Beyond the Manosphere: Supporting Boys’ Health in Online Spaces

Social media has become a primary environment in which boys and young men (BYM) navigate social interactions, access information, and explore and express identity. However, public debate and empirical research on social media and youth health have largely centered on girls and young women, with comparatively less sustained attention to BYM’s digital lives and the ways online constructions of masculinity shape their health and well-being. BYM’s online experiences of masculinity are also affected by the intersections of race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and religion.

Surveys of young men aged 16–25 in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia indicate that a majority follow “men and masculinity” creators.¹ Emerging research characterizes a spectrum of male-centered content, ranging from supportive spaces where boys and men connect around shared interests, caregiving, or health challenges, to more extreme configurations such as the “manosphere,” where hostility toward women and rigid gender hierarchies are normalized.²

Here, we propose that masculine content on social media be understood as an important site of exposure and intervention for BYM’s health, not only because of potential harms associated with its most extreme forms, but also because it reflects needs for peer connection, relatable role models, and actionable advice about relationships, health, and school/work. We outline how masculine content online can support and harm BYM’s health across three domains: interpersonal relationships, engagement with health information and care, and body image and fitness (Table). In these domains, we highlight opportunities for public health, education, and clinical practice to cultivate healthier masculinities online.

Table.

Examples of health-supportive social media content for boys and young men

Interpersonal relationships	Ethno-religious minority young men in Belgium used Instagram and TikTok as a “digital neighborhood” to stay connected with close male friends and collectively craft masculinized selves in response to discrimination.13 Black teenage boys grieving friends lost to gun violence used Instagram and other platforms to post tributes, photos, and hashtags (e.g., #LongLiveDaGuys), creating online memorials where they could openly express sadness, love, and solidarity.14 Men experiencing unintended fatherhood shared complex emotions from regret to acceptance and worries about mental health, bonding with their baby, and finances on Reddit forums for new and expectant fathers (e.g., r/Daddit, r/Predaddit). These communities offered a supportive space for men to voice conflicting feelings about becoming a father and receive advice, coping strategies, and reassurance from other fathers.6
Engagement with health information and care	On Reddit, male survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) disclosed abuse, described negative or absent responses from formal services, and sought advice on safety and legal options. In response to these posts, other commenters offered information, emotional validation, and their own IPV stories.15 Male celebrities have disclosed their mental health struggles on various digital platforms, drawing attention to how masculinity is at odds with help-seeking,16 while encouraging information-seeking and other proactive health behaviors among boys and young men.17 Men have shared details of their mental health diagnoses, medications, treatment plans, and reasons for not committing suicide on Reddit18 and X/Twitter.17 Men with testicular cancer tended to rely on clinicians for medical information about diagnosis and treatment options and side effects, while turning to Reddit forums about testicular cancer to share their own stories, express fear and uncertainty, and ask for advice rooted in peers’ lived experiences.8
Body image and fitness	A body-positivity blog for men on Tumblr provided an inclusive space to discuss body image and mental health concerns, while expressing emotional vulnerability, using “feminized” language (e.g., calling other men “cute” or “pretty”), and showing support for queer and transmasculine men, men of color, and women of color.19 Dad-bloggers have written about becoming fit for their children and ways to keep their children healthy. These blogs link fitness and health to “good fathering,” framing body work as part of an involved, health-conscious, and caring masculinity.20 Many American non-Asian Korean pop (K-pop) fans had little prior exposure to Asian American masculinities growing up. Through sustained engagement with K-pop idols’ slimmer, highly stylized visual presentation (e.g., fashion, grooming, and choreography), fans reported re-evaluating norms that equate masculinity with large, muscular builds and aggressive behavior.21

Note. Examples are illustrative, not exhaustive, and drawn from qualitative and mixed-methods studies describing how boys and men engage with social media across multiple domains relevant to health and well-being.

Interpersonal relationships and homosocial connection

For many BYM, online spaces (e.g., gaming servers, Discord channels, private group chats, male-centered forums) extend their everyday social worlds and function as homosocial environments for friendship and belonging. By offering anonymity, control over how and when to disclose, and reduced face-to-face social pressures, digital communication can lower the perceived risks of self-disclosure for BYM who find it difficult to express vulnerability offline.³ For instance, shy boys describe online games as spaces where they could form and maintain friendships they struggled to build offline.⁴ Anonymous or semi-anonymous platforms (e.g., Reddit) have facilitated advice-exchange and discussions about relationships, mental health, and fatherhood.^5,6 These spaces can enable authentic self-expression, provide validation, and model caregiving and relational responsibility. When supported by active moderation limiting harassment and nonconsensual image-sharing, these communities can serve as prosocial masculine spaces where help-seeking and caregiving are treated as compatible with masculinity.

