A concerning way to read this is that trust in institutions, not just religion but all of our institutions, is falling amongst the younger generation. But the best functioning societies enjoy high trust in their institutions. I am genuinely concerned about the falling levels of social cohesion.
This trust needs to be earnes.
Agreed. It’s a vicious feedback loop. Failing institutions leads to lack of public support for those institutions, which leads to even worse institutions. I think it’s still possible to get out of this nose dive, but I’m concerned.
Or at least not actively destroyed.
The institutions need to be trustworthy.
I’m personally exhausted by the enshittification of every aspect of our society to benefit a small elite and I’m well over 30
And why should they?
“Because I said so!” -most boomers.
The kids are alroght
a healthy dose of skepticism never hurt anyone
Skepticism is healthy, but it can quickly snowball into general apathy, and that is one of the most toxic things ever.
I can’t blame anyone for getting burn out on the whole damn system but it’s what those that benefit from the status quo are counting on. Much easier to muddy the water and get you to opt out entirely than it is to win you over with the facts.
For 12 of the last 30 years, the presidency has been held by someone who didn’t get the popular vote, and gerrymandering and our fucked up system means a half dozen people in Bumfuck, Flyover can decide whether people can afford ramen or the fancier bulk pasta and sauce. And all the while the world is burning and the rich motherfuckers get even richer.
I don’t blame people for their apathy. The world is absolutely fucked, and our society has painted itself into more corners than a room could possibly have.
The kids are just a bit smarter than the older living generations as they should be.
Evolution is working.
Brilliant way of putting it
Seen a lot of them trust what ever dumb crap on ticktock though. I am sure that will be weaponized more than it already is
That’s a lot of Gen Z. I work with these teens and they have said that tiktok is how they learn stuff and after seeing what they showed me, some of the stuff, man… I had to reiterate for them to NOT do those things.
TikTok is for entertainment. People try to “teach” in order to get a following. It’s as bad as the home crafts for repair stuff. Life hacks? Idk. It’s garbage and most of it won’t fix the issue properly.
My imagination is that TT is a supereffective propaganda machine because you don’t get the time to think. In that sense it sends falsehoods to subliminal. Am I right? Is there other aspects that makes it dangerous?
That’s exactly what TikTok is. It’s just the latest weaponized propaganda machine from the CCP designed to destabilize social harmony in the west and weaken the youngest generations’ trust in western democratic values (specifically to ensure their values and priorities are molded to align more with hypercorporatized capitalism x mass governmental surveillance and control.) Basically, “don’t question any narratives, shut down any dissenting opinions, it’s okay to hand over all your private information, and also - spend, spend, spend, peasants.” We’re seeing this taking place all across the west today, and it began around the time of the Occupy Wallstreet movement, and Gen Z in particular are EXTREMELY susceptible to this propaganda.
TikTok wasn’t the first tool to be used against us, but it’s certainly been the most effective, and I’m not sure the youngest among us can reverse the damage already done to their minds. I’m extremely worried about the future of all free democratic nations, given that in a very short number of years, these kids are going to have political influence via their votes. We’re sliding fast into a neofeudalistic world, and it isn’t going to be a superficially-fun dystopia. It’ll just suck massive cock.
My daughter is trying to improve her drawing skills. We told her don’t even look on TikTok for a tutorial, because it will probably be some asshole who will tell her the wrong thing anyway.
TikTok is garbage.
Hustle culture’s appeal is dependent on the landscape being a bleak dystopia, not an independent alternative.
Conspiracy theories are the concept you are talking about imho.
Maybe if organized religion paid their fucking taxes rather than using the money to influence politics…
Weird take. I don’t think religious organizations should get automatic tax-free status, but on that issue my beef is with the government. I’m not gonna blame anyone for not paying taxes the government isn’t asking for, and I wouldn’t trust religious institutions any more than I do now if they were paying taxes.
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I feel like that title could have been a lot shorter.
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Yeah. They just listen to whichever rando on the internet suites their personal world views.
Gen Z is just as gullible. Technically, more gullible than Boomers because Gen Z fall for scams at the highest rate as a cohort.
This opinion piece may be correct. I think it is more their personal politics informs their religion, and no main stream religions available in their areas cater to that in the US. Even finding things like Buddhist temples, that aren’t really just some ethnic traditions that necessarily keep peopleout,are hard to find. A lot of churches are ideologically just as awful as we remember. Mosques even worse. Reform Jewish temples are open minded and progressive but Gen Z has a huge problem with Jews in general.
I really think we are going to see a big problem with the cohort as they age. Not just religiously. Teachers have been warning for years that Gen Z as a group have severe deficiencies with critical thinking and reading comprehension. Normally, I think these divides are too rough to be useful. However, there definitely seems to be something there.
They don’t fall for scams at a higher rate—they fall for online scams at a higher rate. Which shouldn’t surprise anyone.
Gen Z is far more online than other generations, giving them more chances of being scammed. Classic case of not factoring in online usage.
They’re also still young with less life experience.
Reform Jewish temples are open minded and progressive but Gen Z has a huge problem with Jews in general.
Do you have a source for that? I’m not disputing you but I’d like some more context.
I would have said the problem with Jewish temples as a choice for people seeking a religion is that Judaism has a pretty high barrier to entry.
I would be incredibly surprised if gen z have problems reading since they read a lot more than any other generation due to the internet. Also I don’t think there is a real test for critical thinking in general, especially not one that factors in age.
