How to Prepare Youth to Endure Hostility

For all the benefits of access and efficiency that have come with the explosion of communication mediums like e-mail, texting, Facebook, and Twitter, one serious downside is their limited ability to foster thoughtful dialogue.

We live in a soundbite culture where pithiness is often valued over wisdom, flashiness is preferred to wisdom, and the quick retort is favored over patient reflection. There is little room for a nuanced discussion to take place in such venues—especially when you’re able to “hide” views with which you disagree.

Our world has become increasingly complex as the internet and other media have made widely available at our fingertips an array of divergent opinions and studies on every issue under the sun. It is likely that this trend towards knee-jerk truncated responses will only increase as technology continues to expedite and encourage immediate pubic discourse.

Our world has become increasingly complex as the internet and other media have made widely available at our fingertips an array of divergent opinions and studies on every issue under the sun. It is likely that this trend towards knee-jerk truncated responses will only increase as technology continues to expedite and encourage immediate pubic discourse.

Our inability to patiently grapple with complexity has lead to an increasingly hostile context for voicing opinions, particularly as the American arena for public discourse becomes increasingly polarized into divergent factions. Tolerance in this contentious environment has become more akin to intellectual apathy rather than being understood as holding an informed opinion and accepting that others have differing convictions.

In a climate where both voicing an opinion on certain issues is perceived as belligerence and those opinions are often stated in 140 characters or less, it’s no wonder that many youth (and their parents) are struggling to engage in meaningful dialogue on important issues—particularly as it relates to faith and culture.

So how do we equip youth to understand and engage their world with the beauty and credibility of the gospel of Jesus Christ given this increasingly polarized culture? How do we prepare them for the contentious world they will face down the road? In this article I offer five suggestions. Keep reading