impact on kids… I have four children, so I started seeing it in my own children…
(Common Sense Media) started with movies, TV, video games. That was what was going on back then. But I saw MySpace happen and Friendster – one of the people who started Friendster had a job at Common Sense Media. And then I of course knew what Zuck (Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg) was doing with Facebook, so we could see it…. You can’t look at social media or AI without understanding the broader context of kids and education in this country, and the disgraceful lack of investment in young people and in education over the past 30 years.
You could see the influence of media on kids, first movies, TV, video games, music, etc., and that’s because I’m a parent and an educator. But then I could tell by 2005 through my own kids, that Facebook, which of course, supplanted MySpace, right? I wrote this book about social media and body image in 2001 – it was a best seller. It launched Common Sense Media. I was watching my boys and girls being influenced by Facebook.
Q: You’ve mentioned your boys and your girls. What are the differences between how social media impacts each gender?
As a father of two girls and two boys and a professor to 25,000 Stanford students or more, and taught 1000s of elementary and high school students look girls and boys are. There’s a lot of similarities across kids, but there’s a big difference between boys and girls.
I remember, early on, I was really aware of how much impact of body image there was on girls. One of my employees here had been a Stanford student, and they were talking about that body image issue. When you’re getting pounded by it five hours a day on social media with comparisons, and the fact that you’re photoshopping your image – we started seeing that way before anyone else.
Q: The link between girls’ body image and social media is well researched. But I’m curious about the impact of social media on boys.
A: We’re coming out with research this fall, two different studies about boys and young men and social media and AI and how it’s dramatically affecting their lives… I can tell you, in general, there is a new wave of, I would say, misogynistic, sometimes dangerous online material that is gaining traction with boys. Professionally and personally, I see this in the manosphere figures like Andrew Tate, the TRad wife, influencers promoting 1950s gender roles, even the AI companion stuff, about how they reinforce offensive stereotypes that are shaping boys’ identities at a time when their brains are most impressionable.
I think very few people were talking about it. My friend, Richard Reeves, is talking about it. My friend, Scott Galloway, is talking about it, but they don’t have big organizations like we do. So I think (manosphere influencers), basically they’re exploiting online algorithms so that boys see this on their social media screens.
Q: How does this fit into the political context of the 2024 election?
A: There’s clearly the political context of Trump, who’s an overt misogynistic male, and he’s been legitimized in that, shockingly. And then all of the Andrew Tates (a self-proclaimed misogynistic media personality) and the manosphere stuff. Even you watch other public figures, like Elon (Musk) participating in that behavior, too.
It can start innocently enough, a teenage boy likes a post about working or about personal finance, and then slowly they can go down the rabbit hole of male behavior. An earnest desire for self improvement can veer into content about hate or sexism. It’s really that’s what happens. That’s because the platforms are designed to maximize time you spend on them. That’s how they make their money. That’s how Facebook makes its money. That’s how they keep you on there. They hook you, they addict you, and they show you more and more outrageous content.
Q: What about boys makes them such fertile ground with these masculinity influencers?
A: The biggest thing is the trend that young people think they’re going to be worse off than their parents. I think the fundamental challenge facing this society – there are many, including the collapse of our democratic norms and institutions – but the fundamental thing going on is that most young people, boys and girls, think they’re going to be worse off than their parents financially. So that goes to the core of kids’ self image and hopes for the future, but it really hits boys who oftentimes have been taught to be providers.
What do you think some 18-year-old kid who lives in Dublin or Fremont, who’s going to a lower middle class school, thinks about their chances in life? So I think some of it’s economic, and the fears that boys in particular have about their economic future. Jobs aren’t as easy as when I was at Stanford.
Look, I’ve been at Stanford as a professor for way over 30 years. My kids all think they are gonna get jobs. You could be at any good business school, and you’re gonna get a job offer. Young people don’t feel that right now. They’re worried about AI taking jobs. They’re worried that they won’t make as much money to live and be able to buy a house. I think that particularly hits boys. It’s the core: “I am the provider” mentality.
Q: That seems similar to how girls often compare themselves to models online, and the way that impacts their body image.
A: Now, this is stereotypical, because I think girls worry about economic stability, too, of course, but I think that’s a lot of what’s going on. The fundamental economic inequality and the increasingly huge gap between the very wealthy and everybody else is really, really, really hurting boys’ psyche. It really affects boys and young men, and then I think it leads to all sorts of bad behavior.
Q: We’ve seen the rise of media with the show Adolescence focused more on boys’ issues. We’ve seen the governor talk about trying to close the education gap between boys and girls. Do you believe there is a reckoning happening?
A: Yes, definitely. I know because I run the largest kids group in the United States. We hear about this from parents, from educators. We hear this from our mass audiences; hundreds of millions of people use our platform. I see it as an educator; I hear it from my students at Stanford. My son is a third grade teacher. He talks about it in the context of the boys he’s teaching.
I have my colleague, Richard Reeves, and we’re doing multiple events with him in October. We’re doing a whole campaign around boys and men starting this fall, because it’s a huge national challenge and crisis. It’s a mental health crisis, yes. But it’s also an identity crisis.
Five Facts
Steyer is the brother of former presidential candidate Tom Steyer. Jim joined his brother on the campaign trail to support his brother’s mission to make climate change a central issue for Democrats.
If Steyer had the chance to do any other type of job, he would like to be a relief pitcher for the San Francisco Giants or play quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers.
His favorite summer activity is going to his home in Sonoma County, where he hikes, swims and boogie boards.
He says he has never used a social media app, and he proudly considers himself Enemy #1 of Facebook.
One of his hidden talents is water sports, including surfing, diving, and abalone hunting.