Hurt 2.0: Inside the World of Today’s Teenagers by Chap Clark. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011) 202 pages of text with an appendix explaining research methodology, extensive endnotes and bibliography.
Anyone who has teens, will have teens, loves teens, works with teens or is just interested in the lives of teens needs to get and read this book. But be forewarned: it is not an easy book to read and sometimes borders on maddening.
First, for the hits -
Chap Clark wears many hats. The back cover of the book lists his duties: “…vice provost for regional campuses and master’s programs and professor of youth, family, and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary, where he also serves as director of the Student Leadership Project and the Institute of Youth Ministry.” (I wonder what he does after lunch.) This is simply to point out that the reader cannot discount the results of Clark’s research as he presents it in this book. For the sake of brevity, let us just acknowledge that Clark knows what he is talking about. He understands the teenage culture, and is more than qualified academically to present the findings of his research.
This book is based on solid research, but not of the kind usually reported in books of this nature. For example, I am also reading Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers and that book follows the template most of us are familiar with. First a researcher, or a team, formulates a hypothesis, creates a list of questions to either verify or modify that thesis, and then surveys a reliable number of respondents and then draws legitimate conclusions. The better the questions, the more inclusive the list of respondents, and the more in-depth the analysis is, the better the results are. Clark does not do that in this book. In this book Clark researched by immersing himself in the teenage culture – as a substitute teacher and as a careful observer, questioner, and participant. Thus, whereas in one research project you get a bunch of numbers and percentages, in Clark’s research you end up with a smaller set, but deeper analysis. Clark and his team also used surveys and questions for a larger “set” of teenagers, but his primary research was deeply personal and “up close” to where the teens live.
Clark’s ultimate conclusion is that teens in America today have been abandoned, and they know it. Thus the title – American teens are “hurt” and they live in a world of pain. They live in a world “beneath” the world of adults. They have an entirely different set of survival skills than what their parents or grandparents experienced. The difference between the two worlds is not always understood by adults, and so the gulf that separates the teen world from the adult world is deep and getting deeper.
In many ways reading this book is terrifying. Clark writes like a skilled surgeon uses a scalpel, but even a skilled surgeon causes pain when he or she cuts through the outer skin of our protective nature. I have lived on the edge of this teen world for many years, and I must say that Clark opened my eyes to much of what I should have seen, but because of my experience as a teen I simply overlooked, or misinterpreted. I am sure that as you read the book you will be tempted at places to say, “But that is not how our teens are!” I would caution you before you get too adamant. Clark’s research is impressive, and his conclusions are solid. Before you disagree with his conclusions I believe you must devote the amount of time that he did in living in the teen culture. Simply having a teen or teaching a teen Bible class does not qualify you to overturn the material in this book.
Now for the misses -
Clark wrote this book as an advocate for the teens that he researched, lived with and continues to minister to. As an advocate you take the position for your client. In this case Clark writes passionately for the cause of American teenagers. There were times, however, when I believe that this advocacy was so pronounced that I felt that Clark was blinded to certain other realities in the world. For one example, in an early section Clark makes the following assertion:
Due to the midadolescent’s recognition that for most of his or her life the norm has been a lack of authentic concern and care at almost every turn, few are able to easily trust an adult who does reach out.
And then a few sentences later:
If adults cannot be trusted to be authentic, committed, and selfless advocates, then the only alternative available to adolescents is to flee. (p. 39)
At this point I wanted to scream – how in the world is an adult supposed to gain the trust of a reclusive teenager if the standard for gaining that trust is set so impossibly high? Who gets to set the bar for “authentic, committed and selfless” when the world itself is so impossibly fake, transient and selfish? And who is to be the judge – an adolescent with all of 15-18 years of experience? This is an impossible standard to even attempt to meet, and is a significant weakness of the book. It is all one sided. I would love to hear Clark’s message to today’s adolescents – I am sure he has one. But I can just hear the teenager’s response after reading Hurt 2.0 - “That’s what I am talking about – it all your fault and I cannot be held responsible for any of my issues. If you would straighten things out then my life would get better.”
Clark writes as an unapologetic advocate for the American teenager, and we who are concerned about teens need to read this book. Clark does give some “strategies” for reversing the sense of abandonment that teens feel (but, considering the length of time he spends describing the problem, the strategies are far too short and almost trite). You must judge the contents of a book based on the intent of the author, and Clark does accomplish the goal he gives in the preface. But, as valuable and as necessary as this book is, I would also suggest that a companion volume is also necessary – the volume dedicated to today’s hurt and abandoned teenager. That volume needs to stress that, regardless of one’s situation, blame for one’s own choices cannot be laid at the feet of an earlier generation. There is another concept at play in today’s world, one that is virtually ignored in this book, and that is sin. Today’s teens might be dealing with the fallout from the sins of their parents, but this has been the situation ever since Adam and Eve got kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Today’s teens may be hurt – after reading Clark’s book I am convinced they are – and in ways I had no way of fully comprehending. But the choices that today’s teens are making reveals that they are hurt by the great Deceiver far more than they have been hurt by their parents or grandparents. None of us chose the world we were born into. We were all born into a world of sin, and Jesus came to heal the the primary pain of all mankind. The gospel is for teenagers as well as for adults. That gospel includes grace and holiness, forgiveness and a repentant life.
It must be remembered that the gospel message is that, once we allow the great physician to take our hurts and heal them, and to take our sins and absolve them, we are totally responsible individuals for how we respond to those who hurt us, and for the choices we make that cause further hurt to ourselves and others.
Bottom line – get this book if you even think you might be interested in helping today’s teenagers. But, just be aware that this is a book genuinely devoted to presenting only one side of the issue.
