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Young women face social network addiction

11 Jul 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Psalm 69 urges us to “turn to the Lord” in our need. Young women ages 18-34 increasingly turn to Facebook and other social media to fulfill their communication needs, a new study reveals. Many confess to being “Facebook addicts." More than half of young women, 57 percent, say they talk to people online more than face-to-face, the survey found. A full 39 percent proclaim themselves Facebook addicts, while 34 percent of young women make Facebook the first thing they do when they wake up, even before brushing their teeth or going to the bathroom. Perhaps most astonishing, according to the survey conducted by Oxygen Media and Lightspeed Research, is the fact that 21 percent admit checking Facebook in the middle of the night. The study sampled the habits of 1,605 adults using social media in May and June of this year in an attempt to analyze their social media habits. Among other findings: 63 percent use Facebook as a networking tool; 42 percent think it’s OK to post photos of themselves intoxicated; 79 percent are fine with kissing in photos; 58 percent use Facebook to keep tabs on “frenemies”; and 50 percent are fine with being Facebook friends with complete strangers. Source: A blog post by Ben Parr for Mashable.com

women facebook social networking young adults

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Working 9 to 5 doesn’t add up for younger workers

08 Jan 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“Raise your eyes and look about,” urges this Sunday’s first reading, while the psalmist promises the Lord that “the king’s son . . . shall govern your people with justice.” Forecasters looking for the top trends in 2012 predict that those who govern in the workforce will increasingly need to offer a flexible workday and workplace to younger workers who grew up online and have come to view flextime as the only fair and logical policy approach. The traditional 9-to-5 workday may soon be the exception rather than the rule for the highly mobile, constantly connected millennial generation, said communications firm Euro RSCG Worldwide, which tracks top business trends. Evidence suggests the corporate world is reaching a tipping point in terms of workplace flexibility, they said. “This notion of an eight-hour day is rapidly disappearing, simply because we work so virtually and globally,” says Maryella Gockel, Ernst & Young’s flexibility-strategy leader. And by respecting younger workers’ desire for flexibility, companies are better able to recruit and grow young talent for the future. Some companies resist the trend because of the traditional “command and control” approach laid out for older generations. They fear that without structure employees will be distracted, not as engaged, and less productive. In fact the opposite is often true, studies suggest. A trusting work environment tends to breed employee loyalty and increase efficiency. Source: An article by Dan Schawbel for TIME

young adults workplace flextime workday millennials euro rscg worldwide maryella gockel

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Independent living can boomerang for young adults

01 Apr 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Though he was in the form of God, Christ Jesus “emptied himself” and “humbled himself” to take on human appearance and accept death on a cross, the reading from the Letter to the Philippians this Sunday tells us. Finding their bank accounts near empty while living on their own, a generation of young adults have humbly moved back in with their parents in recent years because of economic conditions. This generation of young adults has sometimes been labeled the "boomerang generation" for its proclivity to move out of the family home for a time and then come back. About a quarter of all young adults ages 18 to 34 say they have moved back in with their parents in recent years for economic reasons, a new survey suggests. Some young adults were already living at home for reasons that may or may not be related to the weak economy. The youngest--those ages 18 to 24--are more likely to fall into this category. Four in ten members of this age group currently live with their parents and the vast majority said they did not move back home because of economic conditions. In fact many of them may have never moved out in the first place. Only 12 percent of adults ages 25 to 34 currently live with their parents, but another 17 percent said they have moved back home temporarily because of economic conditions. Young adults who view this move as an economic necessity have a more negative view of how their living arrangement has affected their relationship with their parents. The views of young adults who are living with parents but didn't cite the economy as a reason are much more positive. Nearly half of the latter group said that the living arrangement has been good for their relationship and another 44 percent said it hasn't made a difference either way, while only 8 percent said it has had a negative impact. Source: An article by Kim Parker for PewResearch.org

parents home young adults

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Households get harder to create—and more crowded

06 May 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“All the families of the nations shall bow down” before the Lord, the psalmist says this Sunday, as well as “all who sleep in the earth.” Fewer families in the nation are sleeping in homes they own these days, thanks to high unemployment, falling house prices, and stringent lending conditions, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics. The share of privately-owned U.S. homes fell to a 15-year low in the first quarter as the harsh economic environment pushed younger Americans, in particular, into renting. The dramatic slowdown in "household formation" is both a consequence of the economic downturn and a continued obstacle to overcoming it, analysts contend. Meanwhile, the weak job market has reshaped many American families, with an increasing number of adult children moving in with their parents to make ends meet. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 29 percent of parents with adult children report having a child who has moved back in over the past few years. With so many young people delaying their first forays into careers and the housing market, some researchers wonder whether households in the United States will begin to resemble those in parts of South America or Europe, where it is much more common for young adults to live in their parents’ homes for longer periods of time. “That light at the end of the tunnel is an onrushing train called falling household formation,” Bentley University economist Scott Sumner said. Others are more optimistic. “The biggest driver of household formation is really young people coming out of their parents’ house and young people giving up living with roommates,” said Robert Denk, assistant vice president of forecasting and analysis at the National Association of Home Builders. “This has to happen. You can postpone moving out of your parents’ basement. You can postpone leaving your group house situation. You can postpone proposing to your sweetheart. But you can do these things for only so long.” Sources: Articles by Michael A. Fletcher for the Washington Post and Lucia Mutikani for Reuters

families young adults census bureau pew research center robert denk scott sumner household formation

