Youth Culture Archives - Page 42 of 57 - Jonathan's Blog From The Source

Teen Choice

Posted on: 08/10/09 12:03 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Every year I watch three TV award shows that provide a pretty accurate glimpse of our current youth culture: MTV Movie Awards, the Teen Choice Awards, and the MTV Video Music Awards.

This year we already caught a glimpse from the MTV Movie Awards- a rather revealing glimpse (Click here for my summary of that show). MTV’s VMA’s are just around the corner (September 13th). The Teen Choice Awards air tonight, Monday, August 10, on FOX. (my apologies to those who are receiving this blog via email on Tuesday)

What do I expect from this year’s Teen Choice Awards?

My pre-show thoughts:

1. The Jonas Brothers are hosting. That might actually help the show stay a little more clean than normal. That doesn’t mean that all the guest there will be role models, but the host does have a huge effect on the flavor of the show. Last year the show cleaned up when Miley hosted- hopefully it will happen again.

2. Miley is performing her newest single, “Party in the U.S.A.” Miley is always interesting to watch. Through the good and bad, she’s always been a pretty clean role model (a way better role model than when I was a teenager!). I’ll be curious to see the direction this new single takes her.

3. Twilight, Twilight, Twilight, Twilight, Twilight. Did I mention Twilight? Yeah… that’s what the show is going to feel like (12 nominations going into it)

You can check out the official web site here: wwwTeenChoiceAwards.com and watch the show tonight on Fox. Expect my post-show thoughts later this week.

Posted in Entertainment Media, Music, TV, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment

Tweens Have a Feeling

Posted on: 08/5/09 11:48 AM | by Jonathan McKee

I was checking out iTunes today– I always like to see what kids are watching and listening to. I noticed that the Black Eyed Peas song “I Gotta Feeling” was still the #1 most downloaded song, and its video is at #5. I’ve blogged about this song and video before. The song is very catchy. And like most of their songs, it doesn’t contain explicit lyrics, so it’s deemed “clean.”

Then there’s the video.

Sigh.

This is also deemed clean. If you didn’t catch my last blog about it… you might want to take a look at it. Your kids can see this music video on YouTube, AOL, iTunes… anywhere. After all, most computers that have some sort of “Net Nanny” or “Cyber Patrol” parental controls don’t block iTunes. (I use a monitoring software on my kid’s computer, but it allows iTunes)

After looking at iTunes, I searched YouTube to see what kind of traffic the video was getting and I found this homemade video from two little girls.

I’m a little torn when I watch this. On one hand I see two cute little tween girls (they look about my youngest daughter’s age- somewhere between 10 and 12) who really seem like they are really having fun making a fun music video. It’s cute- swinging on swings, jumping on couches and doing gymnastics. But then you see them doing what the music video world has taught them well– imitating the party scene, and mouthing words like “Losing control” and “Take it off.”

I’m not freaking out… I’m not judging anyone. To me it’s just sad to see the loss of innocence. The contrast between two little girls playing on swings one moment, then holding up a Martini glass, tossing money in the air like a rapper… pretty intriguing. And if that contrast isn’t enough. Click from the innocent image of a child doing cartwheels on the grass to the original video where women in bikini tops grope and kiss each other. What are the odds that these two girls did NOT see this official Black Eyed Peas video? Would you want your 11-year-old seeing that video? Would you want her remaking that video?

Hmmmmm.

Posted in Entertainment Media, Internet, Jonathan's Rant, Music, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment

In the Mind of our “Good” Kids

Posted on: 07/23/09 2:27 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Do our “good” kids really need us to talk about sex, raunchy music, pornography, etc? Are we just putting thoughts in their heads that weren’t already there? Are we “making them grow up too fast?”

These are all accusations I’ve heard when it comes to talking with our “Good” kids about real issues in this very R-rated world. That’s why I gathered 5 of our “good kids” together yesterday and recorded a podcast asking them about these issues. I wanted to get a peek inside the mind of our “good kids,” and hear what pressures they are actually facing day to day. Then I asked them point blank: “Should the church talk about these issues?”

