A Blog to Share With Your Teen

This week’s topic is meant to be shared directly with a teen in your life. I am hoping that the following blog post can bring a lot of encouragement to both you and whoever that young adult is in your life that you trust enough to share this with.

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Do you ever get the sense that nothing really means anything anymore?

Yeah, me too. And I am an adult in my thirties, a father, a middle school art teacher, an artist and a writer. I’ve lived more time on this planet than some, and I’ve lived a lot less than many more. And yet I find myself identifying with my students, with you, perhaps. Sometimes things just feel really big and…well, meaningless.

This is a concept called Nihilism.

Nihilism is a brand of philosophy started up in Europe over two hundred years ago! The term comes from the Latin word “nihil,” meaning literally “nothing.” There is an excellent book in the Bible (even if it feels a bit depressing in places) that outlines how this concept is only partially true. That book of the Bible is called Ecclesiastes, and it describes how many of the pleasures and challenges of living can seem small compared to all that is out there.

It is true that our world today poses so many challenges for you. Just by being alive right now, teens face insurmountable obstacles (challenges so insanely big that they seem impossible to overcome). We have more stuff than any society ever before: more technology, more opportunity to get news from around the world, more access to learning, content, and entertainment. More vices and more temptations. So what the heck are we supposed to do with all these resources? And, at the end of the day, does any of it matter?

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Let me ask you this:

Have you ever been tempted to use AI to cheat at school?

No judgment from me, I understand the desire to make life just a little easier in a complicated world (my teacher self is dying a little bit though, as I type that out).

But something like that would never have been possible when I was a kid twenty years ago! I’ve seen the beginnings of the internet and social media absolutely explode into the array of options that exist now. From TikTok to Instagram, Snapchat to Discord, YouTube to online gaming. There are so many ways for us to use our time, and teens especially fill up their days with ways to distract from all the noise of the world.  We rarely stop to consider what is right or what is wrong, we just use these apps. And we let them use us, too. We let them compromise our morals and our priorities (Parents, we do this too! You’re not off the hook).

But this isn’t a rant against technology. I just want to acknowledge that the world is increasingly complicated for you. I see that. I see you.

Instead of focusing on how technology and social media can warp our minds and decay our morals, we might look to see what current researchers are saying about how social media shapes us as people. You’re probably not a stranger to how social media can damage a person's mental health, or how people can use it to bully, influence, or control others. My students at the middle school tell me this all the time.

One researcher in 2024 looked into why social media matters so much to teenagers, especially ones who often give in to nihilism, thinking that nothing really matters (my kids call this random generation of meme-based content “brain rot”).

The research revealed that social media meets a very real need for teens. It helps us to feel like we belong, like we are in control, and like we are in charge of actively shaping our own identity (Lüders, 2024).

TikTok captures the attention of users with its effortless delivery of content, but people also experience TikTok to adapt to their input (Bhandari & Bimo, 2022 ; Schellewald, 2022, as cited in Lüders, 2024).

Social media adapts to us and how we use it. It reinforces the idea that we have control because the algorithm picks up on our preferences and feeds content back to us that affirms what we want to know and to see. It tells us that we are in control, and we are. But also…It shapes us. Taking the darker parts of our hearts and constantly reflecting them back to us, social media invites us to exchange the truth of God for a lie (Romans 1): it tells us that we have to be in charge of making our own identity…and that we better not get it wrong, or else.

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God’s Word says the opposite; we don’t have the pressure to create who we are. We find our freedom directly in following Jesus and who He says we are (Galatians 5:1, 2 Corinthians 5:17).

So, despite what your parents, teachers, and youth pastors say, social media and your existence in this digital landscape are not passive. You are not just mindlessly doom-scrolling. Your brain isn’t passively rotting. Instead, you are actively rewiring it. And you are doing it for a good reason, honestly. You are doing it to belong.

Whatever trauma you have been through or are going through. Whatever mental health issues you have seen firsthand in yourself or with your loved ones. Whatever ache of loneliness you may be feeling. Whatever temptations or identity crises come up for you: You are not alone.

You want to belong. And social media tries really hard to give that to you. You may not feel like living in the world at times, but that is not the same thing as not wanting to be alive.

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Let’s return to the idea of Nihilism in our current culture. It can be so easy to see everyone freaking out around you and think: “Yeah, why not? Me too- I’m freaking out too!”  That makes sense: there is a lot to take in from the world around us. (Most adults are crashing out every other day, just like your friends at school - believe me.)

However, the “nothingness” in our culture is not where we need to stop. It cannot be our focus because it is an absolute black hole that will swallow all our joy, all our passions and purpose. Nothingness can eliminate all our morals and sense of justice. It will make us hungry, always hungry for more, more, more. Never satisfied, and always bitter. It will make us angry with everyone around us. The Nothing, the Not-Enough god of this world takes and never gives. It swallows our creative light and makes us depressed.

But there IS something more.

I tell my kids all the time, “There IS a reason you exist. You are worth more than you will ever know.”

The Gospel of Jesus tells us that life is worth living for Him, even if it’s messy.

The Gospel of Jesus tells you and me that Jesus has come to make us new (Revelation 21:5).

Just like the very beginning of the Bible, there is darkness all around us in the world…And God is there to speak into it and to create light.

Theologians and philosophers have a term for this creation of light out of nothing: “ex nihilo.”

Sound sorta familiar? It is the same root word as Nihilism.

As Christians, we serve the “ex nihilo” God, the One who takes nothingness and makes everything worth having from it. So, as a teen in the world today, I challenge you to stand up and do hard things. To take the darkness head-on, with Christ’s help.

Stop serving Nihilism and turn towards the “ex nihilo” God. He is the only one you can consistently rely upon to see you, to know you, and to hear you out. He alone can take all that weight on your shoulders and lift it.

He sees you in the darkness, and He is not scared of it. He wants to carry you into the light.

Sources:

Lüders, M. (2024). Experience machines for well-being? Understanding how social media entertainment matters for teens. Media, Culture & Society, 47(1), 154-170. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437241276122 (Original work published 2025)