(This is a transcription of a podcast)

“You know, one thing that really kind of irks me as I’ve gotten older and something I don’t think that really bothered me much when I was younger, maybe a teenager. I definitely don’t remember much of it bothering me in college, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve started to get really frustrated about people that are fully apathetic.

People that have Become so disinterested in anything in the world that they, it’s really kind of hard to explain. Like, you know, an apathetic person, you kind of know what I’m talking about. Um, they, like you try and talk to them and get to know them and saying that they are kind of just there. Kind of like how a brick.

is just there. They’re similar, but not quite the same. Like, of course, everyone has some types of interests. And so I’m not talking about interests like maybe casually playing a game or interested in a sport. But their interest doesn’t go much past, uh, surface level. So you ask them, well, what do you want to do with life?

Nothin What are your real interests in life? Nothin Do you like watching TV? Eh. Do you like playing sports? Eh. And no matter which direction you try and turn to see, you know, what their passions are, what, you know, how they’re going to, you know, what they’re going to do with their life, any of those types of questions, especially when you’re talking to teenagers or young adults, and you get nothing.

Like, it’s this complete blank slate of nothingness. And then on top of that, you try and, you know, you know, try and push a little bit as a teacher and someone who volunteers at a youth group, you know, I try and probe a little bit, push a little bit, get the kids to think and grow, and they have this disinterest with the world that kind of goes beyond the normal, like everyone has things they’re not quite interested in, you know, my big one is I’m not very interested in watching sports, I’ll play sports, But if you kind of start talking about, you know, what game was on the other night, how one team is doing this year, I’m going to kind of lose interest.

I’ll do my best if that’s something you’re passionate about, but I’m going to lose interest. Now, if you talk about other things that I am interested in. Marvel, video games, Pokemon, stuff like that, you’ll get my interest. Those are things that I’ve always been interested in. But there’s this group of people, and I feel like it’s growing, I could be wrong, but it feels like young adults and older teenagers, kind of that 16 to probably 22 year old age, that range now, there seems to be a higher percentage of individuals in that age, especially men.

Males who aren’t interested in anything and again, it goes beyond just this well I don’t really know what I want to do with my life and I’m not talented in anything. That’s that’s normal for that age I’m talking about something goes deeper this kind of this apathy that is pervasive in their entire being and they Just have no goals, no aspirations, they’re, they’re just a ship lost at sea with no port in sight and not even trying to go to a port.

And it’s, it’s really disheartening. And sometimes it makes me either angry or it makes me depressed because how much they’re missing out. How much of life. And of who they really are, they’re missing. And a lot of times, they have been either deceived by themselves, or deceived by the people around them.

And our culture nowadays, with social media, with movies, with all these things, has a really bad influence on these kids. More so than my generation and older. I didn’t grow up with social media, not till I was in high school. And the way these kids are seeing the world is so much different than how I saw it.

I wasn’t in constant communication with my friends. I didn’t see everything they did. I didn’t see pictures posted on Snapchat or Instagram or Facebook or TikTok. I didn’t see everything they did. I didn’t communicate with them 24 7. There are so many teenagers that I see now, and they are always on the phone with somebody.

Like this inability to be alone has completely swept over this generation, and that constant barrage of images. Never allows them to one see the truth. It is so much easier to lie about who you are It’s easy to post pictures of yourself smiling when you’re depressed It’s so easy to post pictures of how you look and make yourself look, you know Stronger prettier or whatever then you actually are and so when other people look at those pictures They become jealous or they look at themselves and say I’ll never be able to look like that So why even try?

And this, again, never ending barrage of images, of soundbites, and of communication has produced a generation that feels nothing, that believes they can obtain nothing, and they believe the entire world is against them. And that’s something I’ve talked about before. And I think that has contributed in some form, either a lot or a little, to this feeling of apathy, where they don’t really care, and they don’t care that they don’t care.

And as Christians, and as a Christian… It really hurts, because when I look at them, and I know that they are made in God’s image, and not only did he make them, and all of us, he made us, he molded all of us. He molded us with his hands, like a master craftsman molds clay. He spent the time, the sweat, the energy, the thought, to produce in us…

Exactly what he wanted. He made us be what we wanted. Now, it’s up to us if we use it. It’s up to us what we do with our lives. But God has created us to be something special. We are the image bearers of him. And to me, that is amazing. But so many people don’t, either they don’t know it, or they don’t fully comprehend it.

And I think that’s another thing that has led to this generation being apathetic. These young men, specifically, since this whole thing is about men, though it does apply to women as well, but my focus is on men. So these young men don’t know why they’re here. They feel like they’re useless, and our culture is…

Vehemently attacking men, and I’m not even talking about masculinity specifically, that is part of it. But it’s also just the idea of being male. Being male nowadays means you are an oppressive villain whose only thing that they can do nowadays is hurt other people. You know, they’re told being male hurts women.

They’re told being male hurts other males. They’re told being male has led to the oppression and destruction of every basic culture in the world. Throw in race, being a white male is… You know double the sin nowadays and so of course these young men are looking around the world saying you don’t care about me I am made for no purpose Nothing about me is unique or special so why am I going to try why am I going to care and it is heartbreaking and I think there are too few people who are taking the time and energy to actually listen to young people nowadays without Wanting to chastise them.

And I admit that it is really, really hard. When I talk to some of the youth that I know, some of the teenagers and young adults, and they just go on this kind of broken record of just foolish concepts that they’ve just, they’ve digested from the world around them, from their schools, from the media, from social media, from their parents, from their friends, that, It’s just kind of, it is hard not to yell at them and not to want to smack them, but you can’t.

You have to love them. You have to show them that this world is not what they think it is, that they have been lied to. They have been deceived by this corrupt society that serves itself. Our society does not want to serve God. It wants to serve itself. And I think that is kind of the whole thing that has created this apathetic, you know, don’t care, I’ll do what I want kind of mentality.

And again, it really gets to me sometimes. So that’ll be the conclusion of this episode. I don’t want to go too long on this tangent of apathy. You know, say that word five more times. Uh, so thanks for listening. I hope you enjoy, if you liked it, please leave a comment. Please leave a like, share, follow, do whatever you can or want to do on whatever platform you listen to.

And thanks for listening.”

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