Culture
The TikTok pranker and social media: beware of the race to the bottom
Have you ever followed someone you found to be ultimately unhelpful?
‘We’re not that strong and we can be deceived’: a Christian commentator cautions you to be careful what you allow your kids to watch
Have you ever stopped a film because of what it was portraying?
Most teens have a positive perception of Jesus! This is not the good news we think it is
What do you think teens think about Jesus?
‘Helping your children change the atmosphere at school is possible ’: here’s how to go about it
Jo Rowe learns how to help her children act as a thermostat and not a thermometer in challenging the atmosphere at school
The 12 days of Brex-mas
December… The month of the most important birth in history is finally here. That’s right, the birth of a brand new government. Merry Brex-mas!
I confused middle-class culture for Christianity
Natalie Williams on growing up poor - and finding the church.
YouTube 101
The world of YouTube is vast and may feel overwhelming. Around 5 billion videos are watched each day and more than 400 hours of content is uploaded to the site every minute. Our children and young people are immersed in the world of online video, but how much do we understand about this site, its videos and the people creating them? And what impact does this have on those we work alongside?
County lines
You may not have even heard of county lines, or if you have you may be inclined to think it isn’t relevant to your context. But as this London social worker (who wishes to remain anonymous) explains, no child or young person is exempt, and our youth and children’s groups may be vulnerable to this horrific exploitation.
Weekenders
We know the many benefits of taking young people away, but how do we achieve the best results? We spoke to youth and children’s workers to hear their thoughts…
Culture: Hope
Taylor Swift is returning! The new Marvel movie is, in fact, all about Jesus and young people. What’s Kanye been up to recently? Oh! The Star wars trailer, we should talk about that… The apprentice is still bad… So much culture to talk about, so little to say.
Fandom
“I fell in love with football as I was later to fall in love with women: suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring with it.”
Love Island and bad sex education
As another school year starts, inevitably, at some point over the next 12 months, we’ll hear both sides of the ongoing debate about sex ed at schools. Does giving children and young people comprehensive sexual information open their eyes to a whole new world of ‘debauched’ activity, or is it vital equipping to navigate a world of sexting and online porn, as well as providing key skills surrounding consent and sexual health? There’s something else to consider though, because, as this summer has proved, the children and young people we work with are getting sex education, they’re being shaped and influenced by the media and advertisers, norms are being established… dangerous, exploitative norms.
Netflix's 13 reasons why
Imagine being able to tell everyone in your life exactly what you think of them, exactly how they’ve hurt you, without any consequences. The only catch is that you’re dead. This is the premise of 13 reasons why, Netflix’s latest binge-worthy show: a 13-episode suicide note to a teenage girl’s friends and classmates, outlining their role in her decision to end her life. Originally hyped as a smart, important look at mental health and the social issues affecting teenagers, upon release the show attracted criticism for its ‘triggering’ impact, its overly realistic depiction of sexual assault and suicide, and negative portrayals of counselling or other forms of support. So what do we do with it? Ignore it? Watch it with our young people? Something between?
Protests
In an age of political angst, Jamie Cutteridge explores how we can channel the Trump-based concerns of our children and young people
The Axis of Good and Evil - Video games
This month, we look at video games. So, those in the top right will be worth a play, those bottom left, less so.
Instagram star quits social media
Have you ever fallen down a social media black hole? You know, one of those missing afternoons where you start off looking at an interesting video on YouTube and find yourself, three hours later, staring blankly at a meme of Donald Trump with absolutely no idea how you got there. What did we ever do when waiting for a bus or during a dreadfully boring sermon before we had Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to check in on?
Pokémon Go
Here are some genuine news stories you may have missed:
Black Mirror
How far would you go to stop people knowing your darkest secrets? What if virtual reality played on your deepest fears? Could you imagine a world where we’re rated the whole time? How would people react if they knew what you really thought? Who wants to live forever? What if your very worse moments got shared with the rest of the world? Black Mirror is back to answer all these questions, and more…
Avengers
You can barely walk down the street without tripping over a super hero these days. We all know the feeling of getting home and finding Spider-Man on the bottom of our shoe or one of the Fantastic Four in our bag – they’re everywhere.
- Topics A-Z
- Writers A-Z
- © 2022 NexGen
Site powered by Webvision Cloud