Generational Differences

Not long ago, I was at Williams College, speaking with a fascinating and terrifically observant senior named David Wignall. We were talking about what it was like to be young these days, and he made a point that I’d never considered. “We are the most rejected generation,” he said.

He’s right. He pointed to the admission rates at elite universities. By 1959, about half of American college applicants applied to just one school. But now you meet students who feel that they have to apply to 20 or 30 colleges in the hopes that there will be one or two that won’t reject them. In the past two decades, the number of students applying to the 67 most selective colleges has tripled, to nearly two million a year, while the number of places at those schools hasn’t come close to keeping up.

The same basic picture applies to the summer internship race… I recently spoke with one college student who applied to 40 summer internships and was rejected by 39. I ran into some students who told me they felt they had to fill out 150 to 250 internship applications each year to be confident there would be a few that wouldn’t reject them.

Things get even worse when students leave school and enter the job market… I keep hearing and reading stories about young people who applied to 400 jobs and got rejected by all of them.

It seems we’ve created a vast multilayered system that evaluates the worth of millions of young adults and, most of the time, tells them they are not up to snuff.

For over two decades, a vibrant mural featuring "The Wizard of Oz" characters adorned Stead Park. Painted by local graffiti artists in 2001, it became a beloved landmark. However, last spring, a new group of artists replaced it with a whimsical scene of toy buildings and a toddler, symbolizing the neighborhood's evolving culture.

The transformation sparked controversy when Roger Gastman, one of the original muralists, sued Cory Stowers, the leader of the new team. Gastman claimed the new mural destroyed his original work, while Stowers argued that the old mural had deteriorated and needed repair. The dispute has reignited debates about ownership and creative control in street art, pitting preservation against evolution in the ever-changing landscape of graffiti.

The case is unique as it involves artists suing other artists over the alteration of building art, rather than building owners. Stowers, a prominent figure in D.C.'s graffiti scene, had secured funding and permission from the property owner to repaint the wall. However, Gastman, now well-known in the graffiti world, argues he wasn't consulted before the work was altered.

This conflict has raised concerns within the graffiti community about the future of murals and how artists navigate issues of ownership. It also highlights the tension between preserving artistic legacy and embracing the fluid nature of street art. As community member Renée Vara noted, "It's a shame that a beautiful collaboration has kind of come to this," encapsulating the mixed emotions surrounding the dispute.

Possible Preaching Angles:

1) Transformation; Renewal - The replacement of the old mural with a new one echoes biblical themes of transformation or the idea of a new creation; 2) Conflict between generations: The dispute between the original artist and the new group mirrors biblical stories of generational conflict, like Jacob and Esau or Joseph and his brothers; 3) Stewardship and responsibility - The debate over who has the right to alter the mural reflects biblical themes of stewardship and responsibility for God’s creation. 4) Legacy - Gastman's desire to preserve his artistic legacy echoes biblical themes of leaving a lasting impact and honoring one's legacy.

Anxiety around aging may be universal, but recently some members of Gen Z have been voicing acute distress. A few widely circulated social media posts have advanced the tantalizing theory that Gen Z is “aging like milk,” which is to say, not well.

In one viral TikTok video that has been seen nearly 20 million times, Jordan Howlett, a 26-year-old with a dense beard and professorial glasses, says that he thinks he and other members of Gen Z look more mature because of the stressors heaped on the generation. In another, a wrinkle-free young woman named Taylor Donoghue feigns outrage at commenters who thought she might be in her early 30s. “Bye digging my own grave,” Ms. Donoghue, who is 23, wrote in her video’s caption.

The oldest members of Gen Z are around 27. It may be that, like every human before them, they are simply getting older. The trend is all but certain to persist.

When Americans are asked to check a box indicating their religious affiliation, 28% now check “none.” A new study from Pew Research finds that the religiously unaffiliated is now the largest cohort in the U.S. They're more prevalent among American adults than Catholics (23%) or evangelical Protestants (24%). Researchers refer to this group as the "Nones."