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For December 25: Young adults dwell in insecurity

23 Dec 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us,” proclaims the elevating prologue to John’s gospel this Christmas Day. The long-lasting economic recession has left many young adults without a stable dwelling of their own, and the not-so-good news is that many end up in homeless shelters or even on the streets.Across the country tens of thousands of underemployed and jobless young people, many with college credits or work histories, are struggling to house themselves in the wake of a recession that has left workers between the ages of 18 and 24 with the highest unemployment rate of all adults.Those who can move back home with their parents—the so-called boomerang set—are the lucky ones, but that is not an option for those whose families have been hit hard by the slow economy. Without a stable home address, they are an elusive group, mostly “couch surfing” or sleeping hidden away in cars or other private places, hoping to avoid the lasting stigma and danger of public homelessness during what they hope will be a temporary predicament.The unemployment rate and the number of young adults who cannot afford college, however, “point to the fact there is a dramatic increase in homelessness” in that age group, said Barbara Poppe, executive director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness.Those who provide services to the poor in many cities say the economic recovery has not yet relieved the problem. “Years ago, you didn’t see what looked like people of college age sitting and waiting to talk to a crisis worker because they are homeless on the street,” said Andrea Bailey, the executive director of the Community Food and Outreach Center, one of the largest charitable organizations in Florida. “Now that’s a normal thing.”Homily hint for Mass Christmas Day: Homelessness hits hard any time of year but especially during this season of short days and long, cold nights. During his public ministry Jesus knew what it was like to live on the road. Encourage all who celebrate the Savior’s birth in a manager to reach out in whatever way they can to those without stable shelter. Remind folks that when it comes to the really big problems, while none of us can do everything, all of us can do something. Source: An article by Susan Saulny for the New York Times

recession unemployment homelessness young adults barbara poppe andrea bailey

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Losing my religion: Theme song of young adults?

27 Jan 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

When Jesus came to Nazareth, we read in this Sunday’s gospel, he “went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day” and read from a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. But if he were to speak in a synagogue, church, or mosque in the U.S. today, how many young people would be there to hear him? Dramatically fewer than in previous generations, reports the Pew Research Center.According to results of the Pew study, “Nones” on the Rise," one-third of Americans under 30 say they have no religious affiliation, a sharp increase over numbers from only a few decades ago. Many researchers believe the trend is tied to religion's association with socially conservative politics."I think the single most important reason for the rise of the unknowns is that combination of the younger people moving to the left on social issues and the most visible religious leaders moving to the right on that same issue,” said Harvard professor Robert Putman, who writes about religion.The Rev. Mike Baughman, a United Methodist minister who runs a Christian coffee shop in Dallas, said that many churches are indeed sending the wrong message. "If the church was known more for our efforts to welcome the stranger than keep them out, I think the church would have greater credibility with rising generations," he said.For Father Mike Surufka, a Franciscan priest in Chicago, there are indeed issues that are fundamental to the church, but what seems to really matter is more basic: that the parishioner's spiritual needs are being met. For example, he says, he has counseled women in his congregation who have had abortions. "I knew their pain, and I was not going to bring that to the pulpit," he said. His approach, he said, is to listen to them. "That has more transformative power than just about anything." Despite the trend both Surufka and Baughman said they are hopeful about the future of religions in America. "There was a theologian from the mid-1900s who kind of described hope as an attitude toward the future that we cannot see but we trust that somehow it's held by God and that there are possibilities beyond what we can't even imagine," said Surufka.And Putman points out: "Even with these recent changes the American religious commitments are incredibly stronger than in most other advanced countries in the world . . . we are a very religious country even today."Homily hint: As you look around the congregation this Sunday, how many young adults do you see? If the numbers are sparse, perhaps it’s time to talk about the question posed in the opening paragraph of this story. What can the congregation do to ensure that Jesus’ message reaches a younger generation of Catholics? Source: An article by Heidi Glenn for NPR. The entire NPR serieson this topic can be accessed at this link: Losing Our Religion

religion united states young adults conservatism robert putnam mike surufka mike baughman

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Only a ho-ho-ho-hum day or a holy one?

