 "Netflix’s Adolescence writer calls for 'radical action' not role models")
Not just the incel culture, the story talks about the vulnerability of kids, social media bullying and how teenage years are the most difficult years not only for the parents to handle, but for kids too.
Jamie, played by Owen Cooper, is bullied on social media and he is made to believe by his peers that he is ugly. As Netflix’s Adolescence co-writer Jack Thorne rightly said about the character played by the young and brilliant actor Owen Cooper , “He is this vulnerable kid, and then he hears this stuff which makes sense to him about why he’s isolated, why he’s alone, why he doesn’t belong, and he ingests it. He doesn’t have the filters to understand what’s appropriate.”
As parents, instead of being harsh on our kids and just taking care of their physical wellbeing and fulfilling just his/her demands for computer and other things, we need to understand what challenges he is facing in school and on social media and at the same time take care of his social wellbeing. Most male teenagers don’t find it easy to handle the hormonal changes in their body and they are unable to understand what is happening to them. They are often made to feel ugly. But it is the duty of parents to understand their behavioral changes. All they need is a little bit of time and care.
Again no parents are to be blamed because there isn’t anything like right parenting. Jack Thorne adds, “At this age, with all these different pressures on him and with the peculiarities of his society around him, he starts to believe that the only way to reset this balance is through violence.”
According to the BBC report, former England football manager Sir Gareth Southgate delivered a speech warning against “callous, manipulative and toxic influencers”.
“They are as far away as you could possibly get from the role models our young men need in their lives,” he said.
Thorne says Sir Gareth is “amazing” - but he believes the solution is about more than having better role models.
“We’ve been having that conversation since I was a kid,” the writer says. “This has got to be a point where we do something a bit more radical than that. It’s not about role models.
“Role models obviously can have a huge impact on people. But truthfully, we’ve got to change the culture that they’re consuming and the means by which our technology is facilitating this culture.
“It was a really interesting speech, but I was hoping he was going to propose more radical things than he did.” But should social media ne banned for kids below 16, is a question that we are still pondering on.
(With inputs from agencies)