Greetings Gov. Schwarzenegger hope you're well.
Thank you for writing this, and sharing your thoughts on what may be one of the most vital conversations defining our time.
I believe it's fair to agree on a few things first.
Social media, like all technology, has amongst its use cases many pros and cons. Amongst the latter, addictive potential (habit-forming "hook" loops comprising vicious cycles of triggers, actions, rewards, investment) and correlation with lower self-esteem and greater anxiety/depression are, by this point, incontrovertible and well-documented.
Before social media networks and platforms reached widespread adoption--conservatively, let's assign the late 2000s to early 2010s--dominant, traditional media platforms included print media (magazines, photography, newspapers) and motion picture media (films, television).
BS artists, charlatans, snake oil salespeople, quacks, etc., ascended and reigned supreme in these preceding media formats. From public access infomercials hawking junk wares and direct response mail peddling aspirational get-rich-quick schemes (which disproportionately exploit and target older adults as progenitors of "Nigerian prince" email scams) to reality TV series and tabloids
--heck, our modern conceptions of celebrity and Hollywood "stardom" themselves!--
the commerce crisis you identify stems from consumer manipulation and confidence (root of "con", "con artist") tricks, many of which date back centuries, even millennia, in the case of ancient Greek shell games.
(Moreover, the concept of "influencer" predates social media by centuries, but that's a history lesson in itself, not immediately related to my argument.)
Young men are afflicted by particular disparities on multiple fronts: they are not dating nor marrying nor wanting kids, not seeking higher education, isolated, depressed, often bullied, facing (and less likely to disclose) childhood trauma, coming from "dad void" troubled families, falling behind girls and women in academic achievement and attainment, 2x more likely to overdose, 3.5x more likely to (and make up 80% of those who successfully) commit suicide, over 9x more likely to be incarcerated.
Young men have higher rates of alcoholism, homelessness, poverty, obesity, substance abuse, and lower life expectancy. Young men comprise the majority of violent crime perpetrators and victims. Finally, young men commit over 98% of mass shootings.
To be clear, I wholeheartedly endorse your assessment concerning prevalent harms from social media usage. Still, I believe there are clear, undeniable signals defining our time, demonstrating young men are indeed facing unique crises, which have been exploited, monetized, and weaponized.
We see this with incel culture, the MGTOW movement, self-styled "alpha" influencers, "red pill" pseudophilosophical provocateurs, etc. What caused young men these negative outcomes, as well as where we collectively go from here, I'm not certain: while I'm familiar with data, I humbly defer theory and policy to experts.
Much obliged and many thanks again for advancing this important dialogue.
