Hello again parents (and teens if your reading this)! In case this is your first time reading or you may have forgotten, these 5 pieces of Gen Z culture are things that I feel like you might want or need to know about. I pull these from an email, that is sent out by our ECO partners Axis Youth, called the culture translator. I learn about these things from Axis and translate it to our context, our Lake Norman culture, and our specific kids. If you learn one thing that you didn’t already know, I’ve done my job. Let’s get down to business.

1. What the data show: A survey from Common Sense Media and Survey Monkey is showing just how the pandemic is affecting our teenagers. The bottom line… there is a lot of worry. Teens are worried about things like keeping up with schoolwork, about loved ones contracting the virus, about your job status, about your family’s ability to make ends meet, and about losing connection with their friends. I have heard from our kids firsthand and it seems to be the trend, they are starting to realize that face to face interaction is way better than a watered-down digital interaction. If we are honest, their fears don’t look any different than ours. It’s important to remind them that you have the same fears they have and that casting those fears to Jesus is the best way to handle them. God knows our needs even before we ask, and he will take care of them when we seek first his kingdom and righteousness.
2. From Marshmellow to Travis Scott: Does anybody remember when the artist Marshmellow did a live concert inside of Fortnite (if you are like me, probably not)? Well rapper Travis Scott is doing the same thing right now in the game Fortnite. The concert started yesterday (April 23^rd) and runs through the weekend. Last night was the first night of the event and 12.3 million Fortnite users were online to see the concert. Travis Scott’s music is not the most family friendly as most of his songs are explicit, so please be aware of whether or not your child or teen is watching. I have not heard any word on whether Fortnite was going to censor anything or not but let’s assume that they aren’t and be prepared to ask your child if they went on last night to watch it. What a great way to get in front of millions of people, but also what a great way to get VERY secular music into the wrong hands of some young people who maybe shouldn’t be listening.
3. From Fortnite to Warzone: Most of you know this but for those who don’t, Fortnite is a battle royale style fighting game that allows you to play 1 vs 100 or on teams of 4 versus 25 other teams. The great thing about Fortnite is that even when you kill people (the main objective of the game) they just vanish into thin air, there is no blood and guts. Warzone on the other hand, is Call of Duty’s version of a battle royale style fighting game. But unlike Fortnite, it is filled with lots of graphic and gory details. Because of that, it is probably not the best game for those 13 or younger. But be careful, because this weekend WARZONE IS FREE to anyone. They are doing a free trial to anyone who has not played the game yet. Make sure that if you do not want your child or teen playing this game that you check to make sure they are on Fortnite or Apex. Now, if you need my dad, Pastor Tom, our communications director Bradford, or myself… Warzone is a great place to look!
4. Influencer Transparency- Many of us know the term influencer, as in social media influencer. Facebook and Instagram have come out to say that they are going to be putting added security measures into their platforms that make it easier to spot a “bot” or spammer from another country. You will now be able to see (and your teens as well) a location of where comments are coming in from. This will help the social media giants keep intercontinental spamming down to a minimum or at least their “influence” over a particular topic. Make sure your teens know about this! They can spot a bot from a mile away but knowing which accounts (most of them that look really legit) are spammers can sometime be hard to tell. This feature will be a great way for use to know exactly who we are commenting with and what part of the world they are coming from. It’s a small step that will have some major impact on what content we see from influencers.
5. Cameo- Some of you might know this app but for those that don’t… cameo is an app that allows anyone (for a price) to buy a personalized message from a celebrity. It started out small with a limited number of stars available but now, with quarantine and the celebrity’s income going down, more and more of them are allow folks to pay them to send messages. If you are looking for a super unique idea for a birthday present… this would be quite the gift. You could pay your teens favorite celebrity to send them a message which you are allowed to write out, and act like it comes directly from the star themselves. I was thinking about signing myself up to be able to do messages, but I felt that I was quite big enough of a celebrity, YET!

Thanks again for reading this week’s edition of the Friday Five… remember that keeping up with teen culture is something that takes research and work. It changes so much that the minute you think that you understand what’s going on, you’ll be told “that’s so last month!”. Hopefully these five things will make it easier to understand just what is happening in your teens world. Until next week- Jeremy