Watching the new Netflix Limited Series Adolescence will lead the audience to experience a plethora of conflicting emotions. The fictional series revolves around the murder of a young schoolgirl, Katie, by her fellow schoolmate, a 13-year-old boy named Jamie.

I found the premise of the show extremely engaging and relevant but was soon left underwhelmed after the penultimate episode. Jamie’s reaction, on being questioned by the clinical psychologist assigned to his case in Episode 3, gives us great insights on the inner conflict that radicalised young boys may face. It shows us how vulnerable adolescent boys are to models of masculinity around them. The narrative, at times, even leaves the audience feeling empathetic for Jamie and the situation he has found himself in. When the audience see Jamie in this situation, they realise he is a product of his circumstances and social conditioning. However, this humanisation of the perpetrator of the crime takes away attention from the fact that the victim in this scenario is Katie who has been brutally murdered.

While the show nods towards how sensationalisation of crimes results in a shift of focus from the victim onto the ones who commit them, it fails to delve deeper into this issue. Now, one can say that this particular show is about how young boys perceive notions of masculinity in an increasingly misogynistic world but it would be vital to remember that it is also a story of femicide and violence against women. The show falls short in giving us a look into Katie’s life, her dreams, her aspirations. The murdered girl remains a one-dimensional character throughout the story of her own murder.

Another aspect that I found unsatisfying was the amount of information the audience gets regarding the ‘how’ of this radicalisation. For a show focussed on the impressionable minds of young adolescents, Adolescence chooses not to take the audience on the journey of how Jamie was radicalised but only makes vague allusions to it. The process and avenues through which such radicalisation takes place remain unexplored.

Apart from the technical aspects of the show which have, undoubtedly, aided its popularity, Adolescence succeeds in being extremely timely. It sheds light on an important reality and does so in a unique way with authenticity. An alarmingly large number of young boys are being groomed to hate girls on the Internet, and Adolescence manages to highlight the reality of growing up in a world with the Internet where everything – the good, the bad, the questionable – is only a touch away.

The content we consume online influences our worldview, our self worth and the foundation of our beliefs. The Internet functions as a democratic platform giving everyone (alleged sex traffickers, rapists too) an opportunity to become influential by questionable means which may be legal but far from appropriate. The gap between tech savvy children and parents’ limited view of the Internet is wide. Parents may be trusting, and see only the best of their children, hardly checking in on their online activities or being able to understand Internet lingo and its innuendos. In a space such as this, impressionable minds can form core beliefs that affect the way they perceive and process interactions with their peers.

Notions of masculinity have always been a driving force in the bullying of young boys. Bullying is not a new phenomenon but with more of our lives being spent online, it has now taken a different shape. There is a growing popularity of red pill podcasters and figures like Andrew Tate who revel in misogyny on podcasts and debates.

Many online debates and panels depend heavily on rhetoric and extreme examples. This plays out in the format of many YouTube channels. Jubilee, for instance, has a series called Middle Ground, that invites people with extremely opposing beliefs, positions or identities to come together and find middle ground, for example as in the video Is Being Fat A Choice? Fit Men vs Fat Men. In set ups like this, the arguing is more important than what is being discussed. The debates often depend on the prowess of individual speakers, rhetoric, and who can overpower whom. In the midst of this, objective truth and morality get lost, making us value them less and less. This eventually leaves no space for objective truth to remain, pushing us towards a world where a louder speaker who can generate more frenzy and excitement becomes influential, where we argue to defeat and not to discuss.

Here is when media literacy becomes important. In the last episode of Adolescence we see the devastating effects of Jamie’s actions on his entire family. The closing dialogue of the series, “I should have done better”, although heart-wrenching, reminds us of the vast uncharted territories that parenthood entails.

Online safety of a child falls onto their parents and educators. The ever-changing nature of the Internet, media and pop culture including its new role models requires that we educate not just children but everyone on media literacy so they may engage with content more rationally. Hate-mongering, online harassment and bullying influence young adolescents’ perceptions of how they must act and what they must think.

Notions of masculinity and what a ‘real man’ is are also shaped by a host of influences and parents and guardians may often fall short in tackling this issue in its entirety but media literacy may help young people engage with such topics with sensitivity and critique enabling them to navigate their own growth more holistically.

Cover Image from Netflix