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Comment by revelio | Hacker News Reader

You're conceding the point, right? The OP asks why is the focus only on teen girls? Why not on everyone who is getting sadder? The answer is: society and especially academia is systematically biased against men for political and ideological reasons. So you respond, when men ask for equally good treatment to women that is a "political" demand that is "reactionary" and "understandably makes people a bit angry". It's a restatement of the original claim, rephrased because you seem to agree with this anti-male bias, but that doesn't change what it is.

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I'm not conceding any point. I am trying to say that the way the internet works inherently filters information to us based on how emotionally engaging content is. Maybe you aren't exposed to the counter points because they aren't that engaging but there's tons of research being done on men as well. Incels and Japanese Hikikomori, conspiracy theories and online extremism is more male oriented. Also, objectively there's tons of studies of the mental health effects on males online but the consensus seems to be that gaming doesn't have as a negative effect on boys as social media has for women - which a lot of boys screen time revolves around. But boys are also affected by this.

The focus only being on teen girls is objectively false. We literally have no idea what this technology is doing to us, and the research communities are scrambling to figure out the effects of social media and technology on all of us. But these are extremely time consuming and hard things to do conclusive studies on.

I do concede that girls were the first group to be broadly reported though. Probably because that age and gender group is especially vulnerable to the damages caused by social media and signs clearly starting showing up in 2012-2017 in a greater degree than boys of the same age group. Also it doesn't surprise me that a group who is constantly monitored by authority (parents and schools) are the first to be reported on. Males aged 20-60 are more likely to isolate themselves and not reach out creating far greater "dark cases".

My original point is that the internet exaggerates and selectively filters for engagement. If your knowledge on this topic is primarily from online sources optimised for engagement you have an incomplete view on the area. I'm not trying to change your mind on this topic in particular. I'm just saying that the internet inherently exaggerates and removes nuance (and I've felt a bit of that lack of nuance in your comments) and that this affects everyone and every single topic online today. Including me.

This thread is getting quite confusing. OK, your argument is that only a tiny minority of people are engaged in misandry like constantly talking about incels, and they are exaggerated by the internet, and most of society actually cares a lot about problems that affect men. Is that right?

I gotta ask because you seem to be disagreeing with the thesis of this thread, but then it appears like you keep rephrasing the points:

TheLoafOfBread says: "Society does not care about male problems. Let's just label them incels or terrorists and be done with it."

Your response: "there's tons of research being done on men as well. Incels and Japanese Hikikomori, conspiracy theories and online extremism is more male oriented"

Yes that's what he said?? Academics research girls to solve their problems, they research men as problems. Put another way, if this is really the view of only a tiny minority that is exaggerated by social media engagement optimization, how can there also be "tons of research" on these things?

Yes, that is my point.

Ok, I'll spell it out clearly for you then.

Research is being done on both girls and boys, adults and children. There are rational explanations for why you mostly hear about the girls (the numbers there are insane, and more likely to bubble up into your feed).

But the comment thread here seems to take the stance that men are being profiled and biased by this research through a political and an ideological stance. There is no/little research being done on men or boys - and the research that is being done is attributed to ideological and political reasons and to suppress boys and men through stamping them as "extremists, incels and such".

Women don't care about men. #killallmen. This is absolutely absurd and doesn't mirror real life in the slightest. It's an extreme position you've been fed through the information you consume online. It's a position based on vicitimisation and outrage. Your talking points lack nuance.

The reason you haven't heard about research is not because it doesn't exist - but because the information sources you consume online doesn't filter it up to you. There are rational explanations for why boys and men are underreported in this research, you just aren't picking it up, and you're attributing it to malice and conspiracies.

This is what the internet does. It polarizes people.

But it seems like this thread was removed from HN. I won't be returning.

> t's an extreme position you've been fed through the information you consume online.

DoctorRandomercam plug XD

It's not so much that "academia is systematically biased against men for political and ideological reasons" as much as men themselves (as a generalized group, exceptions exist) are resistant to admitting that any of these issues are a significant problem, and asking for or seeking help for them if they were.

It's the old standard of not wanting to appear weak or needy. This is a real thing with men (as a generalized group, exceptions exist) and also plays a powerful role is shaping how society treats men's versus women's problems in this context.

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