Youth today compare themselves to each other.
They compare themselves to their peers,
the people they're going to school with,
playing sports with, going to church with.
But they're also comparing themselves
to what they see online.
And the problem with that is,
often what's online, what's on social media, isn't real.
My name is Joey Follett.
I've been working with youth and teenagers
for the past 10 years in a variety of different settings.
As a public school teacher, taught middle school history,
as a coach, coaching wrestling, cross country,
a few other sports, and now as a youth pastor
for middle schoolers and high schoolers.
I'm really passionate about our current generation of youth,
or Generation Z, as they're known.
And what I'll say about this generation,
really any generation,
generations face a different set of challenges
in a different environment from the generations before them.
And that's always the case,
because the world changes, culture changes,
problems that the culture faces change,
and technology evolves.
And so generations often have a hard time
relating to their parents, to the generation before them,
because they feel like that generation
doesn't understand them,
because they're in a different and unique set of environment
and a unique set of challenges.
And this current generation of youth, or Gen Z,
is kind of known as the social generation.
And the big reason for that is, yes, social media,
the increase in technology,
they have phones that are computers in their pockets,
and they are, a lot of that is true.
This generation of youth is growing up with the internet
and with easy access to the internet
through phones, tablets, computers.
Teenagers, the more you restrict it,
they'll find a way onto the internet.
And they're growing up with an easy access
to unlimited information, which in a lot of ways is good.
This generation of youth are researchers.
They know how to find information.
They know how to use the internet to learn things.
And a lot of that is really good.
They're willing to do the research.
And they often know to decipher what's real
and what's fake on the internet,
and to know good, reliable sources.
And oftentimes, I'll say, I think they're better at that
than their parents' generation,
who didn't necessarily grow up
with the internet as easily accessible
and has had to learn after the fact
to decipher truth from false on the internet.
But kids know that.
They're growing up with that.
They know that everything they read
on the internet isn't real,
but they're willing to do the research and learn.
And that's really good.
But on the flip side of that,
they also have everything else
that the internet has to offer in their pockets, right?
The explicit that's on the internet,
the craziness that's on the internet.
Pornography is so easily accessible,
not just on these porn sites,
but on social media and other sites that they frequent
that we might view as safe, but aren't necessarily.
YouTube, right?
They spend a lot of time on YouTube
instead of watching traditional TV
like the generation before them.
And also social media.
They have social media on their phones, on their computers,
and there's lots of different types of social media.
The ones that I see are most popular with youth
would be TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat.
And they spend a lot of time on this social media.
And with that comes comparison
and trying to find their identity.
And teenagers comparing themselves to each other
is not new or unique to Gen Z.
That's just part of being a teenager, right?
And anybody watching can relate to that.
Remembering being in middle school and high school,
looking at everybody else, looking at your peers,
your friends, adults in your life,
and comparing yourself to them.
What are they wearing?
What are they saying?
What are they doing?
What do they wanna do with their life after high school?
What kind of hobbies are they into?
Sports, music, movies.
Teenagers spend a lot of time watching the people around them
and comparing themselves to them.
And that's not new.
What is new though is yes,
teenagers today are still doing that.
They're comparing themselves to their peers,
people at their school, their sports teams,
their church youth groups,
but they're also comparing themselves
to what they see online,
to their favorite influencers,
to people on social media,
young people on social media who have big followings.
And they're comparing themselves,
that they're looking at those images
and comparing their bodies, what they wear,
to what they see online.
And the scary or bad part about that
is a lot of what they see online is fake.
It's an impossible standard.
It's not achievable.
And so you have this twofold.
They're comparing themselves to what they see every day,
but also what they're consuming online.
And that's a problem for teens.
It's challenging and it's, like I said, an impossible standard
and it leads to other issues that we'll talk about.
They're also known as a social generation
because of how they interact with each other.
They have easy access to each other in other ways
that previous generations have not seen.
Teens can easily text, call, and video call their friends
whenever they want to.
And this leads to other issues.
We've seen an uptick in this generation
with sexting and sending explicit images of themselves
to each other.
We haven't really seen that in previous generations.
And a lot of times teens think they're doing that
with another person,
sending explicit images of themselves,
but then what happens is it gets passed around the school
or it's used to blackmail them.
And this causes a lot of really, really bad situations
and issues I've seen in public schools that I've taught in
and sports teams that I've coached.
And even though this is the social generation
where they have social media,
they can easily text their friends, call their friends.
Even though it's a social generation,
many teens today feel lonely.
