Birdwatching, Snapchat Posting, and Ruthlessly Eliminating Hurry

Teens are birdwatching, posting on Snapchat, and learning to slow down from John Mark Comer. But first: 

Song of the Week: “drop dead” by Olivia Rodrigo 

Olivia Rodrigo is back with a new single, and it’s full of her signature sounds: talk-singing, driving drums, and bobbing synths. The song contains some language and sexual references, but nothing quite at the level of her 2023 album GUTS. In fact, compared to the angst of a song like “vampire,” “drop dead” seems positively positive, with lyrics that highlight what it feels like to have a crush on someone and the romantic daydreams that come along with it.

And now for our three conversations..

1. Birdbrains 

What it is: More and more young people are diagnosing themselves with Early Onset Birder Syndrome—and it’s aggressive. EOBS is the sudden, all-consuming urge to watch, photograph, and categorize birds.

Why it’s wholesome: As the internet and social media platforms become more addictive, young people are clawing their way out of screentime and flocking to hobbies like birdwatching. While it’s mostly a screen-free activity, birders still use apps like Merlin to log bird sightings and identify bird calls. The deeper desire, though, is more about feeling grounded and present in nature. Bonner Black, a singer‑songwriter and now birder, says she picked up the hobby during a mental health crisis and became completely hooked. She says, “I have to be so present in that moment: no screens, no texts, no outside noise. It totally regulates my nervous system in a way nothing else can.” At the same time, TikTok is full of reels about EOBS “symptom lists,” and YouTube has documentaries that follow young people diving deep into competitive birdwatching, including year-long challenges known as “Big Year” competitions. 

Continue the conversation: What is a screen-free hobby that you’ve wanted to get into? 

2. Lurking USA 

What it is: The newest Pew Research Center data on teen social media usage shows that many young people are passive users of TikTok and Instagram, using the platforms primarily to consume, and reserving most of their posting for Snapchat. 

What’s been changing: At this point, teens have a strong understanding of their digital footprint, so it makes sense that the app where their content literally disappears is the app where they indulge their urge to post several times per day. TikTok and Instagram, on the other hand, pose pressure to curate an intentional aesthetic. The report indicates a strong disconnect between how teens see their social media use versus how their parents see it—for example, 44 percent of parents say their teens spend too much time on TikTok, while only 28 percent of teens say they do. According to this data, the top three reasons that teens use social media platforms include entertainment, knowing what’s going on with friends and family, and connecting with others, while using it for news and keeping up with politics trailed in the distance.

Continue the conversation: Why do you think most teens use social media? 

3. Ruthlessness

What it is: A new profile of John Mark Comer’s life and ministry in The Atlantic surveys the enduring impact of his approach to digitally minimal discipleship. 

Why it’s relevant: Every generation of evangelical Christianity has three main celebrities: “the politics guy, the church-growth guy, and the personal-spirituality guy”—at least according to Russell Moore. Comer, the article argues, currently plays this third role—and what personal spirituality today requires is taking seriously the hold our phones have on our hearts. “Any version of discipleship to Jesus that doesn’t seriously take into account [your phone] is going to be wildly deficient,” Comer told Nancy Walecki in the interview for this article. And while he is hardly the only one proposing the deletion of social media and 24-hour phone sabbaths, he stands out as one of the clearest voices linking these kinds of intentional choices with our ability to connect with our Creator. 

Let’s translate this one further…

I confess that I love a good productivity hack. And in the world of to-do lists and productivity apps, the Eisenhower Matrix stands out for its categorization of tasks according to whether they are urgent and/or important. Users of the Matrix sort their tasks into four quadrants: 

1. Tasks that are both important and urgent 
2. Tasks that are important but not urgent 
3. Tasks that are urgent but not important 
4. Tasks that are neither important nor urgent. 

As a newcomer to the Matrix, I naturally assumed that I needed to spend most of my time in the first quadrant. This was the double-whammy, I thought—the chance to focus on what matters as well as what needs to get done immediately. But proponents of the Matrix argue that “important but not urgent” is the place where the most, ahem, important work gets done. Tasks in this quadrant tend to involve long-term goals and big-picture plans; they require wrenching our attention away from where we are and looking up at where we’re going.

The problem is that we live in a culture that is thoroughly addicted to urgency. The infinite stream of notifications on our devices is, on its own, powerful enough to keep us from considering what we might want our life to look like in one, five, or ten years—or perhaps even, what we might want our lives to look like in eternity. 

All of this restless urgency leads to burnout—and Comer sees this burnout as a discipleship opportunity. People need rest—and Jesus provides it. Comer’s recommendations about digital minimalism are not just ways of learning how to become mindful for mindfulness’s sake; they are ways of making space for true connection with the One who made us. 

2 John 9 says, “Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.” Note that the bad example in question here is not too slow for God; he or she is too fast. They move with too much urgency, too much hurry; they are always on the move—in their minds if not also in their bodies. 

Jesus is asking us to slow down long enough to drink deeply from the well of who God is and what He is doing. In short, Jesus asks us—if I may put it this way—to prioritize what is important over what is urgent.

For more context and nuance, check out our Roundtable podcast on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts. In the meantime, here are three questions to help you continue the conversation with your teens: 

Parenting together,

Evan Barber and the Axis Team

In Other News…

1. Young people are speedrunning their bachelor’s or master’s degrees, finishing them in as quickly as three months, as less traditional forms of university attendance become more popular.
2. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is the newest game in Nintendo’s oddest series, which plays as a mix between The Sims and Animal Crossing, and its brand of social engineering makes for a lot of internet hilarity.
3. Coachella continued into its second weekend, highlighted by Justin Bieber inviting Billie Eilish on stage, Madonna joining Sabrina Carpenter, and Karol G as the first Latina artist to headline.
4. Some trendspotters are calling Rainbow flip-flops the “shoe of the summer,” as young people continue to reclaim 90s fashion.
5. The meteoric rise of the band Geese has led some to wonder if there’s some conspiracy behind their popularity. To be fair, social media marketing can sometimes feel more CIA than Don Draper, and streaming numbers are often manipulated. 

PS: Know someone who could use our conversation starters with their teens? Share the CT with a friend!