It should come as no surprise to you that I'm struggling to see how the church (or faith) as a whole can do a better job at connecting with our postmodern society. In an attempt to eliminate the word "can't" from my vocabulary, I am doing what I can to contribute to a new movement to help re-integrate or re-introduce faith to folks.
To that end, I reached out to some people in the church about literature regarding this, and there sadly isn't much. However, there is still some. In particular, I was recommended to check out this series of books called FRAMES. This series of nine books analyzes different topics regarding modern society in short, concise books. Books that contain a lot of information portrayed in neat graphical forms.
This first little book, 20 and Something, is all about the Millennial generation. Being a Millennial myself, I found little of the information to be all that surprising. Yes, I know we are entrenched and obsessed with technology. Yes, I know my generation is delaying marriage and encouraging pre-marital cohabitation. In fact, this probably doesn't come as a surprise of any generation.
There were two interesting points, however. First, it was surprising to see how many of the statistical values fell in line with Generation X and even the Baby Boomer generation. For as much as people like to rag on Millennials for being different, we're not all that different. We just have more access to more information, and that has led to a more general acceptance of "progressive" ideas.
Perhaps the more important insight is what the author calls the "dark side of social media". Basically, he contends that social media is more depressing than helpful, and I wholly agree with this. It's why I got rid of Facebook five years ago. Either you're looking down on people and feeling a hollow sense of pride or looking enviously on others who are doing "bigger and better" things than you. I personally like the "one way" street nature of Twitter and Instagram: people can follow me, and I don't have to follow them back.
I fall more in the camp of nurture over nature, so I don't particularly believe my generation was born the way that we are. We were raised this way. So, if you really wanted to play the blame game, then Baby Boomers (and some Gen Xers) are to blame. But I don't think blaming the cause is helpful given that we don't have a time machine that can fix the misgivings of the way Millennials were raised.
Also, I don't think these issues with social media are limited to Millennials. I think it's something every generation faces. Without naming names, I know older people who suffer daily to keep up with appearances online without tending toward their problems in real life at all. So long as they look good online, they think they're happy. Except it's obvious they aren't happy because, much like a drug addict, they have to constantly keep up this charade.
It's draining.
I think I totally lost track of where I was going with this and how it pertains to faith, but it's still an important topic, in my opinion. Who knows, maybe there is some relevance to faith here? I'll have to think about it more. Anyway, keep an eye out for my review of the next entry in the FRAMES series in the near future.
To that end, I reached out to some people in the church about literature regarding this, and there sadly isn't much. However, there is still some. In particular, I was recommended to check out this series of books called FRAMES. This series of nine books analyzes different topics regarding modern society in short, concise books. Books that contain a lot of information portrayed in neat graphical forms.
This first little book, 20 and Something, is all about the Millennial generation. Being a Millennial myself, I found little of the information to be all that surprising. Yes, I know we are entrenched and obsessed with technology. Yes, I know my generation is delaying marriage and encouraging pre-marital cohabitation. In fact, this probably doesn't come as a surprise of any generation.
There were two interesting points, however. First, it was surprising to see how many of the statistical values fell in line with Generation X and even the Baby Boomer generation. For as much as people like to rag on Millennials for being different, we're not all that different. We just have more access to more information, and that has led to a more general acceptance of "progressive" ideas.
Perhaps the more important insight is what the author calls the "dark side of social media". Basically, he contends that social media is more depressing than helpful, and I wholly agree with this. It's why I got rid of Facebook five years ago. Either you're looking down on people and feeling a hollow sense of pride or looking enviously on others who are doing "bigger and better" things than you. I personally like the "one way" street nature of Twitter and Instagram: people can follow me, and I don't have to follow them back.
I fall more in the camp of nurture over nature, so I don't particularly believe my generation was born the way that we are. We were raised this way. So, if you really wanted to play the blame game, then Baby Boomers (and some Gen Xers) are to blame. But I don't think blaming the cause is helpful given that we don't have a time machine that can fix the misgivings of the way Millennials were raised.
Also, I don't think these issues with social media are limited to Millennials. I think it's something every generation faces. Without naming names, I know older people who suffer daily to keep up with appearances online without tending toward their problems in real life at all. So long as they look good online, they think they're happy. Except it's obvious they aren't happy because, much like a drug addict, they have to constantly keep up this charade.
It's draining.
I think I totally lost track of where I was going with this and how it pertains to faith, but it's still an important topic, in my opinion. Who knows, maybe there is some relevance to faith here? I'll have to think about it more. Anyway, keep an eye out for my review of the next entry in the FRAMES series in the near future.
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