Surrey receives ESRC grant to investigate teenage masculinities and digital media

Amidst ongoing attention to the nature and impacts of the manosphere, and broader public discussion of digital harms and social media bans, the project will provide detailed understanding of how young men are navigating digital spaces and the role parents and families play in their digital experiences and developing identities.

The research will focus particularly on boys’ engagement with contentious, harmful or challenging material that connects to gender and masculinities. This will include examining how teenage boys negotiate and make sense of misogynist influencers, incels, looksmaxxing communities and a range of other content and spaces associated with the manosphere. Yet, rather than focusing only on selected examples of contentious content, or those individuals most extensively engaged with them, the study will look at the everyday digital lives of a broad range of teenage boys.

Researchers will examine the circumstances in which boys may seek out contentious content, stumble across it, engage critically with it or actively avoid it. They will also explore how boys interpret such content, and how this informs their broader digital practices, their relationships with others and their understandings of themselves as young men.

The intention is to begin with boys themselves, explore similarities and differences in their online experiences, and examine how these intersect with friendships, peer groups, family life and social locations. Particular attention will be given to the role of parents and carers in shaping boys’ digital practices, emotional development and understandings of masculinity.  

Paul Hodkinson, Project Lead and Professor of Sociology, said:

"We are thrilled to have the chance to go beneath the headlines and carry out rich, detailed research with boys and their parents. We hope to learn how boys are navigating some of the more challenging and contentious aspects of their digital worlds and to understand how this informs their developing identities, relationships and masculinities."

The project is driven by the belief that detailed understanding of teenage boys’ lived experiences is essential in order to tackle gender-related harms and inequalities and create inclusive social environments in which all young people can thrive. The team hopes the research will support the development of future-facing strategies that help boys build emotional awareness, stronger digital literacy and healthy understandings of masculinity. 

Emily Setty, Project Co-Investigator and Associate Professor of Criminology, said:

"We hope this project will provide a nuanced contribution to an often polarised debate about boys, masculinity and digital life. By engaging directly with boys and their parents, we aim to generate deeper insight into how masculinities are negotiated in a digital era and how boys navigate online spaces in diverse, relational and socially situated ways."