Boys & Men Online

David Sasaki

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Technology
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The latest research, policy, and commentary about the online lives of boys and men. A project of the American Institute for Boys and Men. www.menonline.org

1d ago

Is the manosphere really a rabbit hole?

Is the manosphere a rabbit hole? In Harmony Labs’ analysis of YouTube channels, viewers of male grievance content also watched plenty of other things, from sports to news and comedy. That complicates the picture of young men being drawn into a single world of grievance content. However, it does not tell us what happens when someone leaves YouTube to join a creator’s paid community. Two recent reports from our partners at Equimundo examine different parts of that story. The Grift Economy, produced with Reset Tech, maps how some creators turn young men’s aspirations and insecurities into revenue. Men’s Flourishing + Media, produced with Harmony Labs and LinkUp Lab, looks at what people watch and how different audiences respond to selected media. In this week’s conversation, Caroline Hayes and I explore what each report can tell us—and what we still need to learn. We discuss: * How some creators turn young men’s aspirations and insecurities into attention, paid memberships, and courses * Whether grievance about women is central to that business model, or whether typical self-improvement marketing does more of the selling * What Harmony Labs found when it looked for a “rabbit hole” in men’s YouTube viewing * Why watching a provocative clip tells us little, on its own, about what a young man believes * How to learn from young men who already assess online content critically How can we take exploitation and misogyny seriously without assuming that every young man who encounters this content is drawn in by it? Caroline and I don’t agree on every part of the answer, but we agree that the distinction matters for research, for parents and educators, and for anyone trying to offer young men something better. You can listen to the audio above or watch the video below. As always, we appreciate your feedback in the comments or via a direct message. As we book upcoming guests, what else would you like to know about manosphere research? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.menonline.org
Sep 17

Beyond Financial Nihilism

In this week’s episode, Jon speaks with Thea Garon of the Urban Institute about a paradox in young adults’ financial lives: many are saving and planning for the future while also turning to crypto, prediction markets, and sports betting. They discuss: * Why “financial nihilism” is an incomplete story: Gen Z may feel that the economy is stacked against them, but they are also saving and planning for their futures. * How sports betting and prediction markets can make gambling feel, sound, and look more like investing. * How fun, social connection, and social media messaging shape financial decisions. * What we still don’t know about young people’s financial behaviors, and how policymakers, banks, and educators can build useful guardrails. Gen Z is trying to build financial independence and keep up with their peers on social media in an environment that feels unusually uncertain — and they are being offered plenty of high-risk ways to do so. So how can financial institutions, policymakers, and educators meet the demand while ensuring meaningful consumer protections and financial literacy? You can listen to the audio above or watch the video below. As always, we appreciate your feedback in the comments below or via a direct message. Where do you think the line between investing and gambling should be drawn? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.menonline.org
Sep 10

A Mayor’s Experience Working with Young Men

As a teenager, Rob Moore had “a lot of energy and not a lot of productive places to put it.” He jumped off bridges, drove too fast, experimented with drugs and alcohol, and got into trouble with the law. If you had asked his teachers whether he was more likely to become mayor or end up in jail, he jokes, they would have picked jail. Today, at 28, Moore is the youngest mayor in the history of Los Gatos, California. We discuss: * How mentors, meaningful responsibilities, and direct invitations to contribute can help young men direct their energy toward something constructive. * Why Moore created the Young Leaders Group, where 35 high school students routinely meet offline to discuss topics they select, including a difficult conversation about masculinity, femininity, and the growing divide between boys and girls. * How boys often build trust through shared activities and shoulder-to-shoulder interactions before opening up. * Why social media is not a true “third space”—and how skate parks, basketball courts, libraries, athletic fields, sidewalks, and safe bike lanes function as essential social infrastructure. * Whether the funds from the proposed Meta could help communities build real-world alternatives for young people. * How expensive travel sports can monopolize public facilities, excluding families unable to pay thousands of dollars per season. * Why men who benefited from coaches and mentors owe a “generational debt” to the boys coming after them. * Ending the week right with the Train Hard Men’s Club. A larger theme runs throughout our conversation. Young people can’t just be told to log off, grow up, and look for work when the pathways to get there are fuzzy and just paying a month’s rent is out of reach for the majority. If we want young people to spend less time online, we need to help build an offline world that is appealing. You can listen to the audio above or through your favorite podcast app, or watch the video below. As always, we appreciate your feedback in the comments or via a direct message. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.menonline.org
Aug 24

