Man, Interrupted: Why Young Men Are Struggling & What We Can Do About It - Softcover

Zimbardo, Philip; Coulombe, Nikita D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1573246891 ISBN 13: 9781573246897

Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser, 2016

Synopsis

<p>In 2011, Philip Zimbardo gave a TED Talk called "The Demise of Guys," which has been viewed by over 1.8 million people. A TED eBook short followed that chronicled how in record numbers men are flaming out academically and failing socially and sexually with women. This new book is an expansion of that brief polemic based on Zimbardo's observations, research, and the survey that was completed by over 20,000 viewers of the original TED Talk.</p><p>The premise here is that we are facing a not-so-brave new world; a world in which young men are getting left behind. Philip Zimbardo and Nikita Coulombe say that an addiction to video games and online porn have created a generation of shy, socially awkward, emotionally removed, and risk-adverse young men who are unable (and unwilling) to navigate the complexities and risks inherent to real-life relationships, school, and employment. Taking a critical look at a problem that is tearing at families and societies everywhere, <i>Man, Interrupted</i> suggests that our young men are suffering from a new form of "arousal addiction," and introduce a bold new plan for getting them back on track.</p><p>The concluding chapters offer a set of solutions that can be affected by different segments of society including schools, parents, and young men themselves.</p><p>Filled with telling anecdotes, results of fascinating research, perceptive analysis, and concrete suggestions for change, Man, Interrupted is a book for our time. It is a book that informs, challenges, and ultimately inspires.</p>

About this title

About the Author

<div> <b>Philip George Zimbardo</b> is a psychologist and a professor emeritus at Stanford University. He became well-known for his 1971 Stanford prison experiment and has since authored various introductory psychology books, textbooks for college students, and other notable works, including <i>The Lucifer Effect, The Time Paradox</i>, and <i>Shyness</i>. He is also the founder and president of the Heroic Imagination Project. </div><br><div><b>Nikita D. Coulombe</b> is a writer and artist who worked with Philip Zimbardo for several years. Together they co-authored the TED eBook <i>Demise of Guys</i>. Passionate about understanding human nature, she co-founded the sex education blog, BetterSexEd.org. </div>

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Man, Interrupted

Why Young Men are Struggling and What We Can Do About It

By Philip Zimbardo, Nikita Coulombe

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

Copyright © 2016 Philip Zimbardo and Nikita D. Coulombe
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-57324-689-7

Contents

Preface Note to Readers, 
Acknowledgments, 
Introduction Just Drifting, 
Part I: Symptoms, 
1. Disenchantment with Education, 
2. Men Opting Out of the Workforce, 
3. Excessive Maleness Social Intensity Syndrome (SIS), 
4. Excessive Gaming Mastering the Universe from Your Bedroom, 
5. Becoming Obese, 
6. Excessive Porn Use Orgasms on Demand, 
7. High on Life or High on Anything Over-Reliance on Medications and Illegal Drugs, 
Part II: Causes, 
8. Rudderless Families, Absent Dads, 
9. Failing Schools, 
10. Environmental Changes, 
11. Technology Enchantment and Arousal Addiction, 
12. Sour Grapes Entitlement versus Reality, 
13. The Rise of Women?, 
14. Patriarchy Myths, 
15. Economic Downturn, 
Part III Solutions, 
16. What the Government Can Do, 
17. What Schools Can Do, 
18. What Parents Can Do, 
19. What Men Can Do, 
20. What Women Can Do, 
21. What the Media Can Do, 
Conclusion, 
Appendix I TED Survey Results, 
Appendix II Social Intensity Syndrome — Scale and Factors, 
Notes, 
Recommended Resources, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

Disenchantment with Education

New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote that the information age is liberating because it allows us to offload mundane mental chores to "cognitive servants." At some point in the future Mr. Brooks may be right. But for now, as liberating as this ability to externalize is in many ways, it is making the world — as spoken-word artist Gary Turk succinctly put it — full of "smart phones and dumb people." The problem with this notion, explains Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows, is "the proponents of the outsourcing idea confuse working memory with long-term memory. When a person fails to consolidate a fact, an idea, or an experience in long-term memory, he's not 'freeing up' space in his brain for other functions." Carr argues that storing long-term memories does not bog down our mental powers; rather it increases our level of intelligence because it makes it easier to learn new ideas and skills in the future. In other words, we think we're smarter than we actually are.

As a culture, we are losing our ability for sustained attention. The more we "outsource" the less we retain, and in turn, the less we know. While 76 percent of Americans said they watched, read, or heard the news on a daily basis, less than half said they went beyond the headlines. So there's this potential illusion of knowing. It is the danger of having a superficial level of knowledge, yet believing you know everything. A retired English professor mentioned to us that toward the end of his career he noticed that although his students thought they understood something, when they were asked to describe the topic they stumbled over their words. One student even dropped the class after refusing to do revisions on his work. This example is a microcosm of the "giving up before you try" attitude that has permeated the minds of young men en masse.

Some people think it's been a case of boys not doing well in school and giving their teachers hell since the beginning of recorded history. A recent large-scale meta analysis of over 300 studies that reflected the grades of more than 500,000 boys and nearly 600,000 girls revealed that, for

Edition details

• Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1573246891
• ISBN 13: 9781573246897
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 324