Youth Radio (Wash., DC) students interviewing visitors to the Alice Waters' Edible Schoolyard Project. Image - © Laura Folger. All rights reserved.

The series was produced by Youth Radio, which annually trains about 1,300 urban young people to work in electronic and print media and broadcasts more than 300 reports annually over public radio and commercial services such as CNN.com and iTunes. Youth Radio has won broadcast journalism’s highest honors, including the George Foster Peabody, Edward R. Murrow and Alfred I. DuPont/Columbia University awards.²

What’s the New What is not social science data. Nor does it give a broad, refined picture of contemporary youth culture. It is a body of statements and discussions by young people between 14 and 24, and some adults, living in the multi-ethnic salad bowl of the American city. The sayings are a selective index to the joys, pressures, and choices they face. While their world has continuities with those of previous generations, in many ways, it seems alien.

For example, “gas is the new curfew,” posted at the height of $4+ gasoline, teems with the same yearning for liberation that the car offered previous generations. It points out how depending on technology to provide freedom can lead to one’s social life being cut back as economic conditions change.

While the sayings consider changes in fashion, music, politics and other areas, many of them also point to deeper shifts. In one of the videos posted on the series’ website, interviewees argue that “disrespect is the new chivalry.” An older woman says that young men have not been taught appropriate behaviors by their elders. A young man says that in their place, many of his peers have substituted role models from rap videos.

Another post says “psychics are the new psychologists.” Young interviewees argue that psychics are superior because they open up the future rather than wading through the messy past, like psychologists. The results are quicker and a psychic, unlike a psychologist, will not judge you.

What’s the New What has its say about sexuality and adolescent relationships. Two of the most publicized sayings in the series were “sex without a condom is the new engagement ring,” and “friends are the new lovers.” Given the fear of AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases and unwed pregnancy, the argument goes, sex without a condom demonstrates that two people are committed to having sex only with each other. The series does not address how these couples view the possibility of pregnancy. Since many of them are not thinking about marriage now, if at all, temporarily monogamous relationships offer a way to get by.

The notion of friends being the new lovers points to a number of interrelated issues. Since a large number of young people come from single parent homes, not only are they cynical about marriage; many don’t want to be tied down by even having a girlfriend or boyfriend. Commitment during young adulthood does not make sense, so they experiment. Many consider themselves too busy to hold down a relationship. Besides, as one young woman said, “You don’t have to buy them dinner.” The conclusion on these Friends With Benefits arrangements, or FWBs, is that they don’t work. They turn into relationships that end, often with lingering consequences.

While sexual experimentation has often characterized the transition to adulthood and for generations men and women have spoken of meeting the “right now guy/girl” versus the right one, the allure of sexual behavior among unmarried teens and young adults has tended to be seen as a circumstance that teens must be parented through. For many in the world of What’s the New What, unmarried sex is institutionalized, yet within a very unstable system of behavior.

Perhaps the biggest change on this landscape is the emergence of the Internet as an arena for validation, socializing and self-promotion. “Public is the new private,” alludes to the perception that, rather than one’s private world being a sanctuary from public view, the Internet now serves as a place where teens can vomit their most intimate feelings, show off their underage drinking and display their partially-clothed bodies, all as a way of representing themselves in a world one step removed from direct contact. “Kiss and blog is the new kiss and tell,” points to the manner in which Internet postings allow for detached and mass distributed “sharing.”

Some Youth Radio participants argue that the Internet has enabled but also retarded social awareness. “Slacktivism is the new apathy,” points to the practice of empowering Internet users to be politically involved by signing online petitions or posting their beliefs on blogs or Facebook pages. Interviewees who spoke about Slacktivism argued that these actions have little to no effect, but they do have symbolic value in changing how socially involved people think they are and how socially involved they appear to others.

So what is going on behind the “new whats?”

A study released in 2007 by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press labeled Americans between 18 and 25 the “Look at Me” generation.³  San Diego State psychology professor Jean Twenge argues that people born since 1970 have a significantly different relational and internal makeup.⁴  Based on comparisons of data gathered over five decades, Twenge says that the anxiety level in the average teen today is equal to those in patients treated for psychiatric disorders in the 1950s.⁵

Twenge and others argue that young people today are narcissistic in a way that previous generations were not. The notion of narcissism, or looking outside one’s self to validate one’s own identity, goes back to the Greeks. But Twenge argues that the relentless focus on building children up as individuals has led to an inflated sense of empowerment and a diminished sense of responsibility. Individualism “may cause people to not value close relationships.” The combination of being pushed to develop as individuals and cynicism about adulthood, leads many teens to live adultesque lifestyles, despite their being unequipped to do so.

