Gen Z prefers baggy clothes to slim-fitting athleisure, public conversations are becoming the medium of choice for obtaining information, and therapy culture tries to replace religion. [For more nuance, including CJ’s spirited take on baggy gym clothes, click here to listen to our Culture Translator Roundtable podcast!]
But First:Song of the Week – “The Giver” by Chappell Roan
Chappell Roan is the latest to follow the “going country” trend. Her newest song feels like an ode to the country music of the 1990s, complete with a fiddle taking center stage. Like many of her previous songs, it’s upbeat and catchy, and, also like many of her previous songs, it’s entirely about same-sex attraction. While there’s nothing overtly explicit in the lyrics, they are full of euphemisms and innuendos, which again, is on-brand for this pop (and, for the moment, country) artist. If you want to read the lyrics, click here.
And now for our three conversations…
1. Fitter… Happier?
What it is: Gen Z has declared their allegiance to a baggier gym fit, a preference that appears to have taken many older gym-goers by surprise.
Why it’s not that serious… to teens, that is: A TikTok trend featuring a voice that announces “approved, approved… I don’t know” is being used over clips of teens modeling outfits they like and outfits they aren’t sure about, with the “I don’t know” audio landing on one they feel is iffy. Outfits described as “tight on tight” are showing up in the “I don’t know” category, with many young people saying that the leggings and sports bra combo is a dated silhouette. A commenter on one such post explained, “For me, it’s baggy pants tight top or tight pants baggy top.” Apparently some millennials are taking the trend change personally—while Gen Z is just trying to express a different preference.
Continue the conversation: Why do you think some adults get so upset when they find out their favorite trends aren’t cool anymore?
2. The Art of Conversation
What it is: Through hours-long podcasts, Twitch livestreams and YouTube shows, conversation has become a preferred cultural medium for consuming (and distributing) content.
Why it’s encouraging: Unlike lectures, which essentially involve one person transmitting prepackaged information—and articles, which represent static, crystallized knowledge—a public conversation allows for ideas and understanding to grow and develop in real-time, both for participants and for anyone tuning in. Novelist and media critic Tope Folarin argues, “A conversation provides a way for you and your interlocutor to co-create meaning, to achieve understanding (of a kind, anyway) of complex issues, and to impose order on chaos, simply by talking things through.” In other words, conversation is a tool for turning confusion into clarity. For parents and other adults who love teens, making space for conversation can provide a way to bestow a sense of agency, and to help your young person make sense of their world.
Continue the conversation: What makes a good conversation?
3. Searching for a Savior
What it is: Gen Z writer and journalist Freya India recently appeared on the Modern Wisdom podcast (language) to talk about the current state of young women.
What it reveals: India consistently argues that young people are craving guidance and direction. This might seem counterintuitive—shouldn’t young people, who are surrounded by social media influencers, ChatGPT, and the internet as a whole, feel inundated with advice? While young people do have a chorus of voices available to listen to, none of these information sources actually care for them, know their situations, challenge them, or offer hard truths. Instead, young people are left with what India calls “endless, empty platitudes of ‘be yourself, you do you, you know best.’” India’s words are a reminder that parents and primary caregivers aren’t just the biggest influence on teens—they are, sometimes, the only influences who have real care and compassion.
Let’s translate this one further…
At the beginning of the interview, Freya India discusses why young women are becoming more and more attracted to “therapy culture,” i.e. seeing everything through the lens of psychology, mental health conditions, and therapeutic language. She compares the role of therapy culture to a religion, wondering if its prevalence partly explains why young women are less religious than they used to be.
Going to church and going to therapy are not inherently contradictory or mutually exclusive. But India theorizes that the absence of a faith and church community in many modern women’s (and men’s) lives has left a void they then try to fill with the rituals of therapy culture. Instead of praying to God, they’ll “give a request to the universe.” Instead of seeking guidance from a pastor, they “repeat positive affirmations.” Instead of resisting temptation, they “reframe [their] intrusive thoughts.”
Modern Wisdom doesn’t aim to promote a Christian worldview, but even its host observes that this type of existence is empty and bleak. So unpacking India’s questions is that much more sobering for Christians. We believe that humankind is hopelessly lost and in need of a Savior, and that no amount of therapy or “self-optimization” can fill that need. While those things can be incredibly valuable, on their own they are incapable of fixing what is truly broken within us. Only Jesus can do that.
In Romans 1:21, the Apostle Paul says, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Perhaps the “futile thinking” of our age is to look inward for a Savior instead of towards Jesus—to say that we can therapize or optimize our sinful and broken natures away. It isn’t working, and it isn’t going to work. We’re still disconnected from each other. We’re still yelling at other drivers on the interstate. We’re still envious of our neighbor’s “perfect” family. Our hearts are still darkened.
Turns out, Jesus is still our true hope.
For more context and nuance, check out our Roundtable podcast on Spotify, Apple, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. In the meantime, here are three questions to spark conversation with your teens:
- Who are some adults in your life who you know will give you real advice?
- Do you have any friends who are obsessed with therapy speak? What do you think of that?
- Do you live like Jesus is your true hope? Do I?
PS: Know someone who could use our conversation starters with their teens? Share the CT with a friend!