However, the same spaces can also become organized around contempt and exclusion. Studies of BYM’s group chats show how misogynistic memes, sexualized “jokes,” and nonconsensual sharing of images can function as practices of hierarchical homosociality in which status is gained by demeaning others or policing peers’ masculinity.⁷ In more extreme corners of the manosphere, belonging is built around a collective identity that often casts women and feminists as responsible for BYM’s struggles and valorizes aggression.^2,7

Thus, clinicians, educators, and public health practitioners should attend to how online spaces meet BYM’s fundamental desire for connection and when that desire is leveraged toward exclusion or harm. Rather than framing all male-centered and masculine online communities as inherently risky, interventions can (1) support moderated, prosocial peer spaces with clear rules; (2) teach digital media literacy and bystander skills that help BYM recognize coercive or misogynistic peer dynamics; (3) incorporate routine screening in clinical and school settings for online relational stressors with referral pathways to confidential supports as needed; and (4) partner with platforms to improve safety infrastructure (e.g., streamlined reporting and consistent enforcement against harassment and nonconsensual content).

Engagement with health information and care

BYM also turn online to make sense of their health concerns and symptoms. BYM have used Reddit and men’s forums to disclose and ask questions about stigmatized or intimate health issues that feel difficult to raise with family, peers, or clinicians (e.g., suicidality, sexual functioning), while receiving emotional and informational support from online peers that can augment formal services.^5,8 For example, users of a testicular cancer subreddit share diagnostic journeys, exchange practical advice about treatment side-effects, and provide encouragement.⁸ Hashtags and campaigns featuring male public figures discussing mental health have been associated with increased information-seeking, particularly among young men of color who see their experiences reflected in public discourse.⁵ For some boys, social media is one of the few places where male role models challenge mental health stigma and frame help-seeking as compatible with strength and responsibility.³

At the same time, some manosphere-adjacent influencers promote a narrow vision of self-reliance that frames discipline, diet, and fitness as universal solutions. Such narratives may lead BYM to interpret distress as personal failure, intensify self-stigma, redirect serious concerns into “self-optimization” efforts, and delay engagement with evidence-based care.² Commercialized self-help programs built on these narratives may further entrench mistrust of institutions and undermine public health messaging.

These dynamics suggest three steps for public health action: (1) normalize routine discussion of online health information during adolescent visits and school-based health education (e.g., asking which creators BYM trust and what advice they have acted on); (2) teach brief evaluation skills that flag risk (e.g., conflicts of interest, “miracle cure” claims, and messages that discourage seeking professional care)⁷; and (3) partner with platforms and trusted community leaders, athletes, and creators who already reach male audiences to amplify evidence-based content and connect suicidality- and sexual health-related searches to vetted resources and crisis supports.

Body image and fitness

Masculine content about bodies and fitness is another domain where potential benefits and harms coexist. Many BYM report pressure to gain muscle and engage in muscularity-oriented dieting and exercise,⁹ describing these practices as normative, desirable ways to enhance health, strength, confidence, and stress management alongside appearance.¹⁰ Online lifting communities and fitness influencers can make these goals feel achievable by offering programming, concrete routines, and opportunities to share progress with peers, providing structure, accountability, and a sense of belonging that may be missing in offline settings.^1,3 In these contexts, masculine fitness content can support physical activity and social cohesion, such as when BYM participate in challenges together or share progress in ways that emphasize effort, skill-building, and mutual encouragement rather than appearance alone.¹

Because pursuing muscularity is widely seen as part of self-improvement, “looksmaxxing” communities and some men’s fitness influencers can encourage BYM to adopt increasingly extreme body-change behaviors, including overtraining, unsupervised supplement and hormone use, and pseudoscientific jawline “mewing” and “bone smashing”.^1,11,12

Public health implications include (1) routinely assessing muscularity goals, supplement/hormone use, restrictive eating, and training through injury in clinical and school settings; (2) teaching BYM to recognize warning signs in fitness content (e.g., “quick fixes,” sales-driven advice, aggressive bulking/cutting); and (3) partnering with coaches, athletic programs, fitness creators, and platforms to encourage evidence-based training and recovery and reduce promotion of unsafe challenges or unregulated products.

Conclusion

Online masculine content is a central arena in which BYM negotiate what it means to “be a man,” with implications for their relationships, help-seeking, and bodies. These spaces can provide connection and support while also normalizing exclusion, anti-care messages, and risky body practices under the banner of self-improvement. Public health efforts should invest in research that engages with BYM’s digital lives seriously, amplify creators who model flexible, health-promoting masculinities, and equip clinicians, educators, and parents to discuss online influences with BYM.