The Attractiveness of Youth Groups that are Sympathetic or Unsympathetic to Struggles Relating to Social Media, Pornography, and Online Gaming

Each generation faces its own set of challenges. Generation Z faces unprecedented challenges with social media, pornography, and online gaming. These struggles may be contributing factors to the difficulty that churches have in retaining youth. This paper examines the attractiveness of church youth groups, comparing those that are sympathetic to the struggles of Generation Z to those that are unsympathetic. An online survey of both Christian and non-Christian adults (N = 165) indicated that sympathetic youth groups were more attractive than unsympathetic ones. When looking at the data from just non-Christians, this preference remained the same. The unattractiveness of unsympathetic youth groups was especially strong for younger participants. This implies that youth groups that can be sympathetic to the struggles of Generation Z without compromising the gospel are likely to grow more rapidly than those that are unsympathetic.