In this drop of Youth Updates, we unpack our usual three topics alongside guest, Shaun Hornsby, who is the recently appointed Senior Lead of Courageous at British Youth for Christ. The summary below is redacted, listen to the podcast for the full conversation.
FAITH & SPIRITUALITY: Biblical Literacy
Something that has become increasingly apparent over recent years is that young people today aren’t as biblically literate as they once used to be. This isn’t surprising considering the decreasing rates across the country in church and Sunday school attendance, and the crunch on the Christian faith being discussed in schools. Once upon a time people had a basic grasp of Christianity through faith-based assemblies, going to church with their grandparents or being dragged along to Sunday school each week because it’s ‘just what you do’.
However, now that it’s not as central in the day-to-day lives of the country as a whole, many young people don’t know many of the basics, whether it’s who Paul was or knowing the story of Jonah or what the word ‘disciple’ means. This raises the importance of making sure faith-based content is accessible and assumes no prior biblical knowledge. There are many ways this can be outworked including explaining words such as ‘resurrection’ or ‘curate’, recapping stories rather than assuming young people know them and giving context when referencing a person or book in a talk.
DIGITAL WORLD: How Gen Alpha Learns
Inspired by his son, Shaun wanted to unpack more around Gen Alpha and the digital world. Generation Alpha begins at around 2010 and finishes around 2025, meaning many young people today fit into Gen Alpha rather than Gen Z. To put it into context, 2010 was when the iPad was launched, Instagram was created and the word of the year was ‘app’. They were born straight into the digital age.
Interestingly, research says TikTok is now the greatest tool for Gen Alpha to learn something new and 42% say they go to TikTok compared to 39% who say they go to their parents when learning something. It’s close, but TikTok just nudges ahead. It’s the first time in recent history that social media is replacing parents when it comes to learning new things.
Not only this, but due to the digital landscape, Gen Alpha are due to be the most influential generation. For those who know young people or are involved in youth-work, it leaves us with some thoughts; do we need to embrace the world of technology in order to engage better with Gen Alpha or do we provide an alternative? Or both? Especially when we consider the tension of the pros and cons of social media.
ISSUES: How To Boost Wellbeing
Recent research involving young people has shown that the UK was ranked fourth from the bottom out of 74 countries when it came to life satisfaction. However, it’s suggested that sports, art and culture help improve wellbeing and combat poor life satisfaction.
Bee Well, based in Manchester, who focus on young people’s voices and promote wellbeing, explored the importance of sports, arts, culture and entertainment. The outcomes showed that those who engaged in these activities generally had an improved wellbeing compared to those with low engagement in sports or arts related activities.
However, funding into both the arts and youth-work has declined in recent years making it increasingly difficult to access. Young people from homes with better finances or who attend better funded schools are able to engage in these wellbeing-increasing activities far easier than those who live in more deprived areas where opportunities are fewer and where families are less likely to be able to bankroll such activities themselves, therefore widening the ‘wellbeing’ gap based on financial background and the area in which they live.
For those who work with young people though, this provides potential opportunities that can be tapped into when it comes to helping increase young people’s wellbeing.
Sources:
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/sport-arts-and-culture-boosts-young-people-s-wellbeing-new-research/ar-AA1rvRtS
https://blog.policy.manchester.ac.uk/health/2024/09/spaces-for-wellbeing/
https://beewellprogramme.org/about/
Word Of The Month: Aura
Aura = the ‘vibe’ someone gives off; charisma, reputation, presence
Aura Points = aura points can be negative or positive and are based on a hypothetical ‘points’ system. For example, when someone walks on stage with toilet paper attached to their shoe it could be said they gained ‘negative aura points’. Meanwhile someone who scored an epic goal could gain aura points.