Back in 2007, Nones made up just 16% of Americans, but Pew's new survey of more than 3,300 U.S. adults shows that number has now risen dramatically. Pew asked respondents what they believe. The research organization found that most Nones believe in God or another higher power, but very few attend any kind of religious service.

They aren't all anti-religious. Most Nones say religion does some harm, but many also think it does some good. Most have more positive views of science than those who are religiously affiliated; however, they reject the idea that science can explain everything.

Pew also asked respondents what they believe. While many people of faith say they rely on scripture, tradition, and the guidance of religious leaders to make moral decisions, Pew found that Nones say they're guided by logic or reason when making moral decisions. And huge numbers say the desire to avoid hurting other people factors prominently in how they think about right and wrong.

Demographically, Nones also stand out from the religiously affiliated:

• Nones are young. 69% are under the age of fifty.

• They're also less racially diverse. 63% of Nones are white.

• The Nones are comprised of three distinct groups – atheists, agnostics, and those who describe themselves as “nothing in particular.”

We may not want to admit it but author Arthur Brooks is convincing when he writes to the effect that age-related decline will come much sooner than we think. We might make excuses for ourselves but our recall of names and places is not what it used to be. He writes:

By the time you are fifty your brain is as crowded with information as the New York Public Library. Meanwhile, your personal research librarian is creaky, slow, and easily distracted. When you send him to get some information you need—say, someone’s name—he takes a minute to stand up, stops for coffee, talks to an old friend in the periodicals, and then forgets where he was going in the first place. Meanwhile, you are kicking yourself for forgetting something you have known for years. When the librarian finally shows back up and says, “That guy’s name is Mike,” Mike is long gone and you are doing something else.

A Gen Z journalist named Rikki Schlott wrote an essay to explain her generation to parents of Gen Z children. She called the essay “her best shot to explain the malaise of my generation.”

Gen Z has inherited a post-hope world, stripped of what matters. Instead, we have been offered a smorgasbord of easy and unsatisfying substitutes. All the things that have traditionally made life worth living — love, community, country, faith, work, and family — have been “debunked.”

“These are the sentiments I hear often from peers”:

• Love — “Monogamy is so outdated.”
• Community — “I have enough friends online.”
• Country — “I’m embarrassed to be an American.”
• Work — “I’m quiet-quitting.”
• Family — “I’m not bringing kids into this melting world.”
• Faith — “My parents are such naive Bible thumpers. By the way, what’s your star sign?”

Everything that matters has been devalued for Zoomers, leaving behind a generation with gaping holes where the foundations of a meaningful life should be. They’re desperately grasping for alternative purpose-making systems, all of which fall short.

I’m not saying all Zoomers should become church-going office drones who churn out babies and never question their country. But our dismal mental health records and the scars on our wrists seem to indicate that becoming faithless digital vagabonds is just not working out for us.

In his article “How America Got Mean,” David Brooks laments what he calls “the de-moralization of American culture.” Brooks notes that “over the course of the 20th century, words relating to morality appeared less and less frequently in the nation’s books:

According to a 2012 paper, usage of a cluster of words related to being virtuous also declined significantly. Among them were bravery (which dropped by 65 percent), gratitude (58 percent), and humbleness (55 percent). For decades, researchers have asked incoming college students about their goals in life. In 1967, about 85 percent said they were strongly motivated to develop “a meaningful philosophy of life”; by 2000, only 42 percent said that. Being financially well off became the leading life goal; by 2015, 82 percent of students said wealth was their aim.

Controversies abound regarding social media in general and TikTok in particular. And there’s nothing new or novel about older people expressing consternation about the slang terms embraced by younger generations. But there’s a particular convergence of those two trends that have experts especially concerned.

Mental health experts have expressed concerns about the rise of slang terms related to mental health among Gen-Z users on TikTok. Terms like “menty b” (short for mental breakdown) and “grippy sock vacation” (a euphemism for a mental-health-related inpatient hospital stay) are becoming more and more common as more users on the video sharing platform talk more openly about their mental health struggles.

