Adolescence is NOT about the ‘Red Pill Agenda’. Hear me out.
(The words and opinions of this blog are that of the author and her experiences. This is not professional advice, and should not be used in lieu of that. )Netflix dropped a limited 4 part series called Adolescence that’s about the investigation of a 13 year old boy who has been accused of murdering a young girl the same age…
Quickly - if you haven’t watched it yet and want to, I feel I may provide spoilers so bookmark and come back after you have completed it.
You go through finding out the what and the why alongside the parents, experiencing confusion, belief and disbelief at the same time. You are not made privy to any information prior to them, amplifying the sense of emotion and allowing the viewer to sit in an empathic space while watching. Not to mention the power of the colour scale and this phenomenal one shot recording (artistically I’m fan-girling hard on the immense creative and incredibly human style).
This series was always going to become a conversation starter, rightfully and importantly so. The topic is a relevant and critical one for us as a society, but I don’t think it is not the topic of the ‘Red Pill Agenda’ I see so many talking about. That’s the example of the loudest danger at present and the superficial layer of this story but not the core warning this show desperately pleads to it audience.
I was so excited for a new consciousness and conversation about how we open the gate to the pastures of the internet and allow our kids to free-reign kids roam, even with what we believe are protective barriers in place. I won’t lie that I felt frustrated when I saw the first conversations beginning online centring around the ‘Red Pill Agenda’. Those frustrations were amplified when I found an interview of the writer, director, and actor of the series father, Stephen Graham being interviewed on Today in the USA, with the host just breezing over the deep and passionate under meaning. Listening to his reflections on Adolescence, strengthened my opinion of this blogs title.
“What is happening to young boys today, in todays society. With this radicalisation of the internet, but also the school system and parenting.”
Radicalisation. That’s the key word. This ‘Red Pill Agenda’ and the notorious content creator spewing this rhetoric (who I refuse to name to give any further acknowledgement) are the major issue of the radicalisation of the NOW. But think back to before mainstream learnt of the Red Pill Agenda, there was problems with radicalisation still - that time period the main perpetrators were extremist & terrorist organisations such as ISIS.
I’m going to ask a theoretical question framed as a metaphor and I understand that it may be a bit blunt or assertive for some readers, so please apply reader discretion. I ask if you read it, continue on after as this is not a blame game, but an awakening for us all - me inlcuded.
Knowing the internet and the ocean are both dangerous places in their own way but both can be equally just as fun with unique and beautiful experiences when safely interacted with, I ask this;
If an adult took a child in a boat out to sea, not too far offshore where the child then wanted to get out and go for a swim. The adult complies and scoops the child up, tells them ‘be careful’ and throws them overboard. The child can swim anywhere really, but ideally the adult wants them to swim back to shore. Theres even floating markers directing the child to head that way. Some readers may be a bit more literal than others and begin wondering the child’s age and swimming ability. Sure, kids have different levels of swimming proficiency and some making it back to shore on their own is well within their ability, BUT what if this place was notorious for Great White Sharks?
This imaginary event occurs and the child doesn’t make it make to shore. Is there responsibility on the adult? Even if the child wanted to swim and was told there are sharks in the water? Alternatively the child does make it to shore, is that just sheer luck that the sharks didn’t cross their path? (this is for the ‘well, I did it and it didn’t affect me’ argument).
Before anyone goes and states that I’m saying that parents are wholly to blame, I want to be clear - NO! My gosh, absolutely not. But there is a lot of responsibility to be held and ‘we just didn’t know’, does not cut it.
Stephen Graham said it best. It’s not just the internet, but also the school system and our parenting approaches that are impacting and affecting our youth. The old styles aren’t matching anymore, and its not the ‘kids these days’, but unprecedented times (as a millennial, can we PLEASE have less precedented times?!).
Things need to change.
“Well Nell, you have a lot to say on this, so what are the answers?” (says you, maybe).
Honestly, I don’t know explicitly. I don’t have the answers, but ideas? I have a few. I truly believe that answers and change need to come from conversations among our community as a collective and we ALL have to do this work, together.
Childhood has become more complex, and cannot be compared to previous generations. Meaning that parenting and education needs to follow suit.
We’re expecting our teachers to teach an outdated school system that is clearly not working. Teachers are feeling under supported and overworked and not just a whinge about work way, on average a teacher is remaining in their field for 5 years post graduation before undergoing a career change. It is damaging and dire.
Parents, carers, and adults are facing complex situations and behaviours that did not exist in their childhoods, because the internet did not exist in their childhoods. Makes sense.
We so profoundly acknowledge the leaps and gains that the internet has brought the world, from maintaining contact to accessing news, information, and being granted opportunities. The internet is a big influence on our young generation, on any generation. I personally know that my career and successes are due to the internet.
We also all collectively agree the internet is a dangerous place. Sex trafficking. Child Sex Abuse Material. Predators. Cyber-bullying. Cancel culture. Scams. Identity theft. It’s all there, there in abundance, and there in more ways than I can imagine. Social media platforms and online games are being psychologically strategised against us, creating addiction, obsession, desperation, and exploitation.
So I implore you that if you have seen the series and had the message of this ‘Red Pill Agenda’ ring clear, watch it again with a bigger picture perspective of just simply ‘the internet’. And most definitely, read Johnathon Haidt’s ‘The Anxious Generation’, before or after.
Or both. Both is Good.