Great responses.

At the beginning of the podcast I made a disclaimer to our listeners. I told them that these kids were NOT at all a representation of the typical kids you’d find at your local campus. That wasn’t the intent of this podcast. I didn’t gather a random sampling of kids of different beliefs and attitudes. Instead, I hand-selected kids who have grown up in Christian homes where church is a priority. These kids are all “discipleship level” kids, many of them student leaders in their youth groups. I wanted our listeners to hear the perspective of kids who have been “protected” from many of the influences of this world. It was interesting to hear what pressures and temptations these “sheltered” kids faced (Three of the students are public school kids, one attends a Christian school and one is homeschooled).

The podcast was really fun. Some of the answers were a little churchy, but they answered with authenticity.

Here are the questions I asked:

– What does it mean to be a follower of Christ today?

– What are some of the biggest pressures you feel from the world that seems to battle against your faith in God and His truth?

– Parents and youth workers have been reading an abundance of articles and even seen 60 Minute news specials about a trend called “sexting.” This is, of course, sending sexually explicit text messages or even naked or sexually revealing pictures of oneself. Have you witnessed this, received any of these messages? Do you see this as a trend at your school, work or in your social groups? FOLLOW UP: Reports say that 39% of teenagers say they’ve sent suggestive text messages, 48% say they’ve received them. 20% say that they’ve sent naked or semi-naked pictures of themselves. 33% of teenage boys say they’ve seen these images. Do you think these numbers are accurate? Do you think this affects Christian kids just the same?

– Music is a huge influence on teenagers today. Who are some of the biggest names in music that you see influence teenagers today? FOLLOW UP: Is there pressure to listen to not only sexually explicit music, but maybe sexually suggestive music? How do you deal with this pressure?

– Internet porn is abundant, so abundant in fact that they say that the average age that kids experience internet porn, even accidentally, is age 11. Have you found this to be a temptation, a nuisance, a pressure? How do you fight a battle like this?

– How has the church equipped you to deal with these kinds of pressures and influences?

– What do you feel like you still need? In other words, what OTHER ways can we teach and train you?

You’ll really enjoy their responses.

We should release the podcast within the next two weeks. Look for it on our THE SOURCE Podcast page soon.

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Did We Really Need More Borat?

Posted on: 07/18/09 7:37 AM | by Jonathan McKee

If you’ve seen any newspaper this week, you’ve probably seen a picture of a half naked man named Bruno. If you happened to pass a magazine rack, then you might have even seen the same man fully naked on the cover of GQ.

The man has many different faces, but his content is always similar… similar in that you wouldn’t want your kids to see it.

If you made the mistake of seeing the movie Borat, you know what I’m talking about. USA Today claims that Bruno trumps Borat in shock value. The redband trailer of this film will reveal that (although I don’t encourage you to watch that).

I’ve been in Canada speaking all week and I literally just read David’s article about the film’s release (funny, I’ve seen magazines and newspapers about the film all week, and only now did I finally get to read the “Youth Culture Window” article on my own web site! That shows you how connected I’ve been this week!) David’s article on this film is excellent, I encourage all parents and youth workers to read it.

Here’s just a taste:

Homosexuality. Vulgarity. Profanity. Some more homosexuality. Mockery of Christianity. Coarse jokes. Even more homosexuality. Several drug references. Sex toys. And you guessed it: more homosexuality. Will kids pay to see this at theaters?

If Borat’s success at the box office is any indicator, they will by the millions.

CLICK HERE FOR THE ENTIRE ARTICLE

Posted in Entertainment Media, Movies, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment

Look Mom, no cuss words! It must be clean!

Posted on: 07/2/09 4:53 PM | by Jonathan McKee

More and more I’m finding that many parents have no clue what content their kids are watching day to day.

“But I use CYBERPATROL and block out porn sites from our home computer!”

“But I block those movie channels on our cable!”

That’s what they always say. Then I ask, “Do you have iTunes?… YouTube?… MTV?”

