Youth Culture Today with Walt Mueller

All this week we’re looking at AI and the potential role it will play in the lives of our children and teens. Specifically, were looking at some conclusions made by the Brookings Institution in their new report titled, “A New Direction for Students in an AI World: Prosper, Prepare, Protect.” The report offers a framework for schools and families to consider related to their main findings on AI. Re...

Recently, I ate a spicy meal of a food I had never had before. It tasted good going down, and in the moment I believed I had discovered something wonderful that I would look forward to having again. Then, during the night, my body began sending signals that the food wasn’t sitting well in my belly. I wound up being okay, but the experience did make me think differently about eating that food again...

Parents, are you keeping an eye on your teenagers who are now driving? Recent research from the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Hospital polled parents on the driving behaviors of their kids, and found that risky driving behaviors are quite common. Seventeen percent of parents have observed their kids engaging in what’s called impaired driving, which includes driving while sleepy, emotionally u...

When the internet, smartphones, and gaming devices were relatively new, experts were unwilling to label habitual use of these digital tools as addiction. But now that they’ve been around for some time, experts are able to look not only at the anecdotal evidences of digital device addiction, but a growing amount of data that supports how habit-forming these things are. The journal Frontiers in Psyc...

If you pay any attention at all to the changes taking place in youth culture, you will be sure to encounter words and terms occasioned by the new pressures, problems, challenges, and opportunities facing our kids as they grow up in today’s world. One of those terms that should cause us to wake up and take notice is this: nudification tools. These tools take the form of artificial intelligence- pow...

Over the course of the last few years I’ve been thinking more and more about the powerful role that grandparents play in the lives of their grandchildren. If you’re a grandparent, perhaps you’ve already verbalized what most grandparents think: that the world has changed so much that it is increasingly difficult for kids to grow through adolescence and into adulthood without cuts, bruises, and scar...

Recently, I was watching one of those videos where a man was running a large sieve through the sand at a beach, to find coins, jewelry, and other treasures. At one point he pulled his sieve up out of the sand , finding a red iPod that had been lost for who knows how long. Perhaps sometime during or after 2001, you had purchased and were using your own ipod, which at the time was a cutting edge pie...

Since we’re currently in the midst of wedding season, there’s a good chance you’ve been invited and will attend the wedding of a young couple you know. As Christians living in a world where marriage is no longer held up as a sacred thing, it’s always good, beautiful, and refreshing to see a couple covenant together before God in marriage. As with most wedding receptions these days, you might see t...

Let me make a very direct statement here regarding some of the ridiculous decisions parents are making regarding their kids and youth sports: Parents, we are losing our minds! I’m speaking specifically about the high cost of travel tournaments that are publicized in ways that make you feel like your kid is really, really privileged and special in ways that get us to miss the fact that these tourna...

I recently had a college professor tell me about an assignment he gave to his class, as they were in the midst of studying anxiety. “I want you to put your phones aside for three days”, he said. “Do not look at them or use them. And, do not lie to me.” One student came to him after class to protest. “I hate this assignment!”, she said. This was a young lady who, like many of her classmates, was st...

There’s a prayer in the Anglican Church of North America’s “Book of Common Prayer” that I found very helpful during this year’s Lenten Season. It is one of the prayers to be prayed during the Sunday’s leading up to Easter, this one specifically for the fifth Sunday in lent. What I love about this prayer is its recognition of the issues we and our kids face as a result of living in a rapidly changi...

Yesterday we celebrated Mother’s Day. As Christians, this day should bring to mind the fifth commandment, which reads, “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” Over 40 years ago, Dr. John Huffman wrote this about the 5th commandment in his book, “Liberating Limits: “God pity the society led by brash young people who have the answer...

One of the great forefathers of our Christian faith was Augustine of Hippo, who lived from 354 to 430 AD. You may know him as Saint Augustine. Perhaps you’ve even read some of his writing, including his Confessions, which is his autobiography, and the City of God. His conversion story is fairly well known, as his mother had diligently prayed  seventeen years for her son to come to faith in Jesus C...

Perhaps you, like me, are someone who on occasion was called back to reality by a school-teacher who caught you day-dreaming, not paying attention, or staring out a window during class. I know that it happened to me several times, from elementary school right on through to high school. In today’s world, it’s reasonable to assume that the most likely in-school distraction is a smartphone screen. Re...

I recently heard a song from 1981 that got me thinking about today’s children and teens and the kinds of things that they face in today’s rapidly changing culture. You might remember the song titled “Under Pressure” that was sung by the band Queen and David Bowie. The reason I think about the song is that its title captures the reality so many of our kids feel as they struggle to navigate life in...

If you could go back in time to face your sixteen year old self, what advice would you give to that teenager you once were? My list of advice would certainly be long, but there’s one essential push I’d give to adolescent Walt regarding how he was spending his time. I would tell that younger version of myself to stop making excuses about how little time he said he had to read, study, and meditate o...

Parents, today I want to remind you to warn your kids about some very real dangers they might face in today’s smartphone and social media saturated world. Sexting is defined as the act of sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit or suggestive photos, videos, or messages through their phones and digital devices. For our vulnerable and easily influenced kids, the dangers are real. Recent...

Somewhere there’s an assumption flying around that Christian kids are somehow immune from being vulnerable to the growing tide of negative influences in today’s rapidly changing culture. Many of us have bought the lie that “those things don’t happen in Christian families,” or that “they don’t happen to Christian kids.” Believing that lie can lull us to sleep, keeping us from realistically recogniz...

Parents, some new research on the effects of social media, screen time, smartphone use, and videogaming on eleven to twelve year olds warrants our attention. Reported in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the study set out to examine associations between problematic screen use, and behavior and mental health outcomes one year later. Problematic screen use occurs when kids can’t control t...

One of the cultural pressures that’s trickling down quickly from our adult world into the world of children and teens is what’s become known as hustle culture. Hustle culture is a fast-spreading mindset and lifestyle that glorifies non-stop work and constant productivity in an effort to achieve professional success. One’s self-worth easily gets tied to this, leading to a relentless pursuit of what...

I was fortunate to have Christian parents who modeled Christ-like grace in our home. When I think of my parents’ grace, one specific instance comes to mind. It happened late in my teenage years. I had hurriedly left our family dinner table to meet a friend. In my haste, I failed to look in the rear-view mirror while I sped in reverse out of our driveway. My progress was interrupted abruptly with a...

Would you agree with this sentence: “It is becoming common knowledge that social media use has led to harmful psychological consequences, including the amplification of a psychological phenomenon known as FOMO, or fear of missing out.” Those words penned by professor Keith Hess of Oklahoma Baptist University in a recent edition of Salvo Magazine, in an article entitled “Beware the Other Attention...

All this week we’ve been looking at how smartphones are cutting into the sleep time our kids desperately need, and what we as parents must do to remedy this problem. Because we as Christian parents must teach our kids to glorify God in every nook and cranny of their lives, we must set the table for them to sleep counter-culturally, worshipping God through good stewardship of their bodies by gettin...

All this week we’re looking together at how smartphones are cutting into the sleep time our kids need, and what we as parents must do to remedy this problem. Parents, here are just some of the dangers associated with digitally-interrupted sleep. First there’s anxiety and depression. Counselors who screen patients for these issues will oftentimes first ask patients if they are getting enough sleep....

All this week we’re looking together at the issue of how smartphones are cutting into the sleep time our kids desperately need, and what we as parents must do to remedy this problem. Parents, I want to share with you some realities that demand your attention and response. Researchers tell us that eighty-nine percent of our teenagers keep at least one electronic device in their bedroom at night, us...