‘The number of teens not enjoying life has doubled’: How can Christians respond?

The adage goes that ‘you can make statistics say anything you want’ so when a headline pops up from the latest bit of research, I acknowledge that this might not be something to be taken at face value.

But when this headline appeared, it more than piqued my interest – ‘Number of teenagers who ‘don’t enjoy life’ has doubled with social media’. The article went on to hail this era as ‘the new great depression’, and as someone raising children and who cares (and believes in) deeply for this generation, there were some worrying things highlighted.

Nearly ½ teens agree with the statement ‘I can’t do anything right’, ‘I don’t enjoy life’, ‘my life is not useful’ – these results are apparently twice what they were a decade ago as, the article claims, smart phones have rapidly become commonplace.

The research demonstrates a sharp change in the last 10-12 years and the ‘only’ thing significantly differently in this period is the arrival of the smart phone with teenagers spending up to nine hours a day on their screens.

Alongside this, the number of teenagers passing their driving test, going on dates and getting jobs has declined too.