When investing starts to look like gambling

Thirty-eight percent of men ages 18 to 29 say they have invested in, traded, or used cryptocurrency. That’s more than twice the share of women in the same age group, as Diego Nunez and I note in a new research brief, “Young men and cryptocurrency: What the evidence shows.” In this week’s episode, Diego and I speak with Molly White, a technology critic and the writer behind the widely read Citation Needed newsletter. We discuss: * Why crypto disproportionately attracts young men * How soaring prices, FOMO, and “next big thing” marketing fueled the 2021 crypto boom * The gap between crypto’s promise of decentralization and a reality increasingly dominated by large platforms, Wall Street, and the government * The tension between claims of “predatory inclusion” by crypto firms and demographic data about the average crypto investor * How economic uncertainty and “financial nihilism” can push people toward crypto, day trading, sports betting, and other high-risk attempts to get ahead A larger theme weaves throughout the conversation. In the midst of inflation, uncertainty about the labor market, and the value of a college degree, young men may be increasingly drawn to gambling as a high-risk shortcut to economic independence. You can listen to the audio above or watch the video below. As always, we appreciate your feedback — in the comments or via a direct message. Do you think crypto is meaningfully different from gambling? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.menonline.org
Aug 17

Why Gen Z Is Waiting to Date

Survey data consistently tell us that dating is declining and sex is receding among Gen Z, especially for young men. But the following stats don’t tell us what it feels like, or why so many young people are putting off romance. In 1976, 86 percent of American high-school seniors said they had ever dated. By 2016, it had fallen to 57 percent. In 2024, it was 46 percent, according to Monitoring the Future data. The decline is more pronounced for young men, as young women tend to date older men. 63% of men ages 18–29 described themselves as single in 2022, versus 34% of women. (A 12-point rise for young men since 2019.) Unsurprisingly, 30.9% of men ages 18–24 were sexually inactive during the previous year between 2016-18 compared to 18.9% between 2000–02. The cause of the decline is more speculative, and there has been no shortage of speculation: The Guardian produced a three-part documentary series on the decline of dating with episodes focusing on the UK, US, and South Korea. They explore three possible explanations: the manosphere, worsening gender relations, and a higher cost of living. The New York Times Opinions podcast hosted a conversation featuring AIBM board member Christine Emba. Among the possible explanations they discussed: phones as a substitute for real-world interaction, anxiety among Gen Z women after the reversal of Roe, and #MeToo’s effects on the perceived risks of dating and sex. Other commentators blame Gen Z’s risk aversion and low self-confidence, the cost of housing, and the side effects of antidepressants. It’s less common to hear members of Gen Z describe for themselves what it’s like to date today. So I was pleased when AIBM’s summer intern, Diego Nunez, offered to describe his own experience. We discuss: * Waiting for the milestones: Diego says he hears from his friends that dating waits until the job, housing, and checking account are ready. * How COVID disrupted his generation’s first experiences with romance in high school * Designing spaces and events where romance takes shape and women feel safe * The effects of AI porn vs. the normalization of sexual content on TikTok * The one thing Diego would do to bring romance back for his generation You can listen to the audio above, or the video version below: If dating’s decline is partly a story about disappearing opportunities for connection, what can be done to build new ones? As we prepared for this conversation, I was surprised by how little research I could find about what works to increase the likelihood of romance and partnership. Much of the research published in journals like Personal Relationships and Journal of Social and Personal Relationships examines relationships that already exist. I found little about the conditions in which new relationships form. If you’ve seen rigorous research about how to create more opportunities for partnership and romance, please share it in the comments or with a direct message: PS: Diego was the co-author of our new research brief, “Young men and cryptocurrency: What the evidence shows.” We’ll discuss that during next week’s episode. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.menonline.org
Jul 27

The opposite of addiction is not recovery; it's connection.

