Adolescence and the Manosphere: How the Internet is Raising Misogynists

Digital communities often act as breeding grounds for toxic ideologies like incel culture, writes Devrupa Rakshit.

A still from Netflix's limited edition miniseries 'Adolescence'. 

(Photo: Netflix)

Have you watched Adolescence, or do you continue to remain unaware of the darkest corners of the internet that are training young men – often, before they even hit puberty—to see misogyny as an identity?

These boys aren’t being raised by their parents, their teachers, or even their peers; they are being raised by the internet—a restless, all-knowing guardian whispering into their ears long after the world has gone to sleep.

Their lullabies are viral clips preaching dominance over kindness, their bedtime stories are hate-fuelled manifestos disguised as empowerment. The internet doesn’t tuck them in; it keeps them awake, feeding them a steady stream of validation and resentment, shaping them before they even realise they are being shaped.

And so, misogyny doesn’t have to go looking for recruits anymore. It simply waits—knowing the boys will come to it, hungry for belonging, desperate to be told who they are.

Adolescence, Netflix’s latest limited series, offers a sharp and unsettling look at this phenomenon—one where the lines between childhood rebellion and radicalisation blur under the weight of algorithmic conditioning, digital loneliness, and unchecked male entitlement.

Of Boys and Men

Boys don’t stumble into toxic online spaces by accident; they’re guided there. We all know how algorithms work: a user engages with even one piece of misogynistic content—be it a short clip dismissing feminism, a ‘red pill’ influencer promoting male dominance, or a meme about women being ‘gold diggers’—they’re automatically fed more of the same. 

As it happened on the show, a simple search for gym workouts can lead one to influencers who preach that “real men” dominates and that women are trophies to be won or enemies to be conquered.

The harmless quest for fitness, then, becomes a gateway to “self-improvement,” spiralling rather quickly, thereafter, into control, resentment, and entitlement.

“Data-tracking ensures that once a user engages with extremist content, they receive more of the same, reinforcing their beliefs,” says Shubham Singh, a cybersecurity expert.  In that sense, the internet can assume the form of a well-oiled machine designed to indoctrinate young minds, embedding the blueprint of misogyny into the soft clay of their identities.

“Algorithms maximise engagement by pushing content that keeps users online longer, often creating echo chambers where they are repeatedly exposed to similar ideologies."

Shubham Singh, Cybersecurity Expert

The algorithm doesn’t care who he becomes. It only cares that he stays.

Teenage boys are at war with themselves, and the 'manosphere'—digital spaces promoting masculinity, misogyny, and opposition to feminism—knows exactly how to weaponise that.

Erik Homburger Erikson, a Danish-German-Jewish child psychoanalyst, had theorised that the ages of 12 to 18—in short, adolescence—is a battle between ‘identity’ and ‘role confusion.’ This is a stage where young people are desperate to understand who they are. They search for guidance, for meaning, for a framework that tells them how to exist in the world. And “when they don’t find healthy examples of masculinity,” says Delhi-based psychologist Itisha Nagar, “they turn to whoever offers them a sense of belonging.” 

Shaping Incel Mindsets

The internet is always there for them—always ready to give them a brotherhood built on anger, a language of resentment, a script where their struggles are never their fault but always someone else’s. It doesn’t help, of course, that boys, in this stage, are highly susceptible to black-and-white thinking, making them particularly vulnerable to extremist narratives.

And so, in their search for identity, many latch onto rigid ideas of masculinity that frame dominance as strength and emotion as weakness. It’s a slow unraveling, invisible to the outside world.

A boy who was once gentle and curious begins to speak differently. He scoffs at “feminazis.” He dismisses stories of assault with a joke. He starts seeing himself as a soldier in a battle he never signed up for—but one he is convinced he must fight.

“What’s at the bottom of the incel worldview: sex is a commodity, accumulation of this commodity enhances a man’s status, and every man has a right to accumulation, but women are in some mysterious way obstacles to this, and they are therefore the enemy as well as the commodity,” explains Rebecca Solnit, columnist and author of Men Explain Things to Me.

“Women-as-bodies are sex waiting to happen—to men—and women-as-people are annoying gatekeepers getting between men and female bodies, which is why there’s a ton of advice about how to trick or overwhelm the gatekeeper.”