These terms are examples of “algo-speak,” a lexicon of euphemistic terms related to controversial topics that TikTok producers use to prevent automated content moderation systems from downranking their content. In this sense, some mental health professionals applaud the rise of “menty b” and similar variants because speaking more openly on these topics helps to mitigate the stigmas against mental health disclosure. "Saying 'I had a menty b' takes control of the narrative," says therapist Michael Dzwil.

On the other hand, there are some that feel that terms like “menty b” can serve to trivialize serious mental health struggles and prevent people from seeking professional help, opting instead to self-diagnose and seek remedies from other TikTok users.

In Dixon’s conclusion, she recommends users find a balance between pursuing community and finding accurate information. “Wit can't resolve clinical cases alone; treatment necessitates accurate diagnoses and responsive modalities. Pithy phrases make struggles digestible, yet downplay their gravity when inappropriately applied.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

God made us for community so we ought to share our struggles with each other.

An often-overlooked effect of missionary influence has been the preservation of languages. Language is the breath of a culture, and so the death of a language almost always results in the loss of a way of life. MIT linguist Norvin Richards expressed the importance of the preservation of languages and cultures well: “There are jokes that are only funny in Maliseet and there are songs that are only beautiful in Wôpanâak …. If we lose those languages, we lose little pieces of the beauty and richness of the world.”

In 2019, the United Nations warned, “Almost half the world’s estimated 6,700 languages are in danger of disappearing.” Many minority languages are lost when younger generations are educated in national languages. Written languages have a much better chance of survival than exclusively oral ones and many small, unique languages have been preserved by Bible translation.

In one remarkable case, the Wôpanâak language was brought back to life a hundred years after its last speakers died. The linguistic revival was based on the translation work of missionary John Eliot. The first Bible published in colonial America was in the Wôpanâak language in 1663. As a result of Eliot’s literacy efforts, the Wampanoag tribe left behind a collection of written documents when disease ravaged their population.

In the 1990s, Jessie Little Doe Baird, a descendant of the tribe Eliot sought to reach, used those records to revive the Wôpanâak language as part of a linguistics program at MIT. Her daughter is the first native Wôpanâak speaker in seven generations and six other Wampanoags have become fluent in the language. Interestingly, one of Baird’s Wampanoag ancestors publicly opposed missionary work in the eighteenth century.

For decades, we’ve thought of women as more religious than men. Survey results, conventional wisdom, and anecdotal glimpses across our own congregations have shown us how women care more about their faith, though researchers haven’t been able to fully untangle the underlying causes for the gender gap across religious traditions and across the globe.

Now, data shows the long-held trend may finally be flipping: In the United States, young women are less likely to identify with religion than young men. The findings could have a profound impact on the future of the American church.

Percentage who identified as nones in 2021:

18 to 25-year-old men – 46%

18 to 25-year-old women – 49%

40-year-old men – 45%

40-year-old women – 44%

60-year-old men – 32%

60-year-old women – 36%

65-year-old men – 25%

65-year-old women – 20%

There’s also a gender gap in church attendance. This pattern has been so stark that Pew Research Center found in 2016 that Christian women around the world are on average seven percentage points more likely than men to attend services; there are no countries where men are significantly more likely to be religiously affiliated than women.

Like many parents of grown children, Sadhana and Sanjeev Prasad of India are frustrated at the lack of grandchildren in the picture. But, the Prasads resorted to a desperate tactic to force their son’s hand. They are suing him.

The couple's legal representative said, “They raised him, educated him, made him capable, made him a pilot -- which was expensive.” The Prasad’s filed a suit against their son and daughter-in-law, seeking damages in the amount of 50 million Indian rupees, or about $643,000 in US dollars. “They see people in their neighborhood playing with their grandchildren and feel like they should also have one. They said they didn't marry (their son and daughter-in-law) off so that they can live alone. So, they said, in the next year, either give us a grandchild or give us compensation.”