Steven Wolt is the founder of Valor Recovery, a coaching and peer-support program for men struggling with pornography, compulsive sexual behaviors, and intimacy challenges — a program whose coaches, Steven included, are all in long-term recovery themselves. Steven joined our pornography research convening in Minneapolis in June, and this conversation picks up where that meeting left off. We discuss: * Where he’d like to see pornography researchers focus: Researchers study men in the problem, rarely men who’ve come out the other side. He’d like to see work following men six, nine, twelve months into recovery that studies whether and how shame recedes, confidence returns, and intimacy develops. * Frequency is the wrong metric. After working with thousands of men, Steven doesn’t ask how often. He looks for loss of control and accumulating consequences: relationships, sexual function, work, general peace of mind. * Porn as a regulation tool, not a sexual behavior. For the men he works with, porn has become the primary way they manage anxiety, boredom, loneliness, anger. With a phone in every pocket, he compares pornography to being newly sober from cocaine while carrying a pocketful everywhere you go. * Which is why “just stop” fails. Recovery, as he describes it, has surprisingly little to do with not watching porn. It’s about becoming emotionally regulated, socially connected, and honest — building a life you don’t want to escape from. * “Men need other men to become better men.” While therapy can generate useful insight, Steven has observed that behavior changes in the company of other men you don’t want to let down. Those groups exist, but they carry stigma and still aren’t easily accessible for your average 18-year-old. * Recovery as something you’re building toward. Recovery is often understood by what’s being left behind. Steven frames the process as a move toward healthy masculinity — integrity, brotherhood, service, alignment between values and behavior. “You can fool the world, but you can’t fool the man in the mirror.” * Losing the tolerance for discomfort. His recovery work with young men transcends pornography. Most young men, growing up with a phone always within reach, have not sat with discomfort long enough to develop the resilience. * Moving toward alignment with values. “There’s this idea that this is about morality, that these are men without values — that can’t be further from the truth. They’re suffering because they’re living a life not in alignment with their values.” PS: Steven’s personal story is inspiring, unlikely, and quite funny. To learn more, check out his interview with Theo Von. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.menonline.org
Jul 20

Can courts redesign addictive tech?

Peter Chapman is Associate Director with the Knight-Georgetown Institute (KGI) at Georgetown University. He’s one of the most interesting thinkers on the intersection between tech policy, design, and the law. In this week’s episode, we discuss: * Courts may be the new front in tech regulation. Recent cases against Meta and other platforms are testing whether addictive and unsafe design features—not just user-generated content—can create legal liability. * While the media have focused on financial penalties, court-imposed design changes could be more consequential. Courts could require changes to features such as autoplay, default notifications, age verification, and features that connect minors with unknown adults. * Many safety tools, including parental controls, appear designed to reassure regulators rather than meaningfully change behavior. Internal company documents suggest that some platforms have measured safety interventions partly by ensuring they do not substantially reduce time spent online. * Litigation and legislation should be complementary, not competing strategies. Democratic institutions should establish broad rules, but lawsuits can expose internal evidence, compensate people who were harmed, and correct risks that regulators failed to anticipate. * The same design framework applies beyond social media. Sports betting, prediction markets, gaming, and other digital products increasingly use similar mechanics to extend use and spending, creating an opportunity for common standards around friction, transparency, limits, and user control. * The ultimate goal is to restore human agency. Early online communities often helped people collaborate, learn, and build relationships. Today’s platforms too often make users feel that they are fighting an algorithm designed to override their intentions. Better policy should help technology work for people again. For more from Pete: * TIME: “Why Fines Alone Won’t Make Social Media Safer for Kids” * Tech Policy Press: “What US Lawsuits Reveal About Platform Design That DSA Reports Don’t” * KGI: “Designing Technology Remedies: Lessons for Social Media and Generative AI Chatbot Litigation” * KGI: “Measuring Risk: What EU Risk Assessments and US Litigation Reveal About Meta and TikTok” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.menonline.org
Jun 24

