The U.S. surgeon general had issued “a rare public advisory” regarding teenage depression and anxiety: “Every child’s path to adulthood—reaching developmental and emotional milestones, learning healthy social skills, and dealing with problems—is different and difficult. Many face added challenges along the way, often beyond their control. There’s no map, and the road is never straight. But the challenges today’s generation of young people face are unprecedented and uniquely hard to navigate. And the effect these challenges have had on their mental health is devastating.” 

The advisory identifies two different sources: biological and environmental factors (i.e., culture). Biological factors are easier to diagnose and treat than the broad environmental factors that are “unprecedented and uniquely harder to navigate.” To take on this “mental health crisis,” we must give greater attention to understanding the environmental influences and the impact such factors have had on today’s teens. 

CULTURAL PIVOTS

Over the past several decades, three significant cultural shifts (pivots) have converged to create a toxic developmental environment that has taken its toll on the young. To understand what it is to grow up today is to recognize and address the impact of these pivots. 

PIVOT 1: The Virtual Self. In the early 2000s, the teenage social landscape was comprised of two distinct “worlds”—the visible, where adults hold power (e.g., school, family, etc.), and the world of peers, described as the “world beneath.” While during mid-adolescence, teens have not yet developed a well-formed identity (or “self”), they know they must present someone in the visible adult world. Each self is authentically them, but not wholly them (e.g., “I don’t know who I am” is a common cry of this age group). Two decades ago, while juggling various “selves” around adults, they felt freer to be “themselves” alongside peers in the world beneath. Now, being relatively safe with peers has been shattered under the weight of the technologically mediated world. For most teenagers, the rapid cultural shifts that have taken place (e.g., the first iPhone was introduced on June 29, 2007) have made peer relationships increasingly just as perilous as the adult-controlled world. In every social setting, today’s young have learned to protect themselves by living behind avatars. 

An avatar is a virtual representation of oneself, usually through technology. In the electronic world, an avatar is how one virtually connects to others. The development of the self requires a robust community where young people can explore and identify the uniqueness that makes them distinct; yet, in today’s world, there are few safe places. In the constant shifting from one avatar to another, kids ask, “Where can I be me?”

PIVOT 2: Mosaic versus Linear Thinking. In the 1960s, Canadian philosopher, Marshall McLuhan, identified “world history in three phases:” 

  • Pre-Gutenbergian (communal, oral)
  • Gutenbergian (individualism, linear thinking)
  • Electronic (not linear, “mosaic” thinking)

To McLuhan, the printing press era led to people being alienated from one another. As a media theorist, he celebrated the opportunity the age of electronic media brings to human relationships (i.e., the “global village”). He foresaw “mosaic thinking” as redeeming human interaction. He could not, however, envision how this would actually drive us even further apart. Teenagers now spend nearly nine hours a day in the virtual world (and for tweens, eight to 12-years-old, 5½ hours), more than half of their waking life, yet there is more depression and loneliness than ever before.

In 2001, George Barna, the founder of the research firm, The Barna Group, used the label, “Mosaics,” to describe the “first generation among whom a majority will exhibit a non-linear style of thinking—‘a mosaic, connect-the-dots-however-you-choose approach’…. Mosaics’ non-linear approach to thinking means that ‘any route to any end point is equally valid’…. Mosaics are comfortable living with contradictions and with the tension of not driving an issue to resolution.”

Barna’s predictive descriptions of “mosaic” non-linear thinking were remarkably accurate. He could not, however, imagine how this would impact the mental health of today’s teens. Mosaic thinking—where “every endpoint is equally valued,” and contradictions are “comfortable”—may sound attractive and even healthy; however, the cost of such thinking is high for the developing young mind. The inability to resolve conflict and work through and reconcile contradiction and pain is discouraging and fosters a sense of hopelessness. Among other outcomes, this is what mosaic thinking has done. As researcher, Margarita Dudina, summarizes: “The interiorization of contemporary cultural phenomena bears the signs of fragmentary, mosaic thinking that makes it difficult to nurture the ability to analyze and identify cause-and-effect relationships. A superficial approach to the ever-expanding volume of knowledge prevents one from comprehending concepts, which has a negative impact on the development of consciousness, cognitive and affective functions, activity, verbal and non-verbal communication, and of the conceptual structure of the world and self-reflection on one’s place in the world.”

Mosaic thinking hinders the ability to reflect in a way that brings depth, nuance, and, ultimately, a resolution to life’s challenges. Thus, media-saturated teenagers and young adults are easily non-reflectively swept from one issue to another. Conflicts go unresolved. Behavior patterns become reactionary, not thoughtful. All desire to relieve the anxiety of this treadmill, but they cannot conceptualize any other way to live. In the complex and dangerous world in which we have handed our young, being a “mosaic thinker” hinders healthy development and is exhausting. Today’s young people have become developmentally “… infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there…” (Ephesians 4:14, NIV).

PIVOT 3: Transactional Relationships. In Henri J.M. Nouwen’s 1980s classic, In the Name of Jesus, he asserts that in modern society, we develop our identity according to three criteria: I am what I do, I am what power or control I have, and I am what others say about me. He rightly points out that by defining ourselves according to these external voices, we will ultimately find ourselves depressed and broken. Nouwen argues, in response, that our true identity is found in God’s unconditional blessing declaring each of us in Christ the Beloved Child of God. God created, God loves, and God redeems. 

