Social media was created to connect people, but increasingly, it is teaching us how to resent one another. Every day, millions of users scroll through videos explaining how men should treat women, how women should manipulate men, who should provide more, and who deserves more power in relationships. What should be spaces for understanding have become endless battlefields where gender wars are marketed as entertainment. ALSO READ: Digital childhood, diminished focus: A threat to human capital The most alarming part is how quickly these messages shape our collective imagination. A teenager watching hundreds of bitter relationship videos may easily begin believing that healthy love barely exists. ALSO READ: Why marriage preparation is the foundation of good parenting Divorces, cheating confessions, and humiliating relationship “lessons” spread faster than examples of healthy marriages because outrage attracts engagement. Social media platforms reward conflict because conflict keeps users watching. The longer we remain emotionally triggered, the longer we stay online. ALSO READ: Why resilience is the most urgent skill for the next generation Slowly, relationships stop looking like partnerships and begin looking like competitions. ALSO READ: A generational curse that can be averted Today’s online culture constantly promotes “men versus women” instead of “men and women versus the problem.” Instead of encouraging communication, patience, accountability, and emotional maturity, many creators encourage suspicion and selfishness. People are advised to leave at the smallest inconvenience, to emotionally withdraw before being hurt, or to view vulnerability as weakness. The result is a generation becoming emotionally defensive before love even begins. ALSO READ: Free my generation from the identity crisis trap What makes this trend even more dangerous is that many of these online voices are not healed themselves. Some are simply projecting personal pain onto millions of strangers. A person wounded by betrayal speaks as though all men are dangerous; another hurt by manipulation speaks as though all women are selfish. Pain that should have been processed privately becomes public ideology consumed by vulnerable audiences searching for guidance. Trauma is no longer being healed; it is being monetized. Even more concerning is how society has normalized replacing genuine human connection with artificial advice. Increasingly, people consult artificial intelligence chats about heartbreak, loneliness, and relationships instead of trusted family members, mentors, or communities. Technology can provide information, but it cannot replicate lived human experience, emotional wisdom, or compassion. A machine cannot truly understand sacrifice, grief, forgiveness, or intimacy. Yet many now trust algorithms more than conversations with real people. Meanwhile, the sense of community that once helped people navigate relationships is weakening. Families spend less time together, friendships are increasingly digital, and meaningful intergenerational conversations are disappearing. In their place are influencers speaking with absolute certainty about love despite knowing nothing about the realities of their audiences. Relationships are increasingly treated like transactions rather than shared human experiences requiring empathy, sacrifice, and responsibility. Perhaps the greatest tragedy is that we are forgetting a simple truth: before being a man or a woman, you are first a human being. Human beings feel pain, rejection, loneliness, fear, hope, and love. No society survives when its people are conditioned to distrust one another completely. Men and women need each other, and there should be no shame in admitting that. A healthier society begins when we stop viewing gender as the enemy, reject hostility as entertainment, and start recognizing humanity in one another. The writer is an international relations and diplomacy enthusiast.
