Gen Z’s Olympics, Charli XCX the political pundit, and how digital tools make parents more anxious. But first:
“Who” by Jimin
The latest solo effort from a member of the K-pop group BTS, this song is all about the restless search for a soulmate. With lyrics like, “We’ve never met but she’s always on my mind” and “If every day I think about her… then tell me why I haven’t found her,” the song provides ample opportunities to discuss the nature of love with the K-pop fans you know. A conversation starter could be: “Do you think there’s such a thing as a soulmate? Why or why not?” For the lyrics, click here.
Three Big Conversations
1. Standing on Ceremony
What it is: The Paris Olympics will hold their opening ceremony today—and some Gen Z Olympians are already going viral.
Why these Olympians are different: While many of these young athletes are making their Olympic debut, that doesn’t mean that they are new to the world stage. By cultivating their social media presence in the months and years ahead of this competition, some are already accustomed to the spotlight—and the brand partnerships, advertising money, and public scrutiny that come along with it. Quite a few have even used their platforms to give glory to God for their talents and abilities. Young athletes will most certainly be looking to boost their profiles even further by posting “behind the scenes” moments from the Games throughout the next two weeks.
Continue the conversation: What is your favorite Olympic sport to watch?
2. BRAT Packed
What it is: When Charli XCX called Vice President Kamala Harris “brat,” she was referring to her own album title—and bestowing a Gen Z compliment of the highest order.
Why the moment made headlines: BRAT is an album about envy, reputation, and chaos that’s quickly becoming the sleeper hit of the summer. The thinly-veiled lyrics reference XCX’s relationships with all manner of friends, family, and perceived enemies. BRAT’s low-resolution, lime-green album artwork is easy to recognize, becoming an instant aesthetic on its own, and echoing the album’s call to embrace your imperfections as your identity takes shape. Before this week, Kamala Harris probably wouldn’t have approximated anyone’s idea of the “brat” mindset, but that hasn’t stopped her nascent presidential campaign from fully embracing the label.
Continue the conversation: Have you heard people using the word “brat” as a compliment? What does it mean?
3. Really Anxious
What it is: Lenore Skenazy, founder of the LetGrow project, makes an argument that smartphones are “trust-blockers” for parents.
Why it’s worth thinking about: There’s a lot of discussion around how smartphones can shape child development in unhealthy ways. (So much discussion, in fact, that Axis just created a whole free toolkit breaking down everything you need to know before you give your son or daughter a phone—check it out!) But there hasn’t been as much talk about how much parents have grown accustomed, and maybe a little bit addicted, to being able to call their kids at any time, track their movements, and send them a heart-eyes emoji whenever they feel like it. Parents are relying on phones more and more as a parenting tool, but Skenazy wonders if this constant communication only serves to facilitate these parents’ own neuroses.
Let’s go deeper on this one…
What if Safe Is Sorry?
In 2008—way before the Find My app became ubiquitous and GPS bracelets for elementary school students were widely available—a New York City mom of two published an editorial in the New York Sun about letting her nine-year-old ride the subway alone. Nothing bad happened to the child. But the choice was widely criticized in popular media, to the point where this mother—Lenore Skenazy—was labeled by some as “America’s worst mom.”
Sixteen years later, if our teens have a device with location tracking, we can check their location anytime we feel a whiff of uncertainty or worry. From the cradle to college, we have near constant communication access to our kids. This can imply that we’re here for them, no matter what—but also that without us, all would be lost. As Skenazy wrote back in 2008, “The problem with this everything-is-dangerous outlook is that over-protectiveness is a danger in and of itself. A child who thinks he can’t do anything on his own eventually can’t.”
Parents were never meant to be permanent chaperones who live in their teen’s pockets. Not only is that unfair to our kids, it’s unfair to us. Proverbs 29:17 tells us, “Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart.” This process of discipline and correction is just that; a process—one with a beginning and an end. But if we’re constantly searching for digital evidence that our kids are safe and sound, we don’t get to experience the gift of true rest—even if our children are at a place where they can give it to us.
It’s a tough and distinctly modern problem to balance what we need to know to keep our kids safe versus what we just want to know, especially with the ability to track their every move. But if we hope to raise children with spiritual agency and independence, it’s vital that we try.
For a full “translation” of everything in this issue, check out our Monday Roundtable podcast. In the meantime, here are three questions to help spark conversation with your teens:
- Who do you think is more addicted to their phones—kids or parents?
- What makes you feel safe?
- What was something you did that made you feel capable and independent
Parenting together,
The Axis Team
PS: We recently sat down with Andy Crouch to talk about AI, algorithms, and modern sorcery. Check it out on Spotify, Apple, or Google!