The Boys Are Not Alright

Much has been written about the “crisis of boys.” Scott Galloway sees it as part of something larger: a broader crisis of men. A leading public intellectual, Galloway teaches graduate-level marketing at NYU’s Stern School of Business and hosts three widely followed podcasts. In his new memoir, Notes on Being a Man, he turns his analytical lens inward on himself and outward on the forces shaping the journey from boyhood to manhood. Traditional roles have become blurred. Time-honored paths to economic viability have become less attainable. Masculinity itself has become suspect. Underlying much of this disruption is Big Tech and the ruthless incentives of the attention economy. According to Galloway, algorithms designed to capture young people’s attention have had the effect of isolating them from the friction and feedback of the real world. This affects girls as well. But boys, Galloway contends, are particularly vulnerable to retreat into the unreality of screens, a view supported by an increasing body of research. The result is a growing cohort of young men who struggle with school suspensions, substance abuse, porn addiction, loneliness, failure to complete college, unemployment, and self-harm. Galloway is quick to acknowledge that men have had, as he puts it, “a three-thousand-year head start.” But addressing the specific struggles of boys doesn’t minimize the challenges faced by women. In fact, he argues, helping boys grow into grounded, capable men benefits everyone, including the women who share their lives. He calls the path forward aspirational masculinity. “At its best,” he says, “masculinity means generating value, carrying more than your share, making others feel safe, and planting trees whose shade you may never sit under.”