Gen Z & church

Polling in America has told us for decades that the number of people claiming no religious affiliation (the "nones") is rising. But that's leveled off. Bible sales are increasing and Christian entertainment has grown.

Generation Z (born 1997-2012) is a significant part of this trend. They generally seem to be curious about Christianity and are looking for hope.

 

It's especially interesting that young men lead the trend. Gen Z men go to church more than Gen Z women. 

Similarly, the Bible Society in partnership with a research team in Britain says:

"We found that the Church is in a period of rapid growth, driven by young adults and in particular young men . . . [Y]oung adults are more spiritually engaged than any other living generation, with Bible reading and belief in God on the rise."

from USA Today

Gen Z richer

Despite their lack of a "play-based childhood" (last week's posts), somehow Generation Z has turned out to be better off at their age than millennials or baby-boomers were at the same age.

Globally, youth unemployment is way down. When millennials came of age in the U.S., they faced the economic downturn of a recession with reduced opportunities for jobs and careers. Gen Z youth are starting their careers now in different circumstances. It's more of a workers' market, with many jobs going un-staffed for lack of laborers. 

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Hourly pay increases for American youth 16-24 years old recently hit 13% (year over year), compared to just a 6% increase for workers 25-54 years old. 

They pay a little less of their income for housing and education compared to what millennials did at their age, and their home ownership rate is higher.

In short (according to The Economist),"In financial terms, Gen Z is doing extraordinarily well."

from The Economist

Anxious Gen Z 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

"Right now, children are going off to college and into the workplace without having been given the opportunity to risk, fail, and have the stamina to try again. That, Haidt says, is setting them up for a much deeper and tragic kind of failure," and widespread anxiety.

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Between 2010 and 2015 childhood went through a great re-wiring when "adolescents traded in their flip phones for smartphones, which were loaded with social media platforms . . "

Author Jonathan Haidt is attempting to start a movement toward "rolling back phone-based childhood and restoring play-based childhood."

from After Babel

Anxious Gen Z 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

All that unsupervised play that children did decades ago actually built some important skills into their lives, like risk-taking and independent decision making and problem solving. 

The amount of time that kids daily spend with friends is sharply down from twenty years ago (US Bureau of Labor Statistics). It was replaced with screen time, of course. 

Instant gratification grows from screen time, but not self-control or independence or self-reliance or people skills. Generation Z seem to have more social stressors on them today, coupled with fewer strengths and learned virtues to handle them.

Anxiety, depression, loneliness are more common to this generation than to previous ones. Yesterday's author, Jonathan Haidt, put his explanation in his book.

What's a parent to do? "For parents, raising healthy kids doesn’t just mean limiting screen time, but encouraging their freedom. They must practice becoming independent so they can more easily transition into adulthood when the time comes."

from Mind Matters

(cont'd tomorrow)

Anxious Gen Z

My neighborhood has children, but I rarely see or hear them. Maybe you remember, as I do, long summer days "playing outside" with friends or by yourself, making up games and discovering things and riding bikes. My neighborhood is quiet even in the summer.

But there are lots of kids at a nearby park where grownups organize sports, and the kids wear uniforms. Other than that, they're at home watching some screen on some device. Are they missing something? Lots of voices today say that they are. One of them wrote this book:

 

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Last month Haidt's book came out and is getting a lot of attention. Partially that's because he's an expert😉-- and partially it's because many of us adults already feel that something's wrong when kids don't go outside to play.

The theme is that we've "drastically overprotected children in the real world and woefully under-protected them in the virtual world." This social psychologist has lots of company in his worry about Generation Z (born 1996-2013).

from Mind Matters

(cont'd tomorrow)

Men adrift 7

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Creating the beautiful story of his life is all about a man's choices. 

If he's resigned to a boring life without decisions and risk, he will have a life without the joy of growth that comes with taking responsibility for a career, for a family, for a community. "Today’s depressed couch potato scrolling YouTube and watching porn" is building nothing, creating nothing.

As a child I was told more than once not to get my hopes up, which meant that I should expect defeat in the things that interested me. It was confusing. Why be interested in anything then? We need our young men to get a better message than that.

"Make men interested again! Interested people are interesting people." What is there to be interested in? Not much, except "woodworking, art, politics, science, creative writing, naval warfare, cooking, water polo, ornithology, engineering," aviation, trains, law, friendships, management, teaching, hunting, farming-- the ideas are endless.

Let's tell them that it's great to pursue their interests.

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from "Make Men Interested Again 

Kindling

Ayla Hutchinson saw her mother get injured while chopping wood. As a 13-year-old, she imagined that there should be a safer way to do the job. She got an idea, built a prototype, and submitted it as her science fair entry.

Her invention, simple in concept and easy to use, filled a need. "The splitter consisted of a one-piece, cast iron “safety” cage with a built-in axe blade. The shape of the safety cage allows the firewood to be hit against the blade with a blunt object, such as a hammer, ensuring that only the piece of wood will be cut."

