So, first half is explanation —

“Adolescence” is a series revolving around the impact of social media on youth - particularly young men - and how ideology as harmful as incel culture can manipulate people so easily and shape them into what they turn to.

While watching the show, at first, the viewer seems to feel guilty for Jamie - a 13 year old boy who murdered his female classmate - often sympathising with him as he keeps on claiming he did nothing wrong. The more we get into the story however, the more we see that it’s not the case.

When asked by the therapist, a female one I may add (this will be important for later on…) during episode 3, it first starts off lighthearted, showing the adolescence Jamie possesses, often talking to him about his school life and all, until the conversation unravels and we find out more.

Throughout the four episodes, it seems like one person Jamie has a strong connection with is his father. Going on, it seems like he pays not mind to the women in his family at all, despite his mother showing so much care for him even in small bits and pieces while his dad… not so much. Jamie even picks his dad as his responsible adult, showing how much he idolizes this man in his family. He seems to be content in telling him everything, almost like he knows how easy it is to manipulate him because he shows to have a “soft spot” for Jamie.

Now, back to the therapist, during Jamie’s crashouts, we see how sometimes he brings up the fact that the other therapists before this woman one were “better at understanding” him. When he’d scream and shout at her, he’d slowly calm down when a bodyguard (?) who is a man, stepped into the room, which would mean he feels more at ease with a man there than a woman.

Then, we get into the sexual aspects. Jamie lies to the therapist, saying he’s touched women before in their parts and they’ve done to same to him, only for him to retaliate and say it never happened. He only said it because he felt like he should, almost as if to get a validation from either himself or a reaction from the therapist. You see, what Jamie seeks the most is validation. He keeps on asking the therapist if she likes him or not, or what she thinks of him. Keeps on complimenting her, expecting her to do the same. When the therapist asks him what he thinks of himself, or why he doesn’t have a girlfriend, Jamie responds with “because I’m ugly”. He then goes on to ask the therapist if she thinks he’s ugly, too, to which she doesn’t reply because that would soothe his hunger for validation. He then proceeds to accidentally confess to his crime on killing Katie and then retaliates again by saying the therapist is putting words in his mouth, but how did Jamie even kill Katie and why?

Both Jamie and Katie were apparently bullied in school. Katie’s nudes were passed around, and Jamie was spat on and tripped at. Jamie then seeing Katie, “felt bad” for her. Well, he didn’t really feel bad, he said that he just asked her out on a date because he thought she was weak now, now that everyone hated her and kept slutshaming her. Katie then declined Jamie, saying she wasn’t that desperate - which hey! Harsh, sure - but a no is still a no. She didn’t fall for that. That sent Jamie into a rage, so he stalked her and killed her.

Later on during therapy, he admitted the he killed her but tried to lighten his crime up by saying “other men would’ve touched her. I didn’t. I wanted to, but I didn’t, so I’m better, right?” Signalling that most men after killing a woman would SA them, but he held himself back.

At the end, his parents admitted to the fact that they should’ve kept an eye on Jamie more and what happened to him, since social media impacted his views a lot, but how exactly? I’ll get into that too LOL

Second part is just the overall impact — I’ll write it in a bit

So, what prompted Jamie to act the way he did? Well, simple. Social media. Ever heard of Andrew Tate? Or the Red Pill Community? Mhm…

He basically killed her because after she rejected her, she kept on commenting 🧨 on his instagram posts. This emoji basically means Red Pill, aka incel. She kept calling him an incel. And he got more into the media, saw it for himself, and fell into a deeper hole of whatever this was.

Incel content on social media focuses on the insecurities of men and how women aren’t attracted to them, and how they aren’t as desirable as other men are, so they find ways to blame this on society and women, and find deep rooted misogynistic ways to make them feel a sort of peace towards themselves. Many young boys have been a victim to stuff like this, that doesn’t only turn social media inside out, but in real life too.

On average, one woman is killed by a man every THREE DAYS in the UK. (Based in the UK). So yes, there have been men who actually take their rage onto people in public and murder women (not surprisingly..)

And before you start saying that Jamie’s actions are because of his family or trauma, they aren’t. He has a loving, supportive family. The creators did this on purpose just to eliminate that stereotype that people who do this must’ve had a tough life or something in their family. It wasn’t the case for Jamie at all.

The show focuses on how social media can manipulate youth so easily and trick them into stuff like this, and how parents and family members use the excuse of “well all kids are like this now” just to say it’s normal.

No.

It isn’t normal.

It ruins people’s lives.

edit: might as well also add a point I forgot to mention is that real life pressure leads youth to turn towards social media. So it’s not fully social media to blame for this but rather situations in real life and how people tend to act towards others.

I’ll even put myself as an example here. I had a male classmate with the same mindset as this and he still has it now. Taking pictures of students during class, saying women can’t have an opinion, etc etc etc… all while having a baby sister. Gets you thinking how he treats her, doesn’t it?

Generally speaking, in a full way?

Please touch grass, people.
Please.

https://youtu.be/teMKnxbd_O0?si=oG5F5ANWbOCsrzLy

I rest my case. Goodnight.

My husband(pariya) stays up watching something serious like adolescence meanwhile i stayed up watching trtrollhunters. Fucking troll. Hunters.