Link Up Lab | Equimundo

The moment we’re in

At a time when young men aged 18 to 23 are showing the least optimism for their futures and the lowest levels of social connection, they are increasingly finding purpose online. 48% of young men ages 18 to 23 say their online lives are more interesting than their offline ones and 1 in 3 spent no time in person with someone outside their household in the prior week. Meanwhile, AI ‘aggro-rithms’ are serving young boys harmful content within 60 seconds of being online, and they increasingly drive young men towards anti-democratic, harmful content.

Like never before, there is an urgent need to come together and test new ideas that invite young men to find healthy connection, belonging, and purpose.

Building on over two decades of work with young men, Futures Without Violence and Equimundo are launching LinkUp Lab, an innovation hub testing digital strategies to reach young men online. We seek to turn the tide on harmful cultural influences that condone harm against women and proliferate anti-democratic content. We will advance strategies that offer young men alternative models for mental wellbeing and non-violent relationships, while also promoting positive influences that connect rather than divide.

Why the LinkUp Lab Matters

40%

of young men say they trust one or more pro-violence voices online.

50 Years

Young men in the US are more conservative than they have been in 50 years, a trend mirrored in other countries globally.

Source: State of American Men 2023.

Our partnership

Equimundo: Center for Masculinities and Social Justice and Futures Without Violence have been pioneering global research, policy, and social norm change to engage men and boys in the movement for gender equality and ending violence against women.

Building on over two decades of work with young men, Futures Without Violence and Equimundo are launching LinkUp Lab, an innovation hub testing digital strategies to reach young men online. We seek to turn the tide on harmful cultural influences that condone harm against women and proliferate anti-democratic content. We will advance strategies that offer young men alternative models for mental wellbeing and non-violent relationships, while also promoting positive influences that connect rather than divide.

Our strategy

With expert partners across the digital landscape, the LinkUp Lab is testing, incubating, and scaling ideas across three pathways:

Click

Capture attention in the places men scroll, search, and stream.

Connect

Tap into real relationships by working with digital community leaders.

Care

Redesign online environments to promote healthy relationship skills and positive mental health.

Our research

The Manosphere, Rewired

Equimundo and Futures Without Violence partnered with Puddle to take a six-month deep dive into the platforms and online spaces used by young men in the United States, including digital scraping and AI analysis of online male-dominated digital channels and platforms, interviews with young men, moderators and streamers and more. We uncovered new ways to think about reaching young men online and found that young men are extremely motivated to create deeper relationships (platonic and romantic) but often lack pathways and permission to build these in healthy ways.

The Manosphere, Rewired

State of American Men 2023

When two thirds of young men feel that “No one really knows me,” as this study shows, they reveal the fragility of their connections and relationships. We take that finding for what it is: a call for more honest, more grounded, more connected and more meaningful lives. We know the results of this study will be troubling for many. Conservative voices will say we are calling out men and blaming them, or that we are maligning American manhood. The State of American Men report is a call for compassion for men and a call to all of us to build and support healthy, connected versions of manhood for the good of all.

State of American Men 2023

Let's get to work!

We are proud to partner with a number of program developers, researchers, and donors to test solutions to tackle these pressing issues. Current partners include Harmony Labs, Diverting Hate, AMAZE, Puddle, and Young Men’s Research Project.

We are seeking impact investors to support the testing and piloting of these strategies. This is a novel opportunity to fund some of the most innovative work to engage young men as partners in creating a future free from violence. The stakes are high, but the solutions are within reach.

To learn more, contact Brian O’Connor (boconnor@futureswithoutviolence.org) or Chris Hook at (c.hook@equimundo.org).