Youth Culture Specialist from Urban Saints, Nesu Kwaramba, helps Christian parents consider the issues with the latest app taking youth culture by storm

Wizz_App_Logo

I recently had a conversation with a teenage girl at one of our youth club sessions – it went something like this …

Her: I’ve just been chatting to this one guy…

Me: Oh, okay, where did you meet him?

Her: No, I’ve just been chatting to him on Wizz

Me: On what?

Her: Wizz…it’s like tinder for teenagers

Me: There’s a tinder for teenagers?

Her: Here, let me show you… I’ve changed the Wizz icon on my phone so that it looks like the settings app [she laughs]

Perhaps you’ve already heard of ‘Wizz’ and are familiar with how teenagers are using it today. However, for those of us who are just finding out, let’s take a trip down the road of thinking through Wizz and helping young people to think more critically than ever about how they engage with technology today, and tomorrow.

Whilst Wizz isn’t touted as a dating app, practitioners have indicated that its resemblance to adult dating apps like Bumble and Tinder makes its use as a dating app unsurprising amongst teens – hence it has been dubbed ‘Teen Tinder’

What actually is Wizz?

The Wizz website says: ‘Swipe to discover’. The blurb heralds that Wizz’ intuitive interface allows you to ‘effortlessly find friends’ who are online when you are. You might argue that the app is stepping in to solve an age-old issue, and a desperate need for humanity: the need for companionship, our craving for community. After all, Gen Z is famous for being the most connected, yet simultaneously the loneliest. With that said, not all initiatives to combat this crisis are helpful in restoring the social fabric that has been decimated by the changing societal rules of engagement over the years. Whilst Wizz isn’t touted as a dating app, practitioners have indicated that its resemblance to adult dating apps like Bumble and Tinder makes its use as a dating app unsurprising amongst teens – hence it has been dubbed ‘Teen Tinder’. So, not only does Wizz assume the role of a mentor, advising young people on whom to be friends with, but it more readily presents as a matchmaker. Both ideas are unsettling.

The commodification of community

To be clear, I am not suggesting that Wizz is entirely incapable of enabling teens to find people with similar interests their age – and therefore provide real opportunities for friendship. In fact, a teenage girl I asked said that she had found one friend (platonic) on the app that she was still in contact with. Despite the potential opportunities of connection provided by the app however, of grave concern is the over-reliance on technology in the pursuit of meaningful connection. Throughout the Bible, we find a litany of warnings about the danger of being self-reliant in the area of relationships – not to mention other things (Proverbs 3:5-6). We are advised against relying on our natural ‘instincts’ as people who have the Spirit of God (Jude 19).

young people as young as 13 are vulnerable to deception by users – some of whom may not be young people

We might recall that even a godly man like Joshua was deceived into making a peace treaty (a ‘friendship’ of sorts) after the Israelites made an (inaccurate) assessment of the Gibeonites without ‘[consulting] the Lord’ (Joshua 9:1-15). Upon discovering the deception, the Bible records that the Israelites ‘grumbled against their leaders because of the treaty’ (Joshua 9:18) – a picture of regret. Wizz, which is accessible to those 13 and over, cannot verify the veracity of the claims made by users as to who they are. As such, young people as young as 13 are vulnerable to deception by users – some of whom may not be young people; after all, practitioners have noted that age-verification measures like facial recognition are not airtight. Further still, Wizz may expose young people to harmful, mature content given that it has no parental controls. Additionally, how does Wizz’s match-making model chime with the reality that God is the ultimate matchmaker (Genesis 24:42-51; Proverbs 19:14)? – the one who presented Eve to Adam (Genesis 2:22)? Moreover, even if young people manage to circumvent the hazards of falsified profiles, adult-minor interactions, and harmful mature content, it would be hardly surprising if young people were to expose themselves to relationships that bring regret in the long-term in so far as they put their trust in technology to guide their relational choices instead of the God who created relationships.

Wizz is just one example of the move towards too much trust in tech in many spheres of life

Such trust in tech may become even more of a problem if Wizz takes after its adult counterpart, Bumble, in the future. Last year, Bumble’s CEO indicated that in the future people could have AI dating concierges which ‘date’ other people’s dating concierges to make match-making easier. The problem with such a commodification of community is that it reduces the complexity, nuance and breadth of people to neat profiles that can easily misrepresent people or portray just a snippet of their personality. Is it to artificial intelligence that we should look to for the discovery of authentic relationships? In fact, Wizz is just one example of the move towards too much trust in tech in many spheres of life – a move that leans towards worshipping the created things, ‘instead of the Creator himself’ (Romans 1:25). For many reasons, tech is good, but it is not God; and it is important that young people appreciate this.

Trusting the God of relationships

With trust in tech trending, and set to increase in the future, young people must be cautioned against being overly-dependant on tech in their choices. As it is, various approaches have been endorsed as a response to the myriad hazards associated with the tide of tech – from banning app usage for certain age groups; to parent communities committing to delay social media and smartphone use; to the creation of ‘offline’ initiatives. Whilst such solutions have created, and can create, real positive change, prescriptions and prohibitions do not necessarily tackle the desire of young people to entrust their lives to tech – where there’s a will, there’s a way (see how Sandra changed the icon to hide the Wizz app from anyone wading through her phone apps?).

 

Read more:

4 ways Christian parents can engage with the latest TikTok trend: Aura farming

Helping your teen navigate Snapchat: A Christian parent’s guide to helping them flourish online

Beyond the endless scroll: Protecting your teen’s heart on TikTok

 

Whilst delaying and reducing smartphone/social media use is a great place to start, walking through the why, and how, young people can trust God in relationships may prove more effective in combating an inclination towards trusting tech too much. Here are three things for parents to remember and three things to do to help and protect young people:

Things to remember:

  • The sovereignty and superiority of God in guiding one’s life and life choices (Job 12:12-13; Psalm 32:8).
  • What seems right in our sight can be wrong – because we are not all-knowing (Proverbs 14:12).
  • God created relationships and wants us to flourish in them (Genesis 2:18; Genesis 24; Ecclesiastes 4:9-12; Psalm 133:1-3).

Things to do:

  • You can model committing relational choices to God in prayer (in addition to praying for your child’s relationships).
  • You can enquire about your child’s relational/social life and ask them about what is motivating their relational choices.
  • You can share some of the (extensive) Biblical wisdom on friendship and relationships and discuss it with your children (e.g. Proverbs 17:17; Proverbs 20:19; Proverbs 28:6; Proverbs 31:30).