Nouwen’s description illustrates how modern life influences our sense of self so much that we have a hard time filtering out the voices that communicate we are not enough and never will be enough to please a hostile and condemning world. In the three decades since, contemporary life has become even less subtle in its condemnation of the self. In the 1980s, unspeakable violence was limited to schoolyard bullies—there were no unfiltered windows into the world and no social media. Growing up then may have been filled with comparison and competition but, for most, there were at least a few who cared for the sake of walking alongside us. However, today, the pressures of image, conformity, and performance have overtaken us all. 

Not only do the questions of what someone does, what they control, and what others say continue to affect how they see themselves in relation to others and the world, but it is also difficult to find places where they can expect to be loved and appreciated as they are for who they are. As a society, we have pivoted from providing safe environments to being almost entirely transactional. So long as someone can offer something of value, they are safe and secure. Consider a setting any teenager finds themselves in—family, church, school, sports, friends—and, increasingly, each young person knows that as long as they contribute to the well-being of someone else, they are welcome and celebrated. If not, or when they fail or disappoint, it is up to them to find a way to fix it. They are loved if they get an A, score a goal, or show up at youth group. If not, they have failed to deliver. Our kids have grown up knowing that life is transactional. Today’s young people know they must perform their way to blessing. 

Life is a Solitary Journey

The sum of the cultural pivots? A gnawing sense of isolation and all-pervasive loneliness. Each story is unique and often hidden from even those closest to them, but for every teenager and emerging adult, these are common feelings and experiences: 

  • Virtual living: “The person I show is me, but not the total or even ‘real’ me. If I’m honest, I don’t even know who the real me is!” 
  • Mosaic thinking: “With all I have to deal with, I can’t seem to make sense of it all. I’m so often anxious and insecure. I can’t get a grip on what is true and good and what is false and destructive. I just keep moving from one thing to the next, hoping that eventually things will come together.”
  • Transactional relationships: “I know I am supposed to have a purpose and make a difference in the world. I also know that when I do what is expected of me, I will be liked, even loved. It is up to me to be loveable, and this scares me to death.” 

Once they have enough trust that they will honestly share, listening to teenagers is to hear firsthand the effects of growing up with virtual living, mosaic thinking, and transactional relationships. The cumulative nature of these pivots produces an environment where young people feel increasingly isolated and alone. As a result, studies overwhelmingly reveal that today’s young generation may be history’s loneliness. An article in Business Insider titled, “Lonely, burned out, and depressed: The state of millennials’ mental health in 2020,” examines the increased rate of depression in this generation. According to an article in PLOS One journal, there is little doubt that “loneliness has become a major contemporary public health concern.” 

Responding to the World We Have Handed Our Young

Innumerable environmental factors affect teen mental health. However, these major cultural pivots encompass the macro aspects that every young person is forced to deal with today. The pressures and expectations to constantly relate through external avatars, to have the capacity to make sense of this world, and to know that every relationship is transactional have led to the overwhelming experience of isolation that has created the loneliest generation in history. Young people desperately long for a light and guide to help them rise above the chaos we have handed them. So what is the solution?

First, every encounter with a young person must be bathed in authentic vulnerability. This means to wade through the impact of the cultural pivots; our presence must come devoid of our own needs or expectations. If we approach teenagers with an agenda that ignores the relational reality they experience, we will force them into relating through an avatar. To ever get to a place where they can trust someone to explore what is inside of them, we must come to them from that place. 

Second, adults (i.e., parents, teachers, bosses, etc.) often talk over and beyond young people, failing to recognize that they have been steeped in mosaic thinking. Appealing to linear logic will not only miss them but also push them away. The antidote? Build a bridge for them to share with you how they process the topic or issue at hand. Stay with the process. Ask questions. Be open, and see if the built connection may help you both realize the value of linear logic and free-wheeling exploration. Marshall McLuhan believed that mosaic thinking brings people together. Perhaps being willing to see the value of how our young have been taught to reflect and consider life will open up new ways of processing today’s radically nuanced world together. 

Third, be aware of how your interaction with young people is transactional. Where do you expect something from the person standing before you? What do you want from them? To genuinely care for a teenager/emerging adult, you must check yourself and your motive for them. Can we recapture the age-old biblical commitment to nurturing without judgment, listening without condemnation, and caring without controlling? 

Last, the best thing we can do—before our tips, techniques, and strategies—is to exude welcome. Belonging is a powerful gift. In a world where so many feel alone, for young people to know they are loved as they are because they are should be the central calling of a caring adult. 

Chap Clark, Ph.D., is the co-founder of CulturePivot.com and President of Parenteen, Inc. He is a global speaker and consultant, the author of two dozen books, and a nationally recognized expert on adaptive leadership, cultural trends, Gen Z and Alpha Gen, and adolescent and young adult development. His years of academic leadership, research, and teaching offer a rare interdisciplinary perspective on societal trends and the impact of emerging generations. He is the author of Hurt 2.0: Inside the World of Today’s Teenagers.