The Summer I Turned Pretty, News on TikTok, and Cultural Blandness

Welcome to the Culture Translator, where each week our team dives into three big conversations shaping teens’ world. Before we get into it, here are some of the biggest headlines in teen culture this week, plus our invitation to be part of an upcoming resource on miracles:

1. Gen Alpha now drives almost half of household spending, at least in the US.
2. Vodka seltzer company High Noon recently issued a recall after some of their vodka products were mistakenly labeled as Celsius energy drinks.
3. The first half of Wednesday Season 2 officially dropped on Netflix this week.
4. The phrase “you need to nerd out” is being used as a new social media flex, helping to make obsessive, niche fandom cool again.
5. “Clanker,” originally a Star Wars diss for droids, is now trending as a meme insult for AI and robots.

Survey of the Week

The topic of miracles remains one of the most contentious topics in spiritual conversations—in part because of how often miraculous stories have been faked. And yet, numerous Christians all around the world continue to experience God’s miraculous intervention (including, it would seem, musician and Christian influencer Forrest Frank). As preparation for our upcoming resource on the topic of miracles, we’re gathering stories from our Axis community about how God has shown up in the lives of those we get to serve. If you believe you’ve ever experienced a miracle, we invite you to click here and share your story with us.

And now for our three conversations..

1. A Third Summer of Turning Pretty

What it is: Popular teen romantic drama The Summer I Turned Pretty is back for a third season, and teens are eating up the melodrama and love triangles.

Why audiences love it: As of this writing, there are five episodes (about half of the season) available on Amazon Prime, and they’re packed full of soap-opera-esque drama, poor communication skills, cheating, a marriage proposal, and a not insignificant amount of sex and sensuality. It’s also full of themes of responsibility, familial conflict, and yearning. The show often feels cheesy, but it’s also escapism in the purest sense; it’s easy to forget your own troubles when you’re caught up in the drama of fictional characters figuring out their own feelings.

Continue the conversation: Why do you think shows like The Summer I Turned Pretty are so popular?

2. Getting News from TikTok

What it is: A recent poll from Pew Research Center found that 39% of 18- to 29-year-olds say they regularly get their news from TikTok.

Why it’s a mixed bag: Much of the value of getting news updates via social media platforms is in how quickly we can get them. But the drawback of this speedy coverage is that by definition less time is available for making sure what’s reported is true. Still, perhaps the biggest obstacle to TikTok becoming a bona fide news source is simply that the most common way to use the app is still to just turn on the For You Page and see what happens. As USC professor Robert Kozinets told The Atlantic, “The default position is: Algorithm, let the information flow over me. Load me up. I’ll interrupt it when I see something interesting.” Perhaps for the TikTok generation, the definition of “news,” and what’s seen as worth keeping up with, will end up changing altogether.

Continue the conversation: When it comes to news, do you think entertainment value is more or less important than overall trustworthiness? Why?

3. Stale Summer

What it is: Has this summer felt culturally bland to you? The internet might agree with you—at least according to an article from Business Insider.

What it means for culture: Summer is often a time where cultural trends coalesce into a sort of monoculture (at least in the United States). Last summer’s big trends included Charli XCX’s brat summer and the Olympics, but this year? Well, Alex Warren’s song “Ordinary” has been at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, yet it feels forgettable. The big box office movies this summer have all been reboots or rehashes of known quantities, like Superman or Jurassic World. KPop Demon Hunters is probably the stand-out piece of media, and it seemed like Netflix was completely caught off guard by its success as they scramble to spin up spin offs. Meanwhile, social media feeds are becoming inundated with AI slop, so teens might be forsaking the brainrot a little more this summer in favor of “nerding out” to more specific interests and offline, embodied relationships.

Part of why I love writing for Axis is because I genuinely care about culture. Growing up, it always frustrated me when adults would dismiss the games and music I loved as meaningless or insignificant. It always felt like these dismissals weren’t born out of genuine criticism, but rather, a lack of understanding or a lack of desire to learn and engage.

I realize now that as I was growing up and becoming more and more excited about culture, by sharing what I loved with the adults around me, I was looking for feedback and guidance about how to engage with the world. Culture is, after all, a reflection of what society thinks, feels, and cares about. I wanted the adults in my life to engage in conversation with me and help me translate the culture I was living in.

Now as an adult who has to hear “skibidi” and “good boy” from the mouths of freshman boys at youth group, I get the temptation to write it all off. I could quote the often repeated refrain from Ecclesiastes, that “everything is meaningless.”

But I would argue that wielding scripture to offhandedly dismiss teen culture is antithetical to the goal of discipling the next generation. In fact, the writer of Ecclesiastes is arguing a broader point, that all human existence, including our current culture, is simply a blink in time, like a vapor. The conclusion of the book is that if our focus in our short lives on Earth isn’t on following God, that life is meaningless.

It allows us as followers of Jesus to have unique perspectives about our faith, our lives, and how we engage with culture. Yes, teen culture is often strange and seemingly inscrutable, but by using it as a stepping-stone to disciple the next generation, we can give it powerful, eternal meaning. On top of that, if teens are feeling particularly bored by culture one summer, it’s even more opportunity for them to invest in their relationships and faith. At the end of the day, if the next generation is falling in love with Jesus and the Gospel, it’s all worth it.

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:

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