The Lowe-Down

Was Captain America worthy of wielding Thor’s hammer? Who is better, PewDiePie or T-series? Is Luke the biggest threat on Survivor? Ask most groups of young people these questions and chances are you will get an animated response from at least one of them. When it comes to matters of entertainment and popular culture, young people are very informed and more than willing to debate and discuss the merits of their views.

On the one hand this is good news. Critical thinking skills are one of the top skills employers say they want in their employees. On the other hand, could this be a hint of the great mask of distraction we have built around ourselves to avoid confronting the difficult questions of real life? In his book ‘Advance Australia…Where?’, social researcher Hugh Mackay tells of attending a dinner party, where he found himself “seated beside a charming, articulate, professional woman who spent most of the evening telling me about her home renovations, including her new bathroom.” He goes on to say, “It struck me that our endless quest for the perfect bathroom tile might have become a way of distracting ourselves from some other, larger question.”

Look around any public space and you will see people immersed in their screens with the ubiquitous earphones as permanent fixtures on most ears. It is no wonder we are well versed in the concerns of popular culture but is it all a big avoidance strategy? Perhaps our constant consumption of entertainment and social media is in part an anesthetic to numb the fear of discovering that life is ultimately without meaning or purpose? Perhaps the loss of trust in so many of the institutions which have given security to past generations (the banks, churches, parliaments etc.) has left young people so unanchored and adrift that they simply aren’t equipped to face the deeper questions of life? Author Mark Sayers puts it this way, “With religion off the agenda, our culture finds new avenues of devotion and distraction…Millions of hours in the twenty-first century will be spent working through DVD TV series, scanning social network sites, gorging on celebrity gossip, downloading music…Things will take precedence over people. Meaningless activities will overtake our lives.” One of my students expressed this feeling more bluntly in a recent written piece on the topic of purpose: “I often try to avoid thinking about deep questions as I believe that I should not spend the entirety of my life dreading over useless thoughts.”

But all is not lost. While we do find many young people retreating into the distractions of the entertainment world, we also see young people bravely stepping up and grappling with life’s tough issues head-on. Some find themselves on the world stage, such as climate activist, Greta Thunberg or champion of women’s education, Malala Yousafzai. Others are quietly doing amazing things in their own neighbourhood. Our role as parents and educators is to nurture these young people; to put boundaries on the distractions (yes, the screen time battle continues); to reassure them that life is not without purpose or meaning; to put before them a vision of hope; and in the Apostle Paul’s words, to help them “not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of their minds” (Romans 12:2). And where do we start? Perhaps with this piece of advice from the writing of another of my students:

“Take each day, as a blessing
An opportunity to spread the love that’s within
Let’s not take each other’s company for granted
And start appreciating life more than our feeds”