“Toxic”: An Adolescent Frame Fostering Interpersonal and Relational Development

• In Event: Children and Youth Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 1: Digital Sexualities, Media, and Identity Construction

Abstract

This paper examines adolescent use of the word “toxic” to describe people, behaviour, and relationships. Increasingly recognized as a pop-cultural buzzword, the word “toxic” has become somewhat of a catch-all phrase for conveying undesirability. With its widespread applicability, vague definition, and distinctly negative connotations, “toxic” has become a popular Generation-Z (Gen-Z) insult. The growing popularity of the word has, however, undermined its significance. Some claim that the adjective is increasingly trivial and meaningless. This paper reasserts “toxic” as part of a critical vocabulary among its Gen-Z users. I explore the application of “toxicity” as framing, pivotal to relational development, boundary-drawing, and the exercise of agency among youth. Drawing upon interviews with 17 racialized and/or queer youth participants, I examine the word “toxic” as used organically in narratives of self-defined, notable experiences with risk. This study explores toxicity as it emerges naturally among youth, unprompted and unencumbered by predetermined criteria. I argue that it is important to examine this term among youth participants, who are not only coming of age at a time when the buzzword is popular and pervasive, but who also exist in a sociohistorical context shaped by a climate crisis, digital activism, and cultural shifts around identity that make their use of the term increasingly noteworthy. Despite how trivially toxicity may be referenced on social media, my findings demonstrate that when using the term in reference to their own lives, toxicity is invoked by youth with weight and significance. Toxicity, as explained by participants, had social, psychological, and material effects, including negative impacts on well-being and residual effects on others. I argue that we should not desensitize ourselves to this language. Instead, we should recognize the value of what framing a relationship, environment, or experience as toxic allows youth to do.

Author

• Mikaela Clarke, University of Toronto