Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch, and in today's episode we're asking the question, who is talking to your son? This is prompted by an article I read on CNN's website recently by Kara Alainmo, about what your teenage son is seeing on social media. And it's pretty devastating. 73% of teen boys regularly see digital masculinity topics, topics concerning fighting or money or muscles. And usually, by the way, they're not searching for it, the algorithm is sending it that their way. Boys who consume digital masculinity content report lower self esteem, increased loneliness, and even the desire to suppress their emotions. 91% of these boys feel pressure to change their physical appearance. 69% report having distorted gender stereotypes when it comes to girls. In other words, our boys are being discipled by social media and it's taken taking them some pretty dark places and it's making them feel inadequate and insecure and unprepared for the actual life. Now, the antidote to this is pretty simple and pretty obvious. the first is to encourage our young boys to get off social media. And if you're a parent who hasn't yet given your child access, don't, because it takes them bad places before you realize it, before they realize it, even if they don't go looking for it. But the second is this. Our young men need access to older guys who will do the live in person, difficult, messy work of discipleship so that they don't go looking for it on social media. This is the way I would say it. my wife Amy is a tremendous cook and the best antidote for me not spending money every day on food, the way so many men are prone to do it, is for her to call me earlier in the day and say, hey, here's what I'm making for dinner. And if she's making something I like, the thought of stopping on the way home from work won't even occur to me because whatever that restaurant is offering is subpar compared to her cooking. If young men had older men in their lives that were investing in them, that were shaping them, they wouldn't be hungry for what's happening on YouTube. They wouldn't even feel a need for it. And so this is a call to older men, to dads, and particular to do this work. This is what, Moses writes in Deuteronomy 6, 7, impress them on your children, talk about them when you sit at home, walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up. In other words, Moses says to dad, spend time with your sons. Talk about these things. You know, dads, we've got to reclaim the old ways of fishing or hunting or throwing the football, throwing the baseball, going to the gym, seeing a movie, whatever it is you and your son can find common ground in doing. And to say to him, hey, what's going on in your head? What's going on here? Let's talk about girls. Let's talk about how you understand yourself. Let's talk about who you want to be when you grow up. Because a son who's having those conversations with his father will know a lie when he finds it on YouTube. But in the absence of those kinds of conversations, our sons go looking for truth, wherever it is they can find it, even if it isn't actually truth. When I read about digital masculinity on the Internet and the younger generation, what I see is a group of kids crying out for someone to care about them enough to spend time with them, to talk with them, and to send them in a helpful direction. We must be those men, and we're not doing a very good job. Wouldn't it be awesome if in the church we find that the YouTube trend, the TikTok trend that's circling the country at any given time isn't showing up in our church? And when someone says why, we would say they're not on YouTube, they're not on TikTok. They must be out fishing or bowling or hunting or shooting basketball with their dad, with their uncle, with their older brother who, they are talking to about life. Young men need help, and we are the ones who, who should be giving it. So if you haven't been doing a good job, don't kick yourself. But start today. Shoot your son a text, give him a call, go get a, soda, go get a burger, and start to talk about life before somebody else ruins his. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC App app, where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Have an article you’d like Zach to discuss? Email us at wakeup@ccchapel.com!