The age of social media has transformed the world and is shaping communication, culture, politics, business, and even personal identity, today. Social media has also had a profound impact on mental health, especially among the youth and Gen Z, contributing significantly to anxiety, depression, self-esteem issues, cyberbullying and online harassment. A new British web series, Adolescence , that dropped on Netflix on March 13, has stunned the world by delving significantly and deeply into precisely this issue and how it impacts a 13-year-old boy and his family.
What is the show about? Adolescence is the story of 13-year-old schoolboy Jamie Miller who is arrested for killing his classmate, Katie, by brutally stabbing her multiple times. At the outset, it might just seem like a knife crime that is typical of crimes in the United Kingdom and is increasing year-on-year in the country. Actor and producer of Adolescence, Stephen Graham, stated he was distressed by the news of several knife crimes where teenage girls were killed by young boys and couldn’t understand why this was happening in society.
In fact, during the premiere of the series, Graham told the audience, “It really hit my heart. I just thought: ‘What’s happening? How have we come to this? What’s going on with our society?’” But the web series is layered and as you dig deeper, you realise how social media contributed extensively to shaping 13-year-old Jamie Miller’s personality, self-image, self-esteem, f.