They feel lost.
They're trying to find their identity and their place.
And even though they're talking to people all the time,
they still feel like they're missing connection.
And maybe that's because the connection that they have
isn't as physical anymore, right?
Where they're sitting across the table from somebody
or they're hugging somebody.
Instead, it's done online with people they know
and maybe with people that they don't know
or have never met in person.
So they feel lost, feel lonely.
They're trying to find their identity and their place.
They're looking for their identity in things like
what they're good at, their hobbies,
what they like to do with their free time,
or looking for their identity in who they hang out with,
who they socialize with, or maybe what they struggle with,
or finding their identity in their gender
or who they're attracted to.
And identity is something we all search for,
but teenagers especially, they're trying to find that,
who are they?
Who am I?
What am I doing with my life?
What am I doing here?
And a lot of these things lead to issues of mental health,
which is something else we're seeing
that's kind of unique to Gen Z.
And Gen Z is more aware of mental health
than any generation before it.
And unfortunately, Generation Z
deals with mental health disorders and problems
more than any generation before it as well.
And we can talk about why that is,
and a lot of what I've already discussed
is part of the why that is.
But let's look at the numbers.
We know that at least one out of every five teenager today
deals with a diagnosable mental health disorder.
Some studies have it a lot higher, one out of every three.
I've also seen studies that say 50% of teens today
struggle with their mental health.
That's really, really high.
And that's something that needs to be discussed
and addressed with teenagers.
And we need to look into that why that is
that they're dealing with.
But it's not all bad,
and I don't wanna pile on Generation Z.
I love Generation Z,
and I've kind of devoted my adult life so far
hanging out with Generation Z
and helping them with some of these things.
And on the positive side,
teens today are also really socially aware.
They care about the world.
They care about people in the world a lot.
They're aware of what's happening,
injustices that are happening in our world.
They wanna change it.
A lot of them are picking careers
or are interested in careers
that are gonna help people in our world today.
And that's awesome.
They're socially aware,
and they care about bad things
that are happening in our world.
Teens today are also really realistic and cautious.
Yes, they're teenagers,
and I've seen plenty of teenagers
make the typical teenager decisions, right,
that are irrational and crazy,
and you just don't know why they did that thing.
And that still happens, 100%.
But I think there's also this trend with today's youth
where they're a little more cautious,
a little more realistic with their decisions
that are gonna impact their future,
not as daring and crazy.
And maybe that's bad.
Maybe we want our teenagers to be more bold,
but I think it's also good
that they're a little more realistic
with their futures and their decisions,
and they're a little more cautious
and willing to learn from not their own mistakes,
but the mistakes of the generation before them
that they've seen.
And so maybe today you're a parent of a teenager
or a teacher of youth or a coach or a youth leader,
and maybe you feel a little bit lost.
You're not sure how to communicate with the youth of Gen Z.
You're not sure how to relate to them.
And maybe you've tried and it just hasn't gone well.
Here's what I would say.
You don't have to understand or relate
to what they're dealing with.
You don't have to have all the answers
or know exactly what they're...
We should try, right?
We should practice empathy as we work with youth today.
We should try to put ourselves in their shoes.
Imagine the environment that they've grown up with,
this age of internet.
and technology and what their friends are doing
in their peer groups.
We should try as hard as we can to empathize with them.
But we don't have to fully relate, and we can't.
And so I would say this, don't necessarily try to relate
or always use a personal story because our youth today
know that we grew up and their parents grew up
in a different environment.
So I would say this, just listen.
Just be there for them.
Pray for them, pray with them.
Make sure that the youth in your life knows
that they can talk to you about anything.
Be available and don't worry about understanding it all
or completely understanding their environment
or what they're dealing with.
Don't worry about that.
Just be available.
Listen to them, pray for them, be there for them.
And maybe you're a youth in Generation Z and you feel lost.
You're not sure how to navigate
all of the stuff we discussed today.
Maybe you're struggling with mental health.
Maybe you don't know how to relate to your friends
or reach your friends.
I have encouragement for both groups.
The Bible has answers.
The Bible has examples.
The Bible has guidance and truth for these issues today.
In the following episodes, we're gonna look at examples
from the Bible of young people who did extraordinary things.
Not because they were superheroes or anything like that,
but because they trusted in God and their identity
was grounded in being a child of God.
And they allowed God to use them.
And so we're gonna look at those examples
and use those examples to shape how we deal with
and interact with youth today,
but also use those examples as youth
as we navigate the culture in our environment today.
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