Lilo & Stitch had a bigger box office opening than the new Mission: Impossible movie, a newly published study from JAMA found that social media use can predict depression but that depression doesn’t necessarily predict social media use, Transformers Director Michael Bay plans to direct a Skibidi Toilet movie, Dr. Jordan Peterson debated 20 atheists simultaneously in a Jubilee video, and New York influencer @justjazzzyidk posted 20 TikToks on her own wedding day.
But here’s what we’re really paying attention to this week:
Meme of the Week: “Holy airball”
This trend is much easier to understand if you see it, so here’s an example! “Holy airball” is a social media trend that involves someone (usually a girl) saying something about themselves, a faceless responder (usually a boy) misunderstanding what they mean and asking a presumptive question, and then an image or response proving their ignorance, accompanied by the phrase “holy airball!” The expression offers a tongue-in-cheek commentary about the often incorrect assumptions people make when they are getting to know someone. It also plays on some cultural idioms, with the term “airball” referring to missing a shot in basketball so badly that it only hits the air, as well as the idea of “shooting your shot” being the moment someone tries to ask someone for a date.
And now for our three conversations…
1. Night Cap
What it is: A social media trend has teen boys and young adult men calling their male friends just to say goodnight.
Why it’s a little depressing: The calls are funny because they catch the receiver off guard. But reactions to the trend also cast light on how rarely authentic and vulnerable interactions tend to occur in even the closest of male friendships. In these viral video calls, call recipients chuckle. They express surprise. And then they often respond, “Wow, that’s really nice of you.” One man said, “I can’t remember the last time someone said goodnight to me.” Many men are often carrying what feels like the weight of the world, without anyone asking how they’re doing.
Continue the conversation: When was the last time a friend called or messaged you to check in on how you’re doing?
2. Raggedy Scam
What it is: Annabelle, the supposedly haunted Raggedy Ann doll and inspiration for The Conjuring movies, is being taken on a U.S. tour, sparking rumors and jokes about her disappearing and/or causing various disasters along the way.
How the rumors started: A TikToker named @Christopherkiely claimed, without citing any sources, that at a certain point on the tour, Annabelle had gone missing. Within three days, his video had been seen around nine million times, with many people commenting things like “I claim no negative energy” because of the doll’s supposed ability to release evil spirits. The man who had been driving Annabelle around posted his own video insisting that she had not gone missing, but his video got way fewer views. Clearly, our cultural appetite for the scary and the sensational remains high—but these events also create an important opportunity for conversation about credulity online.
Continue the conversation: What makes a TikTok video trustworthy or not trustworthy?
3. Screen Time Regrets
What it is: A handful of Gen Zers explained to The Guardian why they plan on implementing significant restrictions in their own kids’ smartphone and social media use.
Why they feel so strongly: Early exposure to pornography, violent videos, online bullying, and attempts at grooming in chat rooms are just a few reasons why these Gen Z men and women think being given unfettered technological access as kids was a mistake. Some say that they wouldn’t want their own kids to have smartphones until they were adults themselves; others say things like, “The longer children and teens have restricted contact with smartphones, the better.” A recent UK survey indicated that 46% of 16- to 21-year-olds would rather be young in a world without the internet altogether, and that 50% would support a “digital curfew” that restricted access to certain apps and websites after 10pm. So, if so many young people seem to be craving more restriction with technology, why does that still feel so hard to accomplish?
Let’s translate this one further…
About a year ago, writer and anti-tech activist August Lamm made this prediction on X: “I’m calling it right now, abstention is the new big thing; sobriety, celibacy, digital minimalism, dumb phones and religion. The age of hedonistic hyper-consumption is over. We are moving into a new peaceful age marked by moderation and self-discipline; I can’t wait.”
Lamm may have her finger on the beginnings of a cultural movement. But in many cases, digital minimalism can seem like the medicine we know we should probably take, but don’t want to. For example, the same young woman who told The Guardian that she wouldn’t want her own kids to have smartphones until they were adults also said, “As a teen I would have been the biggest advocate on everyone having a phone.” The picture that emerges is of a generation who, deep down, actually craves restriction—but who, when given the option, has trouble accepting it.
The Apostle Paul famously wrestled with himself in Romans 7:15, writing, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” And in her book Altogether You, Jenna Riersema argues that part of why the feeling Paul describes is so relatable is because every person on the planet naturally has multiple competing sub-personalities within them. Each sub-personality has a different goal and motivation—and part of our role as image-bearers is to lead these parts toward healing and wholeness, rather than being led by them.
When some sort of thought or desire comes up, instead of saying, “This is me” and giving into it automatically, we can step back, acknowledge it, and can ask questions like, “Does this desire actually represent what the deepest, most image-bearing, Holy-Spirit-led part of me wants?”
The value of external restrictions with technology (like the “digital curfew” idea from the UK survey) is similar to the value of a bandage. When applied to an open wound, it simulates closure and healing from outside, until the skin under the bandage has had time to heal itself. The goal isn’t to keep a bandage on forever. In the same way, the growth that God wants for us as human beings isn’t meant to depend on external restriction indefinitely—but on the internal healing that external restriction can make space for. Voluntarily accepting restrictions on technology can make space for internal healing—but we may have to get past ourselves in order to get there.
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:
- Have you ever been glad to have a particular restriction on technology?
- Would you give your own kid different rules about technology than our family has? Why or why not?
- Do you have regrets about the amount of time you’ve spent online?
PS: Know someone who could use our conversation starters with their teens? Share the CT with a friend!
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