In the wake of a turbulent summer in national politics, filled with gunshots and empty promises, Parker students have a moral imperative to advance the national conversation not only around gun control but also around social media use, society’s perception of masculinity, and other issues of gender.

Let’s walk and chew gum at the same time. Let’s not let our devotion to gun control preclude us from also inserting our insights from our Gender Week dialogues into the national conversation. Few high schools in America engage in both gender-related and gun control-related discussions, so Parker students have a unique responsibility.

The perpetrators of mass shootings in America, overwhelmingly, are male. From Clint Eastwood’s famous final duel in “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” to Sylvester Stallone’s gun-wielding appearance in “Rambo” to Indiana Jones’s shooting of a swordsman in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” society has inculcated in society’s men a mistaken belief that guns are the ultimate sign of masculinity. To compensate for their crippling insecurity surrounding their masculinity, these soon-to-be murderers exploit America’s porous gun ownership system. Their insecurity, heightened by social media, also instills in them a bitter hatred for others.

As a result, we need to reconsider the extent to which we hold up dangerous societal perceptions at Parker. In changing oneself to appease society, not only is a student being untrue to themselves but also doing a major disservice to their classmates.

Furthermore, during Gender Week, we discussed the role of social media in heightening insecurity at Parker. Students’ insecurities encourage them to post distorted portraits of their lives on platforms like Instagram in search of validation in the form of likes and complimentary comments. Seeing other people’s airbrushed lives causes others to feel insecure about themselves, which, in turn, encourages them to post. This vicious cycle damages Parker’s social fabric.

Not only do we need to reevaluate our own use of Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook, but we also need to connect America’s gun violence with American teenagers’ use of these social platforms. “Empowerment” is not a valid excuse for posting a photo that you know will make your classmates feel worse about their own bodies or excluded. As the logical side of our brains tries to assure us that what we see on social media is fake, the emotional side fights back with greater magnitude. We all know that we’re faking it, so why should we expect authenticity from our friends? Let’s restore faith in the insecurity of teenagers and collectively come to the conclusion that what we see on social media is far from reality. Let’s simultaneously consume social media with increased skepticism and reconsider our own social media usage.

With great platforms comes great responsibility.