Real violence served by social media for entertainment is desensitizing America’s youth, experts warn.
Easy access to an endless stream of violence, combined with encouragement of violence on social media, is distorting people’s attitudes toward it, an issue that is difficult to solve through automation, experts say.
Violence has always been a part of the human experience, but has never been available in such quantities for entertainment, the experts noted.
In contrast with fictional violence in movies and video games, social media provides anyone the ability to see real violence, with effectively no restrictions on age. Additionally, it’s often presented as entertainment, with flippant, crass, or cynical commentary, and mixed with other random content described in online parlance as “brain rot,” explained Jeffrey Blevins, professor of media and journalism at the University of Cincinnati and an expert on social media content.
At the same time, political divisions have led to large segments of society being cast as sub-human, leading to the suggestion they deserve violence, noted Andrew Selepak, an associate professor of media and communications at the University of Florida who specializes in social media research.
While most social media platforms restrict graphic or violent content, some slips past the filters, while other content that rides the edge of what platforms allow continues to make it through.
Some 70 percent of youth aged 13–17 see real-world violence on social media, according to a 2024 Youth Endowment Fund survey of teens in England and Wales. TikTok users reported the highest exposure at 44 percent of respondents in the preceding 12 months. X users followed with 43 percent, though less than a quarter of respondents reported using the platform. Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram weren’t far behind, with exposure rates of 31–33 percent.
The recent assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was “sadly, an interesting case study,” Blevins said. The extremely graphic videos of the incident were seen by millions of people on social media despite platform restrictions.
Too Much
Researchliterature has talked for years about the issue of “desensitization” by repeated exposure to violence in digital media.
In real life, Americans overall have been fortunate enough to only sporadically experience violence on a personal level, Selepak said.
