Many of the recent younger generations have moved to reverse many of the harmful views they inherited, rooted in for example racism and sexism. However, in this generation, there has been a recent resurgence of this regressive rhetoric.

As social media grows more persuasive and influential in our society, these damaging ideologies are surging back to the surface, stronger than ever.

“I feel like when people’s ideas are challenged, in terms of the extremes, they go radical. For a lot of young men, or any young person, they are very easily influenced. So, I feel like these creators saw an opportunity with these groups of men feeling marginalized because for a long time, we were in positions of power and untouchable, in a way,” senior Shay McElroy said.

Creators that peddle male supremacy have quickly risen in popularity over the past few years. A key figure in this rise is Andrew Tate, who has garnered 10.6 million followers on X (formerly known as Twitter) as of January 2025 despite blatant sexist and homophobic rhetoric, not to mention all the rape cases. Tate’s popularity stands as testament to how this message is resonating with many.

“These words, like “Top G” or “alpha”, have become a part of Gen Z slang ironically, but they originated unironically from the “manosphere” and gamer spaces. Majority of people like to poke fun at the people who have those outlandish and super far takes, but it shows the influence that these places have on a younger audience,” sophomore Dylan Rapp said.

The manosphere is a term referencing a community of men which promotes a retrograde idea of masculinity and opposes feminism. However, not all promotions of traditional values are aimed towards men. There is also a facet of female creators who post content of their idealized and generally unattainable lives as homekeepers that many refer to as “tradwives”.

The popularization of these ideas not only spreads them, it also normalizes them. What may have been outrageous previously is now considered typical internet behavior.

“Teenage boys– a lot of them are like pushed [content of] people dying, or car crashes, or suicide, or just these crazy things. If you’re seen that every day, your brain is gonna be completely warped and shut off to that violence. Seeing extreme violence is not a healthy thing; we’re not supposed to be seeing that. People our age, young people, people younger than us, are just being shocked every single day,” McElroy said.

This exposure to intense content leads to apathy, particularly in young people. In real-life situations, this desensitization translates to less empathy for others and a prioritization of choices that benefit oneself.

Additionally, as technology and short-term content become more popular and prominent among young people, their attention span has decreased. Time to listen to the complexity of situations or research is considered wasted, leaving room for only surface-level knowledge and misinformation.

“I feel like [attention span] is most likely going to either stay the same or get worse and part of that is due to what people are seeing on social media and that they can’t get off of those [platforms]. People are just stuck to their screens, and therefore, they have a hard time paying attention to what is outside of their screens. I think the conversation that’s happening on social media is making them question the value of education,” Language Arts teacher Kara Hisatake said.

The unfortunate truth is that young people have an intense attachment to social media, and they are increasingly relying on it to provide them with news as well as much of their entertainment. Due to this trust and time spent on screens, what they see online uncritically seeps into their minds, whether it be positive or negative.

However, despite – or perhaps because of – the increase of trust placed on social media, the content on these platforms become all the more questionable. X turned away from fact checkers and towards community notes in 2021. This practice became widespread in 2023, and now, as of January 2025, Meta – which owns Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp – has made the same decision.

Meta’s decision is a dangerous one, considering the effects that the removal of fact checkers had on X. Though over 130,000 users contributed to community notes on a daily basis as of November 2023, the majority of users did not see the notes combating misinformation. The ineffectiveness of the community notes model has been apparent on X for some time.

“After Elon obtained the platform, it became more of a cesspool than it already was. Without fact checking, people who didn’t have any fact-based opinions or ideas got emboldened because they saw support. Elon also promoted a lot of anti-vaxx, neo-Nazi and conspiracy movements that diminished the voices of those telling fact-based statements,” Rapp said.

While Meta reports that they are keeping their moderation team to remove content such as graphic violence and child exploitation, they are relaxing their rules around topics such as gender and immigration. Mark Zuckerberg even admitted that community notes were “going to catch less bad stuff”.

This is a worrying situation for many, reflecting on how anti-Black slurs were used on X at almost three times the rate previous to Elon Musk’s takeover of X, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate. Additionally, there were 52% and 62% increases in homophobic and transphobic slurs, respectively.

“I think [bigotry] has always been present, unfortunately. I feel like even when I was like a kid, with the Obama administration, we rode out a more progressive wave, but there’s always been this undertone of neo-Nazi and other very strongly conservative groups that have always been present. Their level of influence just fluctuates over time,” Digital Arts teacher Tobi Kishimoto said.

Right now, it looks like that radical conservative influence is peaking.

After the brief shutdown of TikTok just before the inauguration of President Donald Trump, the platform thanked Trump for saving it and began censoring progressive content. Following on TikTok’s heels, Instagram began to block Democrat-related tags, though they insist that it was just an error.

“We’re about to see huge waves of misinformation across all kinds of platforms like the internet, TV, and radio. It’s already started with the deletion of important information about HIV from the CDC page, and there’s definitely more to come that will be fueling hate against vulnerable people. It’s more important now than ever to stay informed, and be critical of where your information is coming from, and to preserve the things that bigots are trying to erase,” Kishimoto said.