Halloween is a long-loved tradition by people of all ages. Originally a Celtic holiday with pagan origins, it is most commonly celebrated in America with trick-or-treaters ringing their neighbors’ doorbells for candy and dressing up as their favorite characters.

However, as Halloween has evolved through the years, there’s grown to be quite a bit of discourse around this thorny holiday.

I’ve noticed that Halloween becomes more controversial each year – but it has only been widely celebrated in the U.S. for less than 100 years. How does such a frivolous and juvenile holiday centered around candy and costumes become so problematic?

Let’s start with the kids. The rise of younger audiences on social media has led to desensitization and exposure to fear and gore, and the scare factor of Halloween has almost completely faded in the newer generations.

William Force, who holds a doctorate in sociology, imagines that social media has transformed younger people’s relationship to Halloween, creating a “ring of truth” around urban legends and rabbit holes like the fear of contaminated treats, Satanism or increased violence on Halloween night.

“Social media can be a great source of original reporting and critical thought, but it can also be a place where we just repeat hearsay, and it becomes authoritative because of someone’s follower count or platform,” Force said.

Most recently, I’ve noticed the difference in Halloween for adults versus kids. Halloween has commonly become an opportunity for people to party and dress up in costumes, but the content of the costumes has grown increasingly controversial.

There’s plenty of online dialogue on the oversexualization of costumes and purity culture. Many argue that Halloween is supposed to be for children, and is not a space to dress inappropriately. Others believe that Halloween is simply a place for self-expression, and that the objectification that comes with revealing costumes needs to stop.

Force believes that at its core, Halloween is often a representation of our moral beliefs as well. He looks at trick-or-treating as a way that we treat strangers in public when we don’t expect anything in return.

“The way that we treat wait staff at restaurants and bartenders,” Force said. “Whether or not we give money to people who are on the street playing music or simply begging. Whether we let someone in front of us while we’re driving in traffic.”

As consequence culture becomes more relevant, people have become more concerned with the political correctness of certain costumes and decor. Just last week, a costume depicting an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer at a Seattle event and a house in Connecticut decorated to depict a mental asylum have made top headlines and sparked conversations about political and mental health sensitivity. Why has a holiday that is depicted as lighthearted and child-centered somehow become a space for political discourse?

Sociologists commonly discuss what they call the “Satanic Panic” — a rise in religious and political conservatism in mass media.

“The origins of Halloween and trick or treating have nothing whatsoever to do with Satan, or like the Christian notion of the Devil,” Force said. “I think that’s kind of the thing that we still grapple with today. Do many deeply religious people object to Halloween because they think it celebrates evil, as opposed to celebrating our reverence for the dead or just enjoying candy and walking around in costumes?”

All things aside, Halloween is still a very popular, favored and highly-anticipated holiday. Force loves to pass out candy to his neighbors and most looks forward to seeing who everyone dresses up as — he’s hoping to see Gladys from Weapons and some of the vampires from Sinners this year.

“I enjoy seeing the creativity in people’s costumes,” Force said. “I think it’s neat to see a celebration of community. Our society in general, we just don’t interact with strangers. A lot of us don’t interact with neighbors that we’ve lived next to for years and years.”