How the internet became a casino

Open a sports app, a brokerage app, video game, or even shopping site, and you’ll likely find design features borrowed from slot machines. Gambling has moved from casinos and lottery tickets to becoming a core business model of our digital lives. Three forces have converged since the onset of COVID: more time spent on our devices in isolation, the expansion of legalized online gambling, and the rise of digital products designed around engagement loops. Sports betting is the most visible example, but the broader pattern includes prediction markets, crypto trading, Robinhood-style gamified investing, loot boxes in video games, online casinos, meme stocks, and even shopping apps that use gambling-like mechanics. In this week’s episode, New York Times journalist Germán López moderates a discussion between CNN commentator and AIBM fellow kyla scanlon, Fanatics CEO Matt King, and AIBM’s gambling policy lead Jonathan D. Cohen. There were real disagreements among the panelists. Jonathan Cohen argued that sports betting helped normalize gambling culturally, especially through advertising, celebrity endorsements, and sports broadcasts. Matt King pushed back, claiming that sports betting already existed illegally, and legal markets at least create an opportunity for consumer protections. Kyla Scanlon argued that the deeper issue is not sports betting alone, but economic insecurity, social media, and a broader culture of speculative risk. Still, the panelists united on several themes: An old impulse, transformed by new technology People have always gambled, but it once required effort to get to Las Vegas, Atlantic City, or a bookie. Now there is almost no friction. The casino follows you around, available all day, with endless new activities to bet on. Sports betting accelerated and normalized the broader trend. Pew found that 22% of U.S. adults bet on sports in the past year in 2025, and 36% of men under 30 did so. The blurred line between gambling, investing, and entertainment Gambling companies present as investment platforms, disguising risk-taking as financial self-improvement. Prediction markets are treated as financial products, but the vast majority of people use them to gamble. An AIBM/Ipsos poll found that 61% of Americans familiar with prediction markets see them as closer to gambling than investing, while only 8% see them as closer to investing. Robinhood, crypto wallets, same-day options, perpetual futures, and sports betting increasingly live in the same mental and digital ecosystem. A user may open an app to manage money and be nudged toward riskier products. Gambling is quickly moving from niche vice to mainstream digital behavior, concentrated among young men and blended into finance, fandom, gaming, and news. It’s getting worse, and younger Nobody was asking to lower the age for online gambling from 21 to 18. But the Trump administration effectively opened a new national loophole by making prediction markets available to anyone 18 or older. President Trump lamented that “the whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino.” And yet, Donald Trump Jr. serves as a key strategic adviser to the major platforms Kalshi and Polymarket, while Trump Media & Technology Group announced plans for its own crypto-based prediction platform, Truth Predict. Economic insecurity and the search for escape There are two ends of a barbell across the K-shaped economy, observed kyla scanlon. For wealthy households, online gambling may satisfy young men’s natural desire for risk-taking in a world of complacent abundance. For low-income households, gambling becomes a tempting shortcut out of financial precarity when job insecurity, inflation, and expensive housing make conventional paths to economic stability feel out of reach. It’s past time to regulate gambling and speculation The panelists converge around several policy ideas: * Raise or maintain age limits, especially for prediction markets and gambling-like products. * Apply advertising restrictions across sports betting, prediction markets, crypto, and other speculative products. * Require clearer disclosures when products are closer to gambling than investing. * Separate long-term investment tools from high-risk entertainment products. * Use responsible-gaming tools such as deposit limits, timeouts, forced breaks, and behavioral flags. * Regulate influencer marketing and require transparency around paid promotion. The gamblification of everything is broader than sports betting and prediction markets. Consumer technology companies first monetized attention and engagement through targeted advertising. Now, they have monetized risk taking and economic uncertainty through gambling products that cosplay as investment platforms while all but guaranteeing economic losses and, potentially, severe financial distress. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.menonline.org

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The latest research, policy, and commentary about the online lives of boys and men. A project of the American Institute for Boys and Men. www.menonline.org

Creator

David Sasaki
Years Active

2025 - 2026
Episodes

19
Rating

Explicit
Show Website

Boys & Men Online

Boys & Men Online

Episodes

Is the manosphere really a rabbit hole?

Beyond Financial Nihilism

A Mayor’s Experience Working with Young Men

When investing starts to look like gambling

Why Gen Z Is Waiting to Date

The opposite of addiction is not recovery; it's connection.

Can courts redesign addictive tech?

How the internet became a casino

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