According to CNN, such lawsuits are rare, but they highlight the strong familial traditions in India, where carrying on the family line is of utmost importance. Lawsuits like this reflect the inevitable conflicts that arise from generational shifts in perspective that include a stronger focus on work and career over raising a family.

Possible Preaching Angle:

When we struggle with frustration, uncertainty, and anxiety, lashing out does not get us any closer to what we want. Rather, we are instructed to trust God for our needs, and remain loving and patient with those around us.

The vast majority of US adults believe in God, but the 81% who do so is down six percentage points from 2017 and is the lowest in Gallup's trend. Between 1944 and 2011, more than 90% of Americans believed in God. Gallup's May 2022 Values and Beliefs poll finds 17% of Americans saying they do not believe in God.

Gallup first asked this question in 1944, repeating it again in 1947 and twice each in the 1950s and 1960s. In those latter four surveys, a consistent 98% said they believed in God. When Gallup asked the question nearly five decades later, in 2011, 92% of Americans said they believed in God.

A subsequent survey in 2013 found belief in God dipping below 90% to 87%, roughly where it stood in three subsequent updates between 2014 and 2017 before this year's drop to 81%.

The groups with the largest declines are liberals (62%), young adults (68%), and Democrats (72%). Belief in God is highest among political conservatives (94%) and Republicans (92%), reflecting that religiosity is a major determinant of political divisions in the US.

The bottom line is that fewer Americans today, than five years ago, believe in God, and the percentage is down even more from the 1950s and 1960s when almost all Americans did. Still, the vast majority of Americans believe in God. And while belief in God has declined in recent years, Gallup has documented steeper drops in church attendance, church membership, and confidence in organized religion, suggesting that the practice of religious faith may be changing more than basic faith in God.

Ligonier Ministries asked Americans a practical question about worship. “Must churches provide entertaining worship services if they want to be effective?”

Frequent attendees of evangelical churches (monthly or more):

Strongly agree: 9%

Somewhat agree: 25%

Somewhat disagree: 25%

Strongly disagree: 39%

Infrequent attendees of evangelical churches (holidays only/rarely/never):

Strongly agree: 8%

Somewhat agree: 32%

Somewhat disagree: 27%

Strongly disagree: 29%

Millennial attendees of evangelical churches (ages 18 to 34)

Strongly agree: 11%

Somewhat agree: 29%

Somewhat disagree: 22%

Strongly disagree: 37%

Boomer attendees of evangelical churches (ages 50 to 64)

Strongly agree: 7%

Somewhat agree: 31%

Somewhat disagree: 22%

Strongly disagree: 37%

A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found a massive shift in American values:

Two decades ago, Americans of various ages overwhelmingly said that patriotism, hard work, belief in God, and having children were the values most important to them. “Hard work” remains strong, but the other three values have dropped dramatically.

Among American teens:

95% say that finding a job or career they enjoy would be extremely or very important to them as an adult. 81% said that about “helping others in need.” 50% said “having a lot of money” would be important. 39% thought having children would be important.

For their part, many millennials are buying into the “work 80 hours a week for us because we’re changing the world” rhetoric popularized by Silicon Valley. But even those skeptical of it are working their tails off. As Anne Helen Petersen put it in a popular Buzzfeed article earlier this year: “We put up with companies treating us poorly because we don’t see another option. We don’t quit. We internalize that we’re not striving hard enough. And we get a second gig.”

An Atlantic article states, “The best-educated and highest-earning Americans, who can have whatever they want, have chosen the office for the same reason that devout Christians attend church on Sundays: It’s where they feel most themselves.”

But our desks were never meant to be our altars. This mismatch between expectations and reality is a recipe for severe disappointment, if not outright misery, and it might explain why rates of depression and anxiety in the US are “substantially higher” than they were in the 1980s.

The latest survey (2021) from Arizona Christian University’s Cultural Research Center found that belief in God has declined between generations:

• 83% of those in the Silent Generation (born 1927-1945) profess belief in God
• 79% of baby boomers (born 1946-1964) believe in God
• 70% of Generation Xers (born 1965-1983) identified as Christian.
• 43% of millennials (born between 1984 and 2002) said they “don’t know, care, or believe that God exists.” Only 57 percent said they were Christian.

