'˜The Instagram generation don't want to become cogs in the machine '“ and that's healthy'

I GUESS most of us can remember being asked as a child 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' In the sixties and seventies, when I was growing up, typically children would answer in terms of some kind of profession, whether that was an astronaut (it was the time of the Apollo missions after all) or something more mundane.
Most teenagers communicate through social media channels on a daily basis. PAMost teenagers communicate through social media channels on a daily basis. PA
Most teenagers communicate through social media channels on a daily basis. PA

Apparently recent surveys suggest that young people born since the 1990s are much more likely to give an answer about their desire to be famous and to acquire some kind of celebrity. This is of course mirrored by a pre-occupation with social media.

It is always dangerous to make sweeping generalisations about the meaning of social trends, but one of the things behind this phenomenon seems to be a desire to be known and a belief that being known by others, however superficially, confers some kind of significance and meaning. Remember Andy Warhol’s remarkably prescient words: “In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes”? Well, there seem to be a lot of people out there who are still looking for their short-lived share of the limelight!

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Now we could look at this as a very negative development, one that distracts young people from the necessary business of acquiring the knowledge and skills that they need to equip them for life in today’s world. On this view, the Instagram generation (or whatever else takes over from it) seems to have a very limited attention span.

Yet from another perspective, is there not something fundamentally healthy about young people who refuse just to become cogs in the machine and who want to find significance in something more than the economic role that they perform, important though that may be? No one would deny that producing and earning some kind of material wealth is a necessary part of life, but should we not also recognise that sometimes it has become far too important in today’s world?

In the opening pages of the Bible (which I take to be a poetic celebration of creation, not a scientific account of it), God creates human beings “in his image”, firstly establishing a unique relationship with them and secondly giving them a unique role of exercising authority and care over the world he has made. In other words, God creates human beings as creatures who can know him and be known by him, and at the same time he gives them a vital and meaningful purpose as his representatives and agents in caring for and releasing the potential of the world he has made.

And these are precisely the things that a great many people are looking for in one way or another. We all have a deep desire to know and be known – and above all to be loved and appreciated for who we are. And at the heart of the Christian faith and of the story of the Bible is an invitation to us from God to know him and to be known by him. That is a big part of what it means for us to be made in the image of God – that we are made for a relationship with the one who made us.

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The second thing about the opening chapters of the Bible is that they portray human beings as having been given a purpose to fulfil, as those who exercise authority over the rest of creation and who are called to tend it and take care of it. That is a wonderfully rich and meaningful role, which includes but is so much bigger than just producing material wealth, whether for ourselves or for the organisations who employ us.

Over the next few years, our society and our economy will be facing some major changes, whether as a result of Brexit or the relentless progress of automation. Of course we need to equip people, and especially young people, for life in this fast-changing world. But knowledge and technical skills alone will not be enough, because in order to thrive people also need the two fundamental things of which we have been speaking:

We need to know that we are known and can know others, not just in superficial ways, but face to face, in an environment of trust and security. Social media alone cannot provide such places, but families and schools and communities, including churches and other faith groups, can help provide them – if we were willing to make the most of their potential to do so once more.

We also need a sense of purpose and meaning. And here the deep story of God’s purpose for humankind, that we are his image here on earth, made to care for and to release the potential of creation for the good of all, has the power to bring hope and meaning in place of the anxiety and despair that so many people feel today.

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The Rt Rev Dr Jonathan Gibbs is Bishop of Huddersfield and Visiting Professor of Theology at the University of Huddersfield, where he will be giving a public seminar today entitled “Work, Theology and Identity”.