Me too, bro: Sad Boy TikTok provides solace to depressed men
The video opens with a close-up of a man’s face as he drives along a rural road. He watches a giant logging truck rumbling along ahead. His face lights up with a knowing smile. He imagines, contemplates, and welcomes the prospect of death, all within 11 seconds.
“Me too bro, me too,” writes one in the hundreds of comments underneath the TikTok, which has over 2.2 million views. “I’ve never felt more connected to another human being,” adds another. “We’re tired,” yet another writes.
The viral video, a reference to a gruesome death scene from Final Destination 2, is part of a growing genre of content that grapples with themes of male sadness.
Social media has provided an outlet for frank discussions about mental health for years, but men have often been absent from these spaces. Today, videos on the subject are racking up millions of views.
Men smiling through their pain is a running theme in the videos, along with isolation and loneliness. One account posts a video every day of Jake Gyllenhall crying into the phone when someone asks if he is okay. On another, the words “average male experience” flash across a scene from a video game of a man stumbling through fog.
The comment sections of these videos are deluged with men expressing empathy or seeking solace, like a form of alternative therapy for those who may otherwise avoid it.
“I think it shows you that there are millions of guys out there that are really hurting,” JR Harvey, men’s mental health creator with 1.6 million followers, tells The Independent.
“They feel lost in our society right now. They feel like they don’t have anyone to talk to, or anyone who will acknowledge their problems,” he adds.
Harvey, who has some 1.6 million followers on his Instagram account, started making men’s mental health content shortly after the pandemic. He had lost his job and was going through a rough period, and as he struggled himself, he started to see these types of videos more often.
“The algorithm knows us better than we know ourselves,” he says.
Harvey’s videos explore male loneliness, expectations of masculinity and fatherhood. Often they feature scenes from movies and TV shows of men expressing emotions, accompanied by moody music and captions like: “Not sad, not happy, just empty.”
“Some people would joke around with me and call it Sad Boy TikTok,” Harvey says.
Other creators in the genre address topics such as suicide with little or no filter. Their pages are filled with dark, often cinematic works of art.
The content differs between videos in style and tone, but all of it is based on the idea that men are not okay.
