Last weekend’s Fox News Saturday Night cut to the heart of a crisis too many polite elites refuse to name: our kids are being reshaped by social media into anxious, performative versions of themselves — and the adults enabling that spectacle are getting laughed at on the internet. Host Jimmy Failla brought Tom Shillue and comedian Aaron Berg into the conversation, and Shillue didn’t mince words when he warned that social media is turning young people “insane” by their teenage years.
Shillue’s bluntness isn’t performative — it’s practical. The same man who has argued for tougher, traditional parenting in his “Mean Dads” commentary knows that kids need boundaries more than they need applause, and he made that point sharply on air. Conservatives should cheer a mainstream voice finally saying what parents in the heartland already know: constant scrolling and curated virtue-signaling doesn’t raise resilient children, it raises anxious ones.
What the show exposed is a cultural rot disguised as connection. Big Tech’s profit engine rewards attention-seeking and outrage, and a generation of social-media-famous dads who put likes above lessons are teaching their children to value performance over character. It’s a disgrace to watch grown men perform parenting for views while the real work of forming citizens — teaching responsibility, courage, and faith — is abandoned.
This isn’t about being anti-technology; it’s about being pro-parenting. Conservatives must stop apologizing for insisting on limits: set screen curfews, require chores and homework before apps, and make family dinners sacred again. Real fathers lead by example, not by viral posts; a man who brags about his child’s internet fame is failing at the one job that matters more than clout.
Meanwhile, Washington and the media prefer headlines to solutions, which is why pieces like this Fox segment matter. Instead of praising parenting stunts that rack up views, we should be elevating policies and community norms that protect childhood — from school choices that prioritize learning to local initiatives that encourage kids to play outside, think critically, and work hard. Conservatives know that freedom without responsibility is chaos; our cultural institutions must reflect that simple truth.
If conservatives want to win the culture war, we must start in our own homes. Push back on the social-media industrial complex, support fathers who refuse to perform, and reclaim a vision of childhood that values virtue over vanity. America was built by families who worked, worshipped, and sacrificed — it will not be saved by influencers and applause.
