It’s Not the What, It’s the Why
Millenials, Technology, and Philosophy
As previously discussed, the idea of the Church researching and chasing after the so-called Millenials is an exercise in futility. While, I do intend to make suggestions on how the Church might prepare for the following generation (who sociologists Strauss and Howe have dubbed “The Homelanders”), I think it is important to look at what’s going on that makes both of these generations different from their predecessors.
In their book The Millenials, Jess and Thom Rainer state rhetorically wonder,
“In many ways this generation is the most diverse generation in America’s history… So why spend thousands of hours researching and writing about a generation that, in some ways, defies description?”
Countless others have attempted — with some frustration — to pigeon-hole or otherwise stereotype this generation. However, as with every generation past, there really is no one definition.
It seems that the most focus is placed on technology as the differentiating factor between this group and its forbears (couldn’t same be said of all generations past?). However, simply labeling anything wirelessly connected to the internet as “technology” and lumping it in as some root cause of generational shifting is not just an egregious generalization, it’s ignorant. (For more on this, check out a great vid from the PBS Idea Channel.)
Perhaps the bigger shift is not a generational technology shift, but a cultural philosophy shift — and perhaps it is not just starting, but finally finding a positive application.
The Church gave it some recognition a half-decade ago by talking about “Postmodern Culture.” However, as it often does, egocentricity got in the way and the term “Post-Christian” became the norm. Both are accurate, but the latter is a symptom and the former a cause. [In fact, Modernity itself may better be labelled as “post-Christian” in that it stripped us of our mysticism, wonder, and faith and replaced it with facts, reason, and certainty.]
Over the past 5 decades, Modernism has begun to crumble. Far beyond no longer being a source for personal meaning, it is now failing to even provide satisfactory outcomes as a means of utilitarian success. (See Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind.) And so, the Church must seriously revisit Postmodernism — as it is, not how we have culturally defined it — as the philosophical motivation of Millenials. (Smith’s overview would be a great place to start.)
I would dare to argue, then, that the use of technology by this generation is not for the sake of the technology itself, or even what it does, but for the self-actualization that it enables. Therefore, any attempt by the Church to conscript these technologies — and even the trappings of pop culture for that matter — in service of a thoroughly Modern philosophy/theology are destined to fail. It’s not the What… It’s the Why.
Up next, who are The Homelanders, and how can the Church prepare for them.