It got enough attention that her engineer/inventor dad got another idea: it should be commercially available to the public.

from Wipo

(cont'd tomorrow)

Clear Shores 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

No doubt, they've had plenty of challenges. No doubt, they educated themselves not only on invasive species and best methods of controlling them (before starting the business), but also on running a business (afterward). 

Being so young didn't scare them off. Some things are best learned by experience.

Over one hundred clients have hired them, and their outdoor property services have grown beyond weed control. One of the three owners says, "If it's hard work and you can name it, we'll do it for you."

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Is all this hard work getting them down? Do they want to quit? Apparently not. That owner says:

"All of our full-time employees are lifelong friends, and we spend every day helping Minnesotans enjoy more beautiful properties. I have to be honest with you, it doesn't get any better than this."

from Eden Prairie Lifestyle

Clear Shores

Generation Z people are capable of more than the stereotype. Some don't primarily look for safe spaces and an easy life but instead stretch themselves, like this trio of teenagers.

Located in a region of lakeshore homes, they saw opportunity for a service business. Lakeshore property is highly desirable (and expensive), but it comes with the challenge of keeping that shore beautiful so that it can be fully enjoyed.

Similar to the show "Shark Tank," a competition of business concepts was held at their high school.  They researched the problem, came up with a business plan, and submitted the winning entry. Then they actually did it. Clear Shores LLC was created in 2021. 

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To combat a weed-choked shoreline, it's best to avoid chemicals or mechanical chopping. If the weed stays in the water, dead, then it decays there. The best solution is to manually pull out the weed along with its roots.

That's their plan. They put on wet suits, pull weeds by hand, and bring them to a mulching business where weeds are put to good use.

from Eden Prairie Lifestyle

(cont'd tomorrow)

No degree 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Yesterday's blogger, Hope, is glad she didn't pay the price to get a college degree. She doesn't stand alone in her opinion. She's part of a trend that includes some big names and big companies.

Tim Cook (Apple CEO) agrees. Only about half of all employees of Apple in 2018 had four-year degrees. And of course, the company's famous founder Steve Jobs never got one.

A list of other companies that don't require them from their workers includes Google, IBM, Bank of America, and more. 

"Exceptional ability" is not proved with a degree according to Elon Musk. He says college is  more for having fun than for learning. He likes to ask applicants this question: what problems have you solved?

Peter Thiel believes higher education is both corrupt and overpriced: "There's been an incredible escalation in price without corresponding improvements in the product, and yet people still believe that college is just something that you have to do. Whenever something is overvalued and intensely believed, that's a sign of a bubble."

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No degree

This weekend I met a bright young woman who really thought things through after high school, and decided to opt out of college. It's a counter-cultural choice to forego something that many high school girls think is a must-have.

But Hope says, "The degree is dead. It’s time to burn your resume." An employer wants to know just this: "can you do the job excellently, and are you willing to grow? If you can, and you have a great attitude, I couldn’t care less whether you went to Harvard or not."

Your new employer will learn that from your "value signaling" -- how you demonstrate to him/her that you will do an excellent job and that you will grow in the job. 

Before Hope had experience and a track record to help her show her value, she sent a video pitch. According to the hiring manager, that video was the reason she got the interview.

from Hope's blog

(cont'd tomorrow)

Sit with us

Natalie Hampton was bullied in school for years, told that she would never have any friends, even physically attacked. But it was sitting alone at lunch that made her feel like an outcast.

Changing schools in ninth grade made the difference for her, though, when she was invited to sit with someone during lunch. She says that this kindness saved her life.

Natalie created an app called "Sit With Us." Students create "open lunches" where anyone can join them and be included in the conversation. 

"Even though just about every school has bullies, I believe each school has a larger number of upstanders who want to make their schools more inclusive and kind," she said.

Gen Z thinks

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Generation Z has Jeff Meyers' full attention. Dr. Meyers interacts with hundreds of students every year in his profession of running two-week worldview encounters.  He has a lot of wisdom about these students that goes beyond retailers' drive to analyze them.

photo: gfs.com

He says, "The most common misunderstanding is that young adults don’t care about anything besides themselves. I think they do care."

"Today’s young adults can only embrace truth in the context of relationship. Truth without relationship leads to arrogance. Relationship without truth leads to apathy."

Gen Z

After all the attention paid to analyzing millennials, now there's another generation coming - Generation Z. They will include those born 1995 or later, and they will account for one-third of U.S. population by 2020, in just three years.

Naturally, it's their turn to be analyzed. HuffPo offers their take on it. How they are different as a group from the millennials' generation:

1. They're used to continual updates & revisions, so they may be less focused
2. They can function with multiple distractions, may be good multi-multi-taskers
3. They're less interested in coupons, maybe less interested in good deals
4. They're often "early starters," may choose to opt out of higher education
5.  They are entrepreneurial; "72% of teens say they want to start a business someday"
6. They expect more
7.  They seek uniqueness in all walks of life, customization
8. They are "global," world-conscious, expect diversity

Apparently this generation will be better educated and healthier too with a 40% drop in teen birth rates, 38% drop in alcohol/drug abuse, 28% drop in teens failing to graduate from high school on time.

(cont'd tomorrow)