I admit… it’s sad when we have to set up so many safeguards to protect our children. And I’m sure some parents over-react and over-protect… while others remain too lenient. I can’t provide you with an exact recipe of where that balance lies, but I can tell you that it starts with becoming aware.

Do you know what the most popular song on iTunes is right now?

Is it explicit?

Have you seen the video?

You see, those nice little “Explicit Lyrics” labels might help us filter out some music, but what will help us discern the appropriateness of the “clean” music? (that’s what our kids call the music without the explicit lyrics labels)

Let’s use the #1 song on iTunes right now as an example. It’s “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas.

Ask your kids, “Is this song clean?”

“Yes mom! See. No explicit lyrics!”

Are they right? Have you done your parental duty?

Jump on iTunes right now and take a listen. If you listen for a minute or so, it sounds innocent enough. Rather catchy too.

Are you done? Okay… maybe not.

Listen to the whole song, or jump to Google and type in “I Gotta Feeling lyrics.”

Oh my!

This is a little more disconcerting. Listen at almost two minutes when Fergie kicks in:

I feel stressed out
I wanna let it go
Lets go way out spaced out
and loosing all control

Fill up my cup
Mazal tov
Look at her dancing
just take it off

Wow. Maybe you didn’t catch that listening to it the first time.

But let’s be honest. Some parents might think that this is still pretty tame. Okay. Let’s do what the majority of kids do and look at the video. Jump to Google, YouTube or MTV.com. It doesn’t matter… kids use them all. Type “I Gotta Feeling Video and you’ll find it within one click. Now take a quick watch. I warn you- this video has no nudity, no sex and no cursing in it. So, it’s clean, right? Take a peek. Seriously, don’t just stop at Fergie in a thong… watch the whole thing! (Once you watch this, please don’t email me and complain that I told you to watch this. If you think this will be a temptation- do this with someone else in the room.) Remember that most your web filters won’t filter this video, because “it’s clean.”

Here’s my point: many parents I talk to have taken steps to block porn, and most good parents monitor the types of films that their kids watch… but I meet very few parents that have any idea what subtle messages are being fed to our kids through the “clean” media channels daily.

Please understand. I’m not saying that we should raise our kids in a dungeon listening to Psalty’s Christmas Special. I’m not even saying to unplug your computer from the wall or block your Disney channel. I’m just trying to advocate a little bit of education for parents about the lies our kids are hearing every day. The number one hit we just glanced at above has some pretty sensual images in the video that a teenage guy will really struggle seeing. And the song’s message of “letting it go” and “losing control” might hit home for a lot of teenagers.

Is this a good message? Is this the message you want your kids listening to?

Educate yourself. Tune into our Youth Culture Window articles. These articles reveal you the truth about subjects like the place that some teens are getting their sex advice, they give you a summary of the “junk” (literally) your kids would have seen watching the MTV Movie Awards this year, and they expose the subtle messages in today’s PG-13 films. This huge collection of articles contains a gold mine of good information for parents.

In our parent seminars, David and I try to not only expose these subtle media messages that our kids are immersing themselves with, but we also try to teach parents how to filter these influences and teach our kids discernment.

Dialogue with your kids about their media choices. You’ll find that most kids today are pretty honest.

What are your kids exposing themselves too?

Posted in Entertainment Media, Internet, Jonathan's Rant, Sexuality, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment

Using Cell Phones to Cheat

Posted on: 06/24/09 2:49 PM | by Jonathan McKee

I wouldn’t be telling you anything new if I told you that teenagers are practically dependant on their cell phones. And I’m sure you wouldn’t be surprised to find out that the majority of teenagers cheat on school exams. But what you might find interesting is how many students are using their cell phones to cheat.