As a result, they live in a world where the yearning to be liked and to be fulfilled leads to a more mercenary approach to things and people. Narcissists favor short-term relationships, which may contribute to the “hooking up” culture of FWBs, Twenge says. Narcissists also have unrealistically high expectations, which may lead to anxiety and depression resulting in self-medicating through exploitative behaviors.⁶

Using things and people is certainly not new. It is the casualization and institutionalization of it within youth culture’s hall of mirrors that is troubling. Looking to other people or cultural expressions such as film, TV or magazines to grow in self-understanding is not a bad thing. It is, though, when it becomes more or less the main or even the only thing. The Internet reflects back, but often it does so in ways that diminish and exploit. Facebook and other networking sites have no product to sell except for exposure to other users. After all, the slogan of YouTube is “Broadcast Yourself.”

A wonderful amount of good happens on these sites. However, in cyber networking world, young adult attention spans and desires are commodities. Also, as the “private is the new public” and “kiss and blog is the new kiss and tell” discussions point out, cyber gut spilling and exhibitionism often have costs.

Years ago, when I was a media studies professor, a story a student told made a strong impression on me. There were two women who shared vulnerable details of their lives online. This happened despite the fact that they never met and apparently never spoke by phone. (This was pre-Skype and pre-iChat.) Later, without each other’s knowledge, they attended the same college. When one young woman ran up to the other and jubilantly introduced herself, the other woman was outraged. The other woman said she wanted nothing to do with her former bosom/detached friend. She said the other woman knew too much about her, but that she did not know her at all.

For the woman who did the rejecting, the Internet had served as a safe space because the beings in it existed through a monitor, across wires, somewhere else. For her, the autonomy and privacy of accessing cyberculture involved a shortcut somewhat similar to having an FWB. The technology created the opportunity for a transaction supposedly without consequence, or at least with much less baggage than a real world encounter.

As a result, she was able to get what she needed from the encounters, dig a cave in her soul and bury the memory of the experience there. The experience erupted upon meeting the person who co-facilitated it. Apart from the obvious dangers of disease and unwanted pregnancy, is cyber identity promiscuity so much less harmful? After all, how does the medium affect the communicator, his or her audience and the nature of relationships in general?

Remembering what an unstable transition adolescence is under the best circumstances, I can only imagine how it feels to yearn for significance and to want to know and be known in today’s disenchanted, young adult world. It’s easy to appreciate the appeal of shortcuts. No one who is older should feel superior. This generation is in no way inferior, but they do seem deprived. Though fallenness is a constant across generations, the aids that facilitate its extent and intensity are not. Challenges today are worse. Likewise, young people today seem to be left more to their own devices. Obviously, it is understandable that, on their own, they might handle their freedoms in a manner lacking maturity.

One of the sayings I did not mention earlier is “hope is the new rebellion.” This seems to argue that the malaise pervading youth culture is so widespread that hopefulness is a radical stance. Given the timeless connection between youth and rebellion, hope stands a good chance of reviving.

The gospel offers the ultimate reason for hope and a view of life that makes it real in everyday life. As I consider the detachment and transience in contemporary youth culture, I think of the physical presence of the church, flesh and blood people who care and who are committed to each other and a common Savior. What a balm for disenchantment and retreat.

Likewise, faith and taking short cuts are opposites. Faith is harder. However, it can re-enchant the world. As we live in relationship with a loving God, things like sex and self-discovery can regain a sense of wonder. The fishbowl of contemporary teen culture, as alluded to by What’s the New What, screams for grace, wisdom and strength. This series may not provide clean data, but it does something better: at least partially, it maps the heart.

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¹http://www.youthradio.org/search/node/new+what
²http://www.youthradio.org/about/who-we-are.
³Stephanie Rosenbloom, “Generation Me vs. You Revisited,” nytimes.com, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/fashion/17narcissism.html. <11.20.2008>
⁴Jean Twenge, “Q & A,” by Elizabeth Weiss Green, usnews.com, http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070304/12qa.htm. <11.20.2008>
⁵Carlin Flora, “Cult of Clean,” psychologytoday.com, http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php?term=pto-20080825-000005.xml&page=2. <11.20.2008>
⁶Jean Twenge, “Q & A,” by Elizabeth Weiss Green, usnews.com, http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070304/12qa.htm. <11.20.2008>

Chris Simmons is Executive Director of The Gospel & Culture Project. Special thanks to Youth Radio and The Kitchen Sisters for their help with this article.