Louis Theroux Study Finds Social Media Shapes Young Men
louis theroux sits at the center of a new study showing social media has become a key place where boys and young men learn what it means to be a man. Dr. Jason Nagata says that can shape mental health, relationships, and identity in ways that cut in two directions.
“Social media has become a key space where boys and young men learn what it means to ‘be a man’—and that can both support and harm their health,” Nagata said. The paper, published in the American Journal of Public Health, reviews existing research on masculine content online and finds that the same feeds that can normalize help-seeking can also feed misogyny.
Jason Nagata and the spectrum
“Our paper shows that these online spaces exist on a spectrum,” Nagata said, and that is the study’s clearest finding. At one end are supportive communities that promote connection, caregiving, and help-seeking. At the other are spaces that push rigid ideals built around dominance, physical perfection, and resentment.
The study says boys and young men are learning those lessons from TikTok creators, YouTube influencers, podcasters, and algorithm-driven feeds. It also says many actively follow creators focused on masculinity, fitness, self-improvement, relationships, and dating advice, which turns social media into a major source of social learning rather than a side channel.
Looksmaxxing on TikTok
In healthier spaces, boys use social media to talk about grief, mental health, relationships, and loneliness, and those exchanges can reduce isolation and normalize emotional vulnerability. That matters because the same platforms can also reward provocative, divisive, or emotionally charged material, pushing users toward content that is louder than it is useful.
The sharpest edge of that system shows up in looksmaxxing, a practice centered on maximizing physical attractiveness through jawline shape, eye appearance, muscularity, skin, and height. More extreme corners can encourage obsessive comparisons and risky interventions, including anabolic steroids such as testosterone or Anavar, as well as jaw surgery or limb-lengthening.
Manosphere overlap
“In some areas, it overlaps with looksmaxxing content that emphasizes an idealized version of male attractiveness and ties it directly to social success,” Nagata said. The manosphere adds another layer, describing online communities that promote rigid ideas about masculinity, relationships, and male-dominating status.
For boys and young men, the practical takeaway is simple: the feed is not neutral. A creator offering advice about fitness or dating may be promoting connection and self-improvement, or he may be packaging resentment and hierarchy in the same language, and the study says readers need to recognize that split before the algorithm decides for them.
