You have probably heard some of the troubling statistics about teens and young adults. The data points are piling up like symptoms for a very ill patient. Since 2010,
- Anxiety is up 139% among 18–25-year-olds.
- Depression is up 145% among girls and 161% among boys.
- Self-harm emergency room visits are up almost 200% for girls and 50% for boys.
- Suicide rates have climbed by 167% for girls and 91% for boys.
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Jonathan Haidt offers an initial diagnosis in his book “The Anxious Generation.” He points to the radical change in the nature of childhood. What was once shaped by physical play and in person socializing is now dominated by individual screens and addictive digital media.
‘The Great Rewiring’
Haidt calls this shift “The Great Rewiring,” noting the dramatic rise in mental health indicators tracks closely with the widespread adoption of smartphones. He lays the fault at the feet of “social media companies, which inflicted their greatest damage on girls and video game companies and pornography sites, which sank their hooks deepest into boys.” These companies designed “a firehose of addictive content.”
Haidt’s work has already spurred some U.S. states to restrict phone use in schools and led several European countries to hold social media companies accountable for their impact on kids.
More simply, we could look at the lyrics of 23-year-old artist Josiah Queen’s hit “Dusty Bibles.” “With dust on our Bibles, brand-new iPhones, no wonder why we feel this way.”
If the Great Rewiring represents the acute condition young people face, we should also consider the cultural air they breathe. This is the world of expressive individualism — the belief that fulfillment comes not from shared institutions like family or church, but from looking inward, identifying our desires, and expressing them outwardly.
In such a culture, institutions are seen as limiting or even oppressive, because they place responsibilities and expectations on the individual. But a society filled with people looking only to themselves inevitably becomes more isolated and more lonely. This only compounds the symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Solutions
So, what is the solution? I believe the church is strategically positioned to reach and minister to this generation. Here are two ways.
1. The church offers belonging and embodied formation.
Matt Von Swol, former nuclear scientist and photographer for brands like Apple, United Airlines and Hyatt Hotels, recently shared that after being out of church for over seven years, he was awed to discover how church was that one rare place where multiple generations interact face-to-face.
“Even if you don’t believe in Christianity at all,” he said, “just the social and emotional benefits of church are undeniable.”
In a world disconnected by a self-focused spirit and individualized screens, the church gathers diverse people. It is inherently communal, offering personal relationships where people are not only known but shaped through regular rhythms of worship, prayer, Scripture and mutual encouragement and fellowship.
Von Swol said he likes watching his kids stumble awkwardly through conversations with people they don’t know — at church. “You can’t hide behind your phone, and I love that,” he said. “You can’t scroll your way through it.”
2. The church provides identity and purpose.
Endless inward self discovery and self reinvention is not only exhausting — it is isolating. For those who are always searching yet never finding, the church offers a far more grounded identity: we are God’s image bearers, redeemed by grace, and sent with purpose. Instead of leaving people to construct themselves alone, the church places identity within God’s larger story and invites each person to join him in his mission.
Younger believers grow in their Christian identity as they watch older saints embody the simple graces of patience, forgiveness, love and sacrifice. They see people committed to God’s work in the world.
To echo the insight of St. Augustine, the restless hearts of our world remain restless until they find rest in the Lord. And it is the church — my church and your church — that God has positioned as a living instrument of his peace, displaying and declaring hope to an anxious generation.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Michael Awbrey and originally published by the Illinois Baptist.
