Author Todd Babiak. Photo by Luke Marsden /Handout photo

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It was watching his two young daughters step into adulthood, dealing with social media pressure and relentless algorithm aggression that inspired Todd Babiak to write a coming-of-age story.

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The former Edmontonian’s newest book, What Gentlemen Do, focuses on a young man trying to navigate the world at a time when social pressures come from every direction. Babiak’s daughters, aged 18 and 20, offered him the inspiration, affording him a glimpse into the world of young people and the online world they navigate every day.

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“Watching them as a dad has been scary. The pressures they have been under, whether it’s a young woman trying to understand what beauty is and succeed in life now has its parallel with young men. In both cases, it’s so difficult,” says Babiak.

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It was watching that pressure that led him to What Gentlemen Do and his protagonist, Whalen Gans. He’s a young man living in a non-descript small town, Walleye, listless and without much of a future. Everyone he knows rags on the small town and dreams of leaving for something better.

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Gans comes from a relatively poor family, his already low prospects dampened by his meagre upbringing. He eventually comes to find an online group known as The Gentlemen who feed into his anxiety and anger about his place in the world, his difficulty finding a job and lack of a romantic partner.

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Cover of What Gentlemen Do by Todd Babiak Photo by Supplied

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For a nominal fee, Whalen can be a part of something bigger than himself, a movement that reassures him the problems in his life are because of immigrants, minorities, greedy politicians, and feminists. He keeps up with the social media channels and the podcasts, all spouting the same rhetoric. It’s a pretty straight comparison to the bro culture online, with influencers playing to the anxiety of young men, easily swayed with simple explanations and solutions to their problems while selling them useless pills and pointless garbage.

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Babiak currently lives in The Gold Cost, Australia, where he is the CEO of Brand Gold Coast. He grew up in Alberta and is a former writer and columnist with the Edmonton Journal and the author of eight previous books. The Garneau Block, based in Edmonton, was longlisted for the Giller Prize and was adapted for the stage.

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It’s a different time, different experience than Babiak had growing up in the ‘90s. He got a taste of what young people face while doing research for this book, of social media and algorithms trying to catch and feed them the same content on a loop.

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“As I was researching the book and playing with it, I got deep into the algorithms,” says Babiak. “As soon as you start experiencing certain content to the end it starts feeding you more and more. I found the pressure of being a young person surrounded by that unique and special.”

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But this isn’t a tale of doom and gloom, of racist rhetoric infecting the world and winning out. As a young man in his early 20s, Whalen has that most special ability of young people, self-discovery. While working through education options, he enters a philosophy class focused on Stoicism, a topic he takes to with enthusiasm.