Balancing out the overstimulation of our students

I love being the Online Campus Pastor and the Social Media guy at my church. Technology has always interested me and I love trying to utilize it for ministry. But, over the years working with students, I’ve noticed a trend that I believe is harming our students. It seems that, in our effort to reach students, we are possibly contributing to the overstimulation of our students with technology. I know this sounds weird coming from a guy who uses technology to minister to people, but it is a trend worth noting and looking at.

What do you mean, Tom? How are we overstimulating students? Help me understand. 

They all seem so “minor” in this day and age, but some of the overstimulation comes when we use very creative presentations on programs like Pro Presenter (sorry folks PowerPoint is out :)). Or it could be with all the lights we use and smoke machines during youth worship. Or in the way we encourage them to use their phones during our times with them (either using the Bible app or tweeting out posts during youth group to “attract” their friends to our student ministry program).  Again, there are so many “minor” things we do today that causes our students to be overstimulated.

But Tom, why is this a problem?  Is this really harming our students?

Yes, yes it is.  The constant overstimulation of our teens is affecting them. But don’t ask me, here are some others who have done the research: here or here (just to name some). The reality is our tweens and teens are getting  a ton of stimulation from their phones alone each and every day. By coming to our group events where we not just encourage the stimulation but try to continue to outdo it, we are only encouraging the problem, not helping it. I know this isn’t just “our” problem, but we can help eliminate some of the overstimulation.

Now, I want to be clear I am not discouraging student ministers from engaging students in these ways. However I think we should try to balance it out a little more.  If we don’t I fear that we will be doing harm to our tweens and teens…not intentionally by any means.  But still damage.

So what could you do? How can you slow down the overstimulation in our student ministries? Here are a few ides:

1. Pass out paperback Bibles instead of encouraging them to use their Bible app or having the passage on the screen.
2. Use song sheets instead of fancy Pro Presenter themed worship.
3. Instead of showing a movie clip as an illustration use some hands on activity to communicated your point.
4. Keep them interacting with others (encourage face to face interactions so it helps with their social skills).

This doesn’t have to happen every week but maybe every now and then. You can do even do a “retro-Youth Group” theme night and give them a blast from the past.

Regardless of what you choose to do, the reality is technology is great and needs to be utilized. But try to think outside the box and simplify your student ministry events every once in a while so you UNDERutilize technology not overutilize it where you are continuing to overstimulate our tweens and teens.

So what do you think? Am I on to something or am I dead wrong?  Share your thoughts below or on social media using #ymsidekick. And, if you have ideas on how to under stimulate students in our student ministry, I’d love to hear them. 

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