Missed Opportunities: Adolescence and Media's Unexplored Potential for Impact

Explore the missed opportunities in the Netflix hit "Adolescence," which addresses critical issues like youth, social media, and mental health but lacks actionable solutions. This blog post examines the need to transform powerful content into resources that foster meaningful dialogue and support for parents and educators.

Discover how we can shift media from merely raising awareness to creating pathways for positive change and healthy human connection.

Adolescence is one of those shows everyone’s been talking about, and for good reason. The Netflix hit addresses youth, social media, gun violence…all the things we’re worried about when it comes to society and the faulty grip it has on mental health resources, public shaming, and oh yea public policy too. 

But if that's not problem enough, here's another one: the people who need to watch it? They’re probably not.

Parents, educators, and adults who are disconnected from the reality of today’s youth –– very likely to avoid this show. And why? Because it’s uncomfortable. It forces them to confront their own fears (and responsibilities! 😑) about the world our kids are forced to navigate. It’s too close to home. I get it. So, they just turn it off.

This is where Adolescence missed an opportunity. It lays bare the reality, the fears, the pressures, the dangers...but lacked a solution. The show raises awareness, but like most surface level content or companies, it stops there. It exposes the problem, but leaves viewers with little to resources, available touch points for viewers to further engage or share experiences with each other in a positive, safe, and securely monitored discord or something. Anything except the emotional cramping of discomfort and fear that comes with watching something so heavy.

If we want to use media to create change (god forbid... 🙄), it has to be more than just exposing issues. Yes, we need to raise awareness, but we also need to give people a way forward. And I'll echo that just in general; any leadership development approach needs to focus on matching values with action. We need to offer resources, tools, and conversations that can directly help people understand how to move from awareness to action.

From basic civilian to the most popular creative ✌🏾thought leader✌🏾 wizard...what can WE do? I mean, actually do that transacts into something palpable. Is there a path to transform media programming into a cultural touchpoint for healthy human-to-human exchange? And if not, how (if at all) can one be forged?

What do you think… if powerful content highlights a problem but offers no way forward, did it really help? There’s even more to explore on how we can move beyond just awareness.

I’ll continue to interrogate how we, in all of our gloriously-annoying titles and bio headlines that miraculously sums up our value in 200 characters 🫠...I'll be over here (ignoring that) and chewing on how we can tangibly start approaching these mediums –– like streaming media or short/long form content –– as a utility to power up and benefit the human experience, not scare it into the basement of 'absolutely not.'