The "Wire Spool Guy" on TikTok Raises Heart-wrenching Point About Men's Mental Health

In the world of TikTok trends, they can range anywhere from absolute brain rot to heartwarming and life-changing. There are no rules, and often no rhyme or reason, to what goes viral and sparks a trend. However, some trends, such as the "wire spool guy" trend on TikTok, have some meat to them.

When it comes to harnessing the pain behind a shared experience and giving other people a way to express and identify their own pain, candid videos shared on TikTok can often be surprisingly helpful. Here's what we know about the "wire spool guy" trend and why it has launched a men's mental health awareness kick that should make people reevaluate the way they treat the men in their lives.

The video is simple in composition. A man is sitting on a step outside. Wearing a gray hoodie and a Jets baseball cap, he's turning something over and over in his hands and looking pensive and melancholy. A woman behind the camera walks out and asks, "What are you doing? I thought you were working."

He responds, "I'm looking at this," as the camera zooms in to show that he's holding a spool of wire that looks to be nearly empty.

The camerawoman asks, "What is it?" He responds, "It's wire. It's a spool of wire. And I'm almost out of it."

He looks thoughtfully down at the spool, adding, "You see this spool of wire? I'm almost out of it. And I've had this spool of wire for like 40 years." He looks a little emotional as he gestures with his hands to indicate the spool being much larger. "I bought it like this," he continues, "but it's like 40 years of my life, it's in the wire that's gone."

He then gestures as if still unraveling wire from the spool that is no longer there. "Does that make sense?" he asks. "This is what's left."

The woman behind the camera says in an uninterested voice, "I'm sorry to hear that and sad for you but you're wearing your Jets hat. And I'm a little concerned right now that you're wearing your Jets hat." His body posture slumps as he rolls his eyes and looks away, the vulnerability immediately closed off.

Oblivious to his sudden stiffening and the frustration on his face, the camerawoman then says, "I thought that's why you were crying."

Overcome, the man stands up and waves his hand, "OK, I'm done." And he walks away briskly.

From the outside, it was easy to see that he was overcome with emotions and grappling with the reality of his mortality. The spool in his hand wasn't just a spool of wire, it was a representation of the years he once had ahead of him that have now unraveled into the past and are gone forever. Yet the woman behind the camera was entirely unsympathetic, ignored his emotions, and brushed off the vulnerability he was revealing.

Understandably, men on TikTok reacted strongly to the interaction. Many shared videos of their own, saying that "this is why men don't talk about their feelings." Because if they are going to be dismissed, what's the point?

The analogy the man in the original video used might be vague to someone not paying attention, but it was clearly a revelation about coming to grips with aging and recognizing that once life is spent, it's gone forever.

In duets and videos with voice-overs all over TikTok, men were sharing their solidarity with the "wire spool guy" and chastising people for shutting men down when they try to open up about their feelings.

One person responded in a comment section, "I understand where he's coming from and get what he's saying."

Another wrote, "That wire represents his life and she totally dismisses his insight and pain," saying that the video hurt his heart.

It's a good reminder that when people open up and are vulnerable, their loved ones should pay attention and practice empathy. Even if that person isn't usually an emotional person, everyone deserves the chance to open up and be honest about the way they feel and the struggles they're facing in life.

Men often say they feel as though no one appreciates their vulnerability and that the world expects them to keep their emotions inside, or even not feel them to begin with.

But "wire spool guy" is here to break hearts and remind us that even the toughest-seeming guy has feelings and deserves to feel validated when opening up about them.