Porn has always been a driver of innovation on the internet, because pornographers were the first to consistently monetize the internet. So to a large extent, the internet we have today was shaped by porn - we tended to get the technology which was of benefit to the sex industry (web cams, for example).
And I think the person up-thread (I’m doing this on my phone, so I’m sorry to not name and quote you properly), who said we’re like monkeys with machine guns was right. We’re clever monkeys, but our brains are highly evolved to live well a few thousand years ago.
We’ve lost social controls - we no longer live in extended families or a known social context. Which wasn’t an unmixed blessing, but shame is a powerful corrective to behaviour when you think people are looking over your shoulder. We move around so much, we’re rarely embedded in communities which can support us and watch us.
And the other up-thread person who commented about young boys (and, I’d argue, young girls), beefing to be outside doing things, not inside with screens.
There’s lots of interesting research about the benefit of nature for our physical and sociological wellbeing. It’s why rich schools have things like wilderness campuses - it’s goid for kids.
Being outside, doing strenuous, slightly dangerous stuff is the adrenaline rush we used to have before porn was so widely available. I’m not necessarily in favour of military service, but I wonder if some form of rigorous compulsory national service (with emergency services for example), might work.
I saw and have never found again, a brilliant piece by a comedian talking about how the world is structured around youth. We’re all about being young and having fun - it’s advertising, it’s movies, it’s books.
There’s no longer an adult culture for young people to aspire to enter, no rites of passage where you get greater responsibility but also more privileges (which is what man-and womanhood rituals offer in traditional societies).
You can go from 12 to your forties on pretty much the same gradient, unless you’re forced to grow-up through external events.
Youth unemployment is an important factor as well, I think. Work isn’t just about earning money, it’s where young people are socialised into adult society. It’s about learning to show up and get on with it, getting on with people, navigating stressful events, developing a work ethic. generational unemployment has a devastating impact on families and wider society.
Misogyny isn’t, of course, anything new, but we’ve decoupled people from social control, constructed a culture which allows euphoria without responsibility and chucked young people into this free-for-all without seat belts.
So girls are hurting themselves and boys are hurting girls and men seem to throw up their hands (or, given the prevalence of porn, their hands are otherwise occupied), and women are trying desperately to pick up the pieces.