29 Dec 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In the prologue to John’s gospel this Christmas Day, John the Baptist is sent from God to give testimony to the light “so that all might believe through him.” It seems the light is fading on the Christmas story, at least from a religious perspective. While 9 in 10 Americans will celebrate Christmas in some form this year, a new poll shows that increasing numbers see the holiday in social and commercial terms rather than religious ones. More than ever, Americans prefer that stores and businesses welcome them with the more generic “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings” than “Merry Christmas,” according to a survey released December 17 by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in partnership with Religion News Service. One in four American adults (26 percent) now see December 25 as simply a cultural holiday, not a religious holy day. “The trend is in that direction, for sure,” said Robert Jones, C.E.O. of PRRI. The percentage of people who say the Bible’s Christmas story is historically accurate has fallen more than 17 percentage points since a 2004 survey reported by Newsweek. Why the shift toward a more secular Christmas? One reason, Jones said, is that a decade ago many more people identified as evangelicals, who tend to see the holiday in more religious terms. Today, self-identified evangelicals are down to 18 percent of the population—outnumbered even by the 20 percent who say they have no religious identity at all, Jones said. The new survey finds a preference for the “Merry Christmas” greeting—perhaps the most contested cultural turf in the so-called “War on Christmas”—to be a marker of a person’s religion, politics, and age: Nearly half of Americans (49 percent) say they choose a nonreligious December greeting “out of respect for people of all faiths,” up from 44 percent in a 2010 survey by PRRI. As for the under-30 crowd, you can skip the religious greeting, said 66 percent of young adults. “They didn’t grow up with a stigma attached to being unreligious,” Jones said. Homily hint: Perhaps the decline in the religious observance of Christmas is not only a sign of people's increasing secular point of view but also in part a reaction to the trivialization of the holiday; why wish someone "Merry Christmas" when so few are acting as if they believe it? In the words of Katherine Martin's PrepareTheWord sample homily for Christmas Day, welcome those in church, "from Sunday regulars to infrequent visitors" and encourage them: "Tonight when say to each other, 'Peace be with you,' let us mean it with our whole hearts, and let us carry that peace offering outside these church walls. Then we can truly share in the words of the psalmist: 'All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.' " Source: An article by Cathy Lynn Grossman for Religion News Service

Christmas young adults evangelicals public religion research institute prri
Cultivating Catholic commitment

Short essays about observed trends in Roman Catholic life - Pastoral trends

When does a person commit to being a Catholic? The answer used to be easy: by being born into a Catholic home. The membrane between Catholic and non-Catholic used to be thick, and above all Catholic culture used to be stronger and richer than it is today. This diminishment of Catholic culture is not altogether a bad thing: It reflects an increased emphasis on individual choice, freedom, and conscience as well as the sheer acceptance of Catholics within the wider culture in the United States. But that means certain realities are here to stay. The sacrament of Confirmation, insofar as it is received in early adolescence, is likely to continue as a "farewell" ceremony rather than an initiation into greater, adult engagement with the faith. Merely being born to Catholic parents is, today, hardly a guarantee that one will grow into Catholic faith and tradition. There will, of course, remain those Catholic young people who do follow such a pathway into profound commitment through family life, socialization, relationships, and personal choice at an early age. But it simply is no longer the "modal" way. For many, young adulthood is now becoming a critical point of entry in its own right, a time when people feel free to act on their own and explore deeper questions. Those who are connected to Catholic resources—whether through family ties, an openness to the church through early socialization, a pride in a Catholic college or university or high school they attended, friendship ties, or simply a positive ministry presence—will look more closely as they consider deepening their commitments. Some will never pursue more than a passing relationship. But others will make the choice for a deeper and more engaged relationship. That will happen for many as young adults rather than as teens, and the need for parishes to recognize this new way of entering into Catholic commitment is immense. Entering into Catholic commitment as a young adult, however, holds out no promise of becoming the new "modal" way of doing so. Simply put, we have entered a time in world culture when there is going to be no magic bullet, no single program or approach. "One size fits all" is over; there is no typical path of entry. What is certain is simply that young adulthood has the potential to become a major new point of entry—if and when local pastoral leadership takes the necessary steps to invite, receive, and engage. The language of invitation, engagement, positive support, and serious challenge will be critical for this emerging era. © 2009, Bryan Froehle.

Authors Bryan Froehle

catholic culture young adults

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Generations: Connecting young with the old

Short essays about observed trends in Roman Catholic life - Pastoral trends

Change in human organizations, including the church, happens in “generational time”; change does not happen overnight. It takes a while for us to get used to something new and beyond the old. And that’s a good thing. There is something in the old we need to hold onto and something in the new that quite properly takes some time for us to adjust. We do not so much change as watch new generations rise and claim their particular place in time. The next generation will not know much of their great-grandparents or great-great grandparents. It won’t be shaped by them, except indirectly. But it will be shaped by their parents and, sometimes even more so, their grandparents. People are living much longer than they need to live to reproduce themselves biologically. Yet grandparents are the key to reproduction—cultural reproduction. At their age they might not be generative biologically but they are generative culturally. That is why a parish depends on its wisdom figures. Yet often it is precisely the older generation that is not connected with the younger generation. The challenge for today’s faith community is to find ways of connecting the young with the old. That is how healthy change happens, organically, passing on a living tradition in connection with those who have gone before. The risk is change that is not healthy; that would be extinction—loss of tradition rather than transmission of a living tradition—or, more typically, a heritage but not a living faith passed on, received, and treasured. © 2010, Bryan Froehle.

Authors Bryan Froehle

generations young adults Change Wisdom

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