Equimundo’s State of American Men 2023 survey found that 48% of young men ages 18 to 23 say their online lives are more interesting than their offline ones. The survey also found that more than 40% of young men trust one or more misogynistic voices online. Even at first glance, one sees much harm online in the form of moderators, influencers, and sites that take young men into versions of manhood that too often promote the worst in all of us. But the story is more complex than that. Coming out of the study, Equimundo and Futures Without Violence recognized the need to deepen our understanding of how to reach men who are “in the middle”—and potentially open to conversations and being engaged in messages about healthy masculinities and allyship for gender equality.
This report presents findings from a six-month deep dive into the lives of young men online, primarily focused on the platforms and spaces used by young men in the United States. For this study, we partnered with the human-centered design firm Puddle to carry out an artificial intelligence (AI) analysis of more than 40 hours of Twitch streaming, 1.5 million lines of chat logs, and nearly 37,000 lines of Discord chat logs. The research also included 15 interviews with moderators and streamers, interviews with seven experts on young men’s lives, a context mapping of 14 male-majority spaces, and more than 100 hours spent observing six online male-majority spaces. The findings affirm a complex online universe—much of that monetized, weaponized, and harmful—but also a majority that leans positive (or at least innocuous) for young men seeking information, connection, and community. That key finding points the way to affirming young men’s dire need for social connections and potential pathways to connection that bridge online lives and offline ones.