According to a brand new poll conducted by non-profit organization Common Sense Media…

– more than a third of teens with cell phones (35 percent) admit to cheating at least once with them
– two-thirds of all teens (65 percent) say others in their school cheat with them

Of the teens who admit to cheating with their cell phone…
– 26 percent say they store information on their phone to look at during a test
– 25 percent text friends about answers during a test
– 17 percent take pictures of the test to send to friends
– 20 percent search the internet for answers during tests using their phones

Also…
– nearly half (48 percent) of teens with cell phones call or text their friends to warn them about pop quizzes
– just over half of students polled (52 percent) admitted to some form of cheating involving the internet
– Twenty-one percent of students say they’ve downloaded a paper or report from the internet to turn in
– 50 percent have seen or heard about others doing this
– 38 percent have copied text from web sites and turned it in as their own work
– 60 percent have seen or heard this
– 32 percent have searched for teachers’ manuals or publishers’ solutions to problems in textbooks they are currently using
– 47 percent have seen or heard this

So it’s pretty evident that cheating is going on (we’ve written entire Youth Culture Window articles on this subject). What’s even more concerning from this study is that only about half of these kids think that “cell phone use during a test” is a serious cheating offense.

It’s almost as if these students don’t know what integrity is. Or is it perhaps that they simply aren’t seeing good character modeled to them? (“Trust me honey, the ‘short sale’ on our home is the wise thing to do.”)

Hmmmmmmm.

(ht to David)

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Quick Thumbs

Posted on: 06/22/09 12:44 PM | by Jonathan McKee

How fast can you text?

Can you text blindfolded?

Do you know all those crazy texting acronyms? (gtg, brb.)

You might not value these skilss, but a 15-year-old Iowa girl just won the national title, including the $50,000 grand prize… for texting!

CNN reports:

A 15-year-old girl with a 500-texts-a-day texting habit thumbed her way to the $50,000 grand prize at the L.G. National Texting Championship in New York on Tuesday.

Over 250,000 participants of all ages entered the competition, whose championship rounds were held in New York on Monday and Tuesday and won by Kate Moore of Des Moines, Iowa.

Some challenges were straightforward tests of speed and accuracy, but others required a little extra texting savvy. In one round, texters had to send texts while blindfolded. Another round quizzed contestants’ knowledge of texting acronyms…

Click here for the entire article.

(ht to David)

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The Hugging Threat

Posted on: 06/19/09 2:56 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Sometimes an article comes along that doesn’t even deserve a comment. Such is this one.

Oh… forget it. I can’t hold back. I’ll change it up by giving you my comments before you even read this article.

COMMENTS:

“Needless?”

The “threat” of hugging? Seriously? a “threat?”

You’ve gotta be kidding. Someone PLEASE tell me this is a cynical piece. Pick your battles people. This is the least of our concerns.

Okay… I’m done. Here’s a piece of the article:

In their endless campaign and their inherited duty to confound their elders, this latest generation of teenagers has adopted a new weapon:

Hugging.

As detailed by a recent front-page story in The New York Times, teenage hugging has become an epidemic stretching from one coast to the other. Girls are hugging girls. Boys are hugging boys. Boys are hugging girls and vice-versa, which is not really a new development, except that now the inter-gender embraces do not necessarily have ulterior motives.

“For Teenagers, Hello Means ‘How About a Hug?” according to the story’s headline.

“We’re not afraid, we just get in and hug,” a male high school junior is quoted as saying. “The guy friends, we don’t care. You just get right in there and jump in.”

“We like to get cozy,” an eighth-grade girl in San Francisco explains. “The high-five is, like, boring,”

One might think that the practice of kids exchanging hugs, not drugs — or slugs — would be welcomed without reservation and even with open arms by parents and educators. One might be wrong.

• A parenting columnist for the Associated Press admits that she is baffled.

“It’s a wordless custom, from what I’ve observed,” she writes in her book, “13 is the new 18.” “And there doesn’t seem to be any other overt way in which they acknowledge each other. No hi, no smile, no wave, no high-five — just the hug.”

• Experts have been consulted to delve into what this threat of teenage hugging is all about.

Click here for the entire article.

(ht to Rick from PA)

Posted in Humor, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment

Decline in Family Time

Posted on: 06/17/09 12:21 PM | by Jonathan McKee

My dad and I are about to drive North this afternoon, preparing for a workshop we teach tomorrow. As we were updating some of our research, my dad sent me the following article about the rapid decrease in family time (one of our “Seismic Shifts” we teach from our book is the shift from “community to individualism”).

