Reaching the YouTube Generation
Teens' online habits can be very different from their parents'. As with any media choice,
parents need to be informed and involved.
Articles within this series
- Overview
- Click at Your Own Risk
- Reaching the YouTube Generation
- Busted!
- GodTube Offers Faith-Based Alternative to YouTube
The possibilities for creating Christ-honoring content on YouTube have not escaped the church. In fact, the January 2007 issue of Christian Audio/Visual Magazine explored the site’s usefulnesss for broadcasting sermons and plugging upcoming events. Churches are responding. A February 2008 search of “church sermon,” for example, yielded more than 7,900 results — a smorgasbord of sermonettes across many denominations.
Even so, Dr. Doug Groothius warns, “If you use YouTube — or anything on the Internet — as a substitute for disciplined study, you can be deceived very easily. Simply having a huge wealth of information is not the same as having reliable knowledge.” Groothuis, the author of Truth Decay: Defending Christianity Against the Challenges of Postmodernism, is also concerned about YouTube’s time-waste factor. An avid jazz fan, he steers through the site on his way to classic bop footage. He has also found valuable academic lectures there. But he limits his YouTube cruising and suggests that others do the same. “It shouldn’t be an obsession for anybody. It should be on the margins of life.”
Indeed, much of YouTube’s buffet of visual stimulation could be described as a time-waster high in empty media calories. For every inspirational or clever bit there are dozens of pointless postings, which homeschooling mom Andrea Hermitt knows all too well. “My kids would rather watch the inane, funny stuff like kids lip-synching,” she said, “but I limit that severely.”
One reason adults might not spot a YouTube obsession is that they’re unfamiliar with teens’ general online habits. “Sometimes we assume that the way we use the computer is the way the younger generation uses it. That’s not accurate,” said Andrew Careaga, author of E-ministry: Connecting with the Net Generation. He explained that adults use the Internet to fact-find, whereas teens use it to browse and build community. Careaga recommends that parents take the family computer out of their child’s bedroom and place it in a highly visible area. He also stresses the importance of setting time limits for using YouTube.
In the end, is it worth letting children explore YouTube and peers such as Dailymotion, Google Video, Veoh, Blip.TV or Vimeo? Like all media, video-sharing sites have the opportunity to instruct and inspire. But they’re in a class by themselves as a potential danger. As Forrest Gump might say, clicking on a video link is like plucking a tempting confection from a box of chocolates: You never know what you’re gonna get.
It’s too early to tell what the future holds for YouTube, which is still an infant by technological standards. Google believes in the site’s viability, having purchased it for $1.65 billion. It’s possible, too, that it could fall out of fashion with younger users looking for the next fad, a concern some experts believe is threatening social-networking giant MySpace. What used to attract surfers for its roguish, fringe appeal is going mainstream. In the meantime, conscientious parents such as homeschooling mom Andrea Hermitt will continue to enjoy the benefits of YouTube — but only if they remain highly involved. “You should not allow your children to use YouTube,” Hermitt explains. “You should use YouTube with your kids.”