Youth Culture Today with Walt Mueller

Now that I have grandkids entering their teenage years, I’ve got a front-row seat to see what’s popular among kids, especially when it comes to shopping and spending money. In today’s world, the top categories for teen spending are clothing and other accessories, food and snacks, entertainment and gaming, and experiences with friends, like concerts and other outings. Marketing’s push for the maintenance of youthful beauty has our girls spending lots of money on make-up, hair care, and skin care. But don’t count out our boys in this last category! Young Gen Z males are spending an average of three-hundred-twenty-four dollars a year on cosmetics, skin care, and fragrances. Because marketing effectively convinces our kids to spend, spend, and spend some more, we need to ramp up our efforts to teach biblical principles on stewardship. In First Timothy six seventeen, we are reminded to not put our hope in wealth, but to put our hope in God. Teach your kids to spend wisely.

If you’ve got any suspicions that social media is increasing the body image pressures our kids feel, your suspicions are correct. An internal study conducted by Meta, the parent company of Instagram, found that the algorithms were pointing users who already have body image concerns to a disproportionate amount of “eating disorder adjacent” content, which is feeding the pressure these kids already feel over their bodies. In fact, as a result of these algorithmic content feeds, kids with existing body image concerns were being exposed to ten point five percent of their total content being related to body image. For those users who were content with their bodies were seeing only three point three percent of their total content being related to body image. The point here is this: social media algorithms are throwing fuel on the body dysmorphia problem. We need to push back by helping them understand that their identity is not in what they look like.

On this weekend when we look forward to celebrating Father’s Day, I want to remind the fathers who are listening of their greatest responsibility in life. In Ephesians six four we read this: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” If we are taking the time to carefully, diligently, and correctly teach the Word of God to our children, we will have fulfilled our highest calling as parents. Writing back in eighteen eighty three, English pastor Robert William Dale has this word for dads that still rings true today. “Parents should care more for the loyalty of their children to Christ than anything besides, more for this than for their health, their intellectual vigor and brilliance, their material prosperity, their social position, and their exemptions from great sorrows and great misfortunes.” Dad, on this weekend when you are celebrated, ask the Lord to lead you into how to best lead your kids.

In the past, we’ve issued warnings about how kids are consulting with non-human AI chatbots online to get advice on all sorts of things, including mental health issues. The trend is dangerous, as so many of the news and research reports are now telling us. A new peer-reviewed study published on PubMed reports on how these AI chatbots are responding to the questions kids ask about appearance, body image, weight, eating, and diet. The responses reveal that chatbots are providing answers that lean into cultural standards for eating, thinness, and appearance, rather than pointing kids to safe dietary practices. There are legitimate concerns regarding the impact of these answers on kids, particularly the very real possibility of encouraging issues related to body dysmorphia and disordered eating. Parents, we need to set the table for our kids to come to us with these questions by fostering strong relationships that will result in our ability to give biblically-faithful answers to all of their questions.

The structure, complexity, and functioning of the human brain gives glory to God, our Creator! With the advancements being made in brain scans, researchers are seeing just how incredibly magnificent the human brain really is. Recent findings indicate that the brain changes its wiring of neural circuits over the course of our lives. The phase of change known as adolescence kicks off around age nine, and then continues until around the age of thirty-two. While the bodies of our children and teens reach maturity during the teenage years, we have to understand that the brain is not yet fully formed. The last part to develop is the frontal lobe, which is responsible for decision-making and impulse control. Understanding this reality allows us to more fully understand our kids. This should not excuse poor decision-making or behavior during the teen years, but it does explain it. It should also motivate us to fulfill our God-given role to nurture them in the discipline and admonition of the Lord.