Whether it’s around the dinner table or just in front of the TV, U.S. families say they are spending less time together.

The decline in family time coincides with a rise in Internet use and the popularity of social networks, though a new study stopped just short of assigning blame.

The Annenberg Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California is reporting this week that 28 percent of Americans it interviewed last year said they have been spending less time with members of their households. That’s nearly triple the 11 percent who said that in 2006.

These people did not report spending less time with their friends, however.

Michael Gilbert, a senior fellow at the center, said people report spending less time with family members just as social networks like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are booming, along with the importance people place on them.

Click here for the entire article.

Interesting article. Although we’ve found more and more research that people are actually spending less “face to face” time with friends too. They’re trying to replace that void with cyber relationships… and coming up empty.

The above article goes on to talk of the rising concern about how much time kids spend online. I’ll be blogging about this a lot this year. I spend quite a bit of time talking about these shifts in my book coming out this December, CONNECT.

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My Comrades

Posted on: 06/15/09 4:40 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Last night I spoke at a youth service for a Sacramento area Russian church known as the House of Bread Church. It was a really fun experience on several levels.

First… it was intriguing to note some of the cultural differences from these English speaking Russian Americans. Not only was this group professional and well dressed (yes… even the teenagers), they were also much more polite and attentive than the typical U.S. youth group. More on that in a minute.

A little background. Most of the people in this group were born in Russia, the Ukraine, Estonia, etc. and moved to the U.S. with their parents when they were toddlers or young kids. Most of their parents moved here to escape religious persecution. Many of these students have stories of their parents or grandparents spending time in jail because of their faith. 22-year-old Eddie started off the story in prayer, sharing a story of his grandfather in Russia years ago refusing to renounce the name of Jesus. All he needed to do was deny Christ and he would be set free- he refused.

A powerful legacy that many of these students were left with.

Because of this legacy and tradition, most of these students have grown up in very strict Christian homes, attending churches where the girls wear dresses and the boys wear ties. The services are in Russian, because, as my new friend Anna explained, “Anything too American was seen as bad.”

So this particular church is a little radical, by Russian standards, because they do an English speaking service. Anna and her team of leaders respect the old traditions, but at the same time have noticed an open door to reach English speaking Russian Americans with an English worship service.

The age group of these ‘students’ varies from 16 to young twenties. Apparently many of these Russian groups organize their age groups a little different than the traditional American “jr. high” and “high school” group. These Russian groups reach kids, then tweens and teens up to about 15 years old, then 16 to young twenties (which, ironically is dictionary definition Gen Y). The group I spoke to last night was this group of 16 to young twenties.

A few random observations:

This group was in much better physical shape than typical “born in the USA” Americans. I am 5 foot 9 and 185 pounds (about 15 pounds overweight- basically, I can hide my gut in a big shirt, but not in a swimsuit)… and I was by far the fattest dude in the room! 🙂

This group was well dressed. Anna, Jimmy, Eddie and the leadership team described this group as casual, remarking how radical this was for a Slavic church. But when I got there, the most casual guy there was jeans, a nice shirt and dress shoes. Everyone had on dress shoes. No flip flops in this CA church.
Most of these Russian Americans didn’t have an accent at all. Many of them were infants when they came here. If it weren’t for the dress shoes… you wouldn’t even know where they were born. J
They were more focused on true worship. This might be just this particular group, a mixed group of Baptists, Pentecostals, etc. (another thing you don’t see often in the Russian churches apparently… a mix of denominations). But these young men and women were into the worship and focused on learning. Aside from some of the Korean churches I’ve spoken at, this group was probably the most attentive.
The age group was fascinating. I spoke at their youth service. But their main church primarily reaches Russian Americans ages 20 through 40. Yes, you read that correctly: 20-40. The group least likely to be found in most American churches. But in this Russian community… this group is on fire!

I had a great time ministering with this group. They heard me train at the Youth Specialty Conventions two years ago and have been using our web site’s free resources ever since. I’m glad that I was finally able to go see them in action and speak in their service. I hope to see more of them in the future.

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