A Disposable Culture

Along with everything being accessible instantly, we live in an era of disposability. Some things, such as disposable contact lenses and printer ink cartridges, are only interacted with as throw-away items. Many more things have a sense of disposability to them, from cell phones to iPods to laptop computers. Even an MP3 file seems more disposable than a physical CD.

This “use it a bit, then toss it” mentality has, as we said with other aspects of the middle-school world, been the norm for kids their whole lives. So, it naturally flows into other realms of their thinking in ways that are new to this generation.

Relationships, knowledge, beliefs, affiliations, trust and truth all have a sense of disposability to them, also.

The subconscious thinking is: If something new is going to be replaced next week anyhow, why should I be attached to this now?

A Culture of Consumerism

It’s time for us to own our complicity in the culture middle schoolers currently live. This is most true regarding consumerism.

A significant portion of the still-forming identity of today’s middle schooler is just that: I am a consumer. They have learned this from the obvious places, such as advertising everywhere. (Do you remember when major sports arenas weren’t “sponsored” or the era before ad revenue as the primary fuel of the Internet? Do you remember when “product placement” was a term you didn’t know?).

Schooling in being a consumer comes from more sources than the marketing world. Almost everything and everyone in the life of young teens treats them like consumers.

Treating young teens like consumers (ready for the “ouch”?) is what most of our churches and youth ministries do, also.

This is one of those “less neutral” parts of middle-school culture that we can work to undo, or at least we can be intentional about not adding to it!

An Intense but Temporary Culture

Some of this is developmental. In their effort to sample and discover, middle schoolers often immerse themselves in an interest, affinity group or value system. They try these things on as if it’s the last they’ll ever try on, as if they’re going to give their life to this new direction.

Adults tend either to try things on more tentatively or immerse ourselves in something we will stick with for a long time. Not so, usually, with middle schoolers. Middle schoolers give themselves to the interest, relationship, choice, value system or belief that’s in their faces; but they easily discard them for the next sampling exercise. This is a cultural issue in addition to a developmental issue, because it’s what they observe all around them, especially in other young teens. It’s considered normative.