The report underscores the declining importance of religious faith in American life, as highlighted in pandemic reopenings when politicians prioritized restaurants and tattoo parlors over houses of worship.

Gabe Poirot runs from the street toward the camera, yelling, “Wait, wait, don’t scroll!” If the urgency in his voice causes you to pause and watch his video, you’re in for a 60-second blessing. Wearing a sweatshirt with #MakeJesusViral emblazoned on the front, he leans deep into the frame. “Let me pray with you today,” he says earnestly, then bows his head and closes his eyes. “Father God, let me just pray for the person on the other end of this phone.”

Poirot is a student at Kenneth Copeland Bible College who uses the social media app TikTok to share clips of himself preaching short sermons and praying for his audience. TikTok feeds users a constant stream of one minute-or-less videos via its “For You” page. This makes it easy to skip the ones that don’t catch their attention within the first few seconds.

While much of TikTok is devoted to less-than-youth-group-friendly content, Poirot’s content is a subgenre known as “Christian TikTok.” Christian TikTok influencers publish sermonettes, best Bible study practices, and even tutorials on how to stretch without participating in the Hindu elements of yoga. And many of the young content creators are on a mission: to spark revival among Generation Z—those born in the late 1990s through the early 2010s.

When Poirot first started making TikToks he didn’t think of making them Christian or gospel centered. Then he said, “The thought came to my heart and it really struck me. I’m not out here to be famous for myself. I want to make Jesus viral.” The hashtag #MakeJesusViral was born, and Poirot began creating more evangelistic videos.

Most know that the coronavirus pandemic had a significant negative effect on mental health. United States adults were three times more likely to experience mental distress, anxiety, and depression than adults in 2018 or 2019.

But teenagers tell a different story. Researchers surveyed teenagers in the summer of 2020 about their mental health and compared the results to a similar survey in 2018. They found that the percentage of teens who were depressed or lonely actually fell in 2020. The percentage of teens who were unhappy or dissatisfied was only slightly higher in 2020 than 2018.

What explains it? Researchers attribute positive mental health outcomes in teenagers to two things: more sleep and more time with family. Positive family relationships are linked with better mental health outcomes, and most teenagers reported spending significantly more time with their parents and siblings. In fact, 68% of teenagers reported that their families grew closer during the pandemic, and less than 1 in 20 of those reported feeling depressed.

Lloyd Alter wrote an insightful article about passing on family heirlooms:

I don’t like clutter. Yet cluttering up my dining room is an old cabinet filled with teacups and dishes that belonged to my late mother-in-law … My daughter was just setting up house, so at least the dining room set and sideboard found a home. But for many people, it's not so easy. Most baby boomers are already established and don’t need more stuff when they inherit it from their parents. Their millennial kids either don’t like it or don’t have a place to put it.

Financial advisor Richard Eisenberg notes that nobody wants the big old stuff anymore. “Dining room tables and chairs, and end tables have become furniture non grata. Antiques are antiquated.” One expert in getting rid of stuff moans about the millennials:

This is an Ikea and Target generation. They live minimally, much more so than the boomers. They don’t have the emotional connection to things that earlier generations did. And they’re more mobile. So, they don’t want a lot of heavy stuff dragging down a move across country for a new opportunity.

Eisenberg concludes with this tip: Prepare for disappointment. Tastes and the people think about stuff has changed. With today’s disposable culture, it's cheaper to buy a sofa from IKEA than it is to hire a truck for grandma’s giant sofa. An antique dealer said, “I don’t think there is a future for the possessions of our parents’ generation. It’s a different world.”

Possible Preaching Angles:

Example; Faith; Heritage; Parenting – Millennials and Gen Z may not want the furniture, china, and keepsakes of their parents. However, one thing that parents should make sure they pass on is the heritage of their faith in God.