Resource Roundup
Some things I have found helpful lately: on slow learning, and teens and social media, dating, and social behavior
In the realm of things relevant to women in youth ministry, I’ve come across several links recently which were informative or helpful. I wanted to get these out to you before the list got too long, so this edition of Resource Roundup is coming a bit sooner than usual. Here are the goods:
Social media has stolen the leisure time of Black and Hispanic teen girls - Psychologist, author, and expert on younger generations Jean Twenge shares some research on teens and social media. For some, the amount of time they spend on social media is equivalent to a full time job or more. One can only imagine the impact this would have and the opportunity cost this comes with.
Meta whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams says company targeted ads at teens based on their ‘emotional state’ - I shared a post on this topic in Notes a few weeks ago, but I’m sharing this story again because I think it’s important. Imagine you found out that a person or group of people (classmates, teachers, etc) were targeting a teen in her fragile moments. What kind of response would you have? And what kind of response should we have here?
News Flash: Generation Alpha Is Starting To Date And It’s Not Happening The Way You Think - Generation Alpha is currently those roughly 14-15 years and younger — in other words, the younger half of youth group students. The way that they find matches and flirt look different from previous generations. For instance, what previous generations were able to learn to flirt by asking AI for help?
High School Students Are Growing Incredibly Anti-Social - Ryan Burge is an associate professor of political science and also an avid researcher of both politics and religion. If you read The Great Dechurching, you’re familiar with his research. In this post, he highlights a trend amongst high schoolers through the past few decades: the rise in antisocial students. These are likely not the students coming to youth group, but perhaps youth leaders could equip their students to reach out to these antisocial students.
Learning, Fast and Slow: Why AI will not revolutionize education - The authors make a brain-based argument to support the claim they make in this post’s title. Those looking to educate and disciple others can learn from the insights here. Here’s an excerpt that may get you more interested as well:
It’s often assumed that AI will “revolutionize” education, yet Muller reminds us that this kind of hype isn’t new. In the 1920s, Thomas Edison thought motion pictures would transform education. …Then, in the 1930s, many believed that rather than having a teacher in every classroom, lessons could be taught through radio, allowing a single teacher to reach thousands of students at the same time. In the 1950s, TV was going to revolutionize education. In the 1980s we thought it would be computers. It was video disks in the 1990s, and then MOOCS (Massive Open Online Courses) in the 2010s.
But there was still no revolution. Why not?