Why is being a young person today different from any other time in history? Today’s 7- to 24-year-olds, known as Generation Z, is the first generation to have spent their entire lives exposed to the digital age. From cell phones and laptops to iPods, iPads and tablets, they literally have no memory of life before the internet.

San Diego University psychology professor Dr. Jean Twenge calls those born between 1995 and 2012 “iGens” for their pervasive use of the iPhone, their individualism, their inclusiveness and their impatience with inequality. In her book, iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up
less Rebellious, More Tolerant, less Happy—and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood—and What That Means for the Rest of Us, she writes:

iGen is distinct from every previous generation in how its members spend their time, how they behave, and their attitudes about religion, sexuality and politics. They socialize in completely new ways… and want different things from their lives and careers. They are obsessed with safety and fearful of their economic futures…

iGen is the first representative body of scientific research to allow comparisons among Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials and iGens at exactly the same ages. Dr. Twenge used large-scale surveys of 11 million teens since the 1960s to create a portrait of iGen characteristics that make them unique. More self-aware, innovative and goal-oriented than their older millennial siblings, they have adopted what Dr. Twenge calls a “slow life strategy.” In a recent interview on CBS News, she said this is “partially due to smartphones which allow more teens to stay at home and not have to do as many of those adult things.” Her research supports that teens and tweens spend five to six hours of their day texting, chatting, gaming, web surfing, streaming and sharing videos, and hanging out online.

iGens tend to spend more time with their parents, postpone sex and reject a driver’s license. Their concern for emotional safety is also unique. “That can include preventing bad experiences, sidestepping situations that might be uncomfortable, and avoiding people with ideas different from [their] own,” Dr. Twenge says.

Dr. Diana Divecha, assistant clinical professor at the Yale Child Study Center, worries about teen well-being and relational issues. In a recent article  or the Greater Good Science Center, she points to one of Dr. Twenge’s conclusions: iGens have poorer emotional health due to new media, which is making teens more lonely, anxious and depressed, and is undermining their social skills and even their sleep. Divecha said, “Experimental studies suggest that when teens give up Facebook for a period or spend some time in nature without their phones, for example, they are happier.”

Both Dr. Divecha and Dr. Twenge offer a long list of iGens’ positive qualities: inclusivity, more diverse and less partisan, concerned about social justice, and less entitled, narcissistic and over-confident than earlier generations. Divecha adds that with these traits, “they may eventually insist on more cooperative, more just, and more egalitarian systems… and social media will likely play a role in that revolution.”

Data from scientists, researchers and psychologists seems to point to a generation in crisis. Just as the Greatest Generation experienced the horrors of war, iGens are wrestling with their own unique conflicts. As social media taps into the core elements that make us human—desires, fear, joy, anxiety, insecurity—empathetic iGens can be easily misled under the guise of sharing and connecting.

Dr. Divecha, a developmental psychologist, infers that parents are key to offsetting negative effects of social media. They can foster self-reliance, limit screen time and prioritize in-person relationships; but parents cannot shoulder all the burden.

In Matthew 18:5-6, Jesus speaks to the importance and the treasure of a child. If we do not teach our children to follow Christ, the world will teach  them not to, because “all the rest of the world around us is under Satan’s power and control” (1 John 5:19, TLB). Who will protect them against the dangers and the darkness prevalent in this digital age if we do not? If Dr. Twenge’s conclusion that “iGen’ers are increasingly disconnected from human relationships” is true, how do we break through the barriers constructed to keep us out?

Scot McKnight, a recognized authority on the historical Jesus, says “start with Jesus” and let the Good News break through their defenses.

Anyone who vividly sketches a community marked by justice, love, peace and holiness [Jesus] has a message iGens want to hear… Some are awakened to faith by the discipleship demands of Jesus… The demand of Jesus for a life that matters and a morality that exceeds what they have experienced, is radically attractive. It challenges them to their core. (The Gospel for iGens, christianitytoday.com, Summer 2009)

Can church leadership encourage Baby Boomers, Gen Xers and Millennials to stand alongside our youth and take an active role in their growth and  encouragement? Can we help guide them, warn them of spiritual threats and nurture their innate abilities? What is the church’s role in equipping iGens with the foundation to carry them through and above what Dr. Twenge calls the “epidemic of anguish”? Building trust, listening, encouraging, caring… Can we be Jesus to them? “…Not Jesus as revealed by institutional religion or churches,” says McKnight, “but Jesus seen in the lives of genuine compassion and commitment to something that transcends the superficiality of modern and postmodern culture.”

iGens

The over 23 million iGens, today’s 7- to 24-year-olds, currently in the United States will soon become the fastest growing generation in both the workplace and the marketplace.

Lives are shaped by historical shifts in culture, economy and technology. Therefore, if we as a society truly care about human outcomes, we must carefully nurture the conditions in which the next generation can flourish. We can’t market technologies that capture dopamine, hijack attention, and tether people to a screen, and then wonder why they are lonely and hurting.

We should not shirk from teaching skills for adulthood, or we risk raising unprepared children. Society challenges teens and parents to improve; but can society take on the tough responsibility of making decisions with teens’ well-being in mind?
– Diana Divecha, Ph.D., How Teens Today Are Different from Past Generations, Oct. 20, 2017. greatergood.berkeley.edu

 

We have the most complete and instant access to information in all of history, and we’re using it to watch funny cat videos.
– Jean M. Twenge, Ph.D., iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy—and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood—and What That Means for the Rest of Us, 2017, Atria Books

by RJ Flower-Opdycke, Co-editor