Rebecca Solnit, Author of 'Men Explain Things to Me'

Digital communities often act as breeding grounds for toxic ideologies like these.

On imageboards like Bharatchan, and multiple Indian subreddits like r/IndianTeenagers, r/TeenIndia, r/OneXIndia, r/InstaCelebsGossip, and r/IndianGirlsOnTinder, among countless others, teenage boys—and grown men—whisper their frustrations into the void about rejection, resentment, and the “unfairness” of a world that doesn’t reward them just for existing.

Some seek advice on how to “assert dominance” in relationships or how to manipulate girls into liking them. Others vent their fury about being rejected, drowning in a rage they don’t fully understand.

And the void answers back—validating their harmful ideas and strengthening misogynistic beliefs before they even fully form.

It’s not just communities singularly focused on perpetuating misogyny that indoctrinate teenage boys. Singh warns that even gaming spaces—meant for escape from the rigmarole of everyday life—often breed something darker, especially if they’re unmoderated.

Trash talk is common in multiplayer games, but when misogyny becomes the default language of competition, it stops being a joke. It becomes the air they breathe

Hours spent in these spaces, then,  shape how they perceive women – not as equals, but as obstacles, as distractions, as enemies. And just like that, misogyny stops feeling like an opinion. It becomes a fact.

This confusion features in Adolescence, too, where the protagonist’s online consumption begins reshaping his personality, making him more defensive, angry, and resistant to differing perspectives.

Homing in on Misogyny

The internet didn’t birth misogyny, though. “It’s not like we went from a feminist society and the incel brigade started a shift to misogyny. What they [did] was give men permission to say these things publicly and out loud again. The young men and boys picking up this language were already primed to accept it by a society that hated women,” a Canadian mom, 30, wrote on Threads.

This is, perhaps, why Varsha Das, the mother of a five-year-old boy in India, emphasises the importance of communicating the values of kindness, empathy, and sensitivity to kids from a young age. “We have to keep having conversations,” she says. 

Even so, challenges persist. “His father sets a good example for him at home. We talk to him about emotional intelligence, and try to teach him things like, ‘a friend is a friend, irrespective of whether they’re a girl or a boy,’ and that ‘you can play with whichever toy you choose, irrespective of your gender.’ But then, he goes out and encounters people who are preaching the opposite,” notes Das, adding, “It’s a contradiction that’s hard for him to navigate.” 

Exploring Identity Through Art

Despite the bleak landscape, interventions do exist. According to Nagar, one of the most effective strategies is fostering critical thinking. “Boys need to be taught to question what they see online. Schools should have discussions about the media they consume.”

Vandana Asha, an arts-based educator working with rural adolescents, also advocates for critical thinking and reflection. “When we work with kids, first of all, it's inner work and the self, and then the surrounding, and then the society. So when you're doing the inner work, it's a very critical lens with which you look at yourself and your conditionings: why are you the way you are? what shapes you? what shapes your values? what are your values? how is it formed?” she says, explaining that “it gives them a lot of time and space to reflect.”

But that’s not all.

“When boys engage in storytelling, theatre, or art, they start examining their emotions in ways they’re usually discouraged from doing. They become more aware of how gender roles shape them".

Vandana Asha, Educator

Singh also suggests a ‘zero-trust approach’—restricting access to harmful platforms while respecting digital autonomy. “Rather than banning platforms, parents can talk to their kids about how algorithms work, help them recognise when they’re being manipulated, and encourage them to follow diverse perspectives.” 

In Adolescence, we see the cost of waiting too long. The show isn’t just about one boy’s descent into toxic masculinity—it’s about the failure of the adults around him to intervene early enough. The boys we ignore will become the men we fear.

So, here’s the bottom line: boys are looking for guidance; if they don’t get it from the adults in their lives, they’ll find it elsewhere. Likely from influencers who package sexism as empowerment. “Andrew Tate is speaking to your sons,” Nagar warns. “Why aren’t you?” 

(Devrupa Rakshit is a queer, autistic individual, ARTivist and independent multimedia journalist based in Bangalore. This is an opinion piece. All views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)