AMANDA NEWS: Gen Zers Want Truth About Themselves, the World
(759 WORDS) — New research by Barna Group finds today’s teens aren’t, like prior generations, asking ‘who am I,’ but rather ‘how would I even know who I am,’ thanks to AI and other aspects of our digital technology saturated daily life.
In an ever-increasingly digital technological environment, in addition to a multitude of precarious cultural and moral shifts, questioning reality has become an even greater challenge for teens in the throes of adolescence in developing abstract thinking skills, according to the Fort Worth, Texas-based research group.
Today’s teen generations span younger Gen Z born from 1997 to 2012 and the latest, Gen Alpha, born from 2010 to 2024. In a 2026 survey, Barna Research in partnership with Christ in Youth, queried 1,500 U.S. teens aged 13-18, asking what life questions they feel most pressured to answer.
Survey answers show personal identity worry teens in the emerging age of Artificial Intelligence (AI). About half of the respondents clearly understand their personal identity, while a significantly higher 70 percent feel pressure to answer who they are with certainty but while grappling to settle the matter.
Though tools like AI can benefit society, there are concerns among adults who question potential harms if the technology falls into the wrong hands. Growing up alongside such technological developments offers a warning for adults: Young people are looking for proper guidance through adolescence into adulthood.
They want adults to guide them on what is biblically true about God and who they are. With this guidance they can rightly decipher truth as they make choices throughout their lives.
The new Barna report emphasized that today’s “teens are the first generation to grow up alongside artificial intelligence as a normal feature of daily life, and they are already asking whether it is trustworthy, and what its existence implies about their own personhood.
“That these questions appear alongside perennial questions about truth and morality suggests something important: Today’s teens aren’t just asking, ‘Who am I?’ They are asking, ‘How would I even know?’”
Importantly, the survey shows teenagers today not only want to know truth, experience stability and belonging, they want to grow their faith and develop an accurate understanding of God.
“Today’s young people are carrying a weight that goes well beyond what their age and stage would suggest,” the Barna report says.
Teenagers are asking if God is even there, and though the question ranked lower than economic uncertainty or the future, over half of teenagers surveyed want to know if God loves them and whether God is real.
This desire to realize their purpose for existing, why God created them, suggests positive maturation amid conflicting, demoralizing cultural pressures to abandon reality.
“Questions about truth, belonging, purpose, the future, and what it means to be human all touch the question of God, even when teens don’t frame them that way,” Barna Research reveals.
Having decreased since 2013, fewer Americans in 2026 say being more religious would benefit America while saying they believe religious influence has increased in recent years, a recent Gallup report shows.
“While Americans continue to believe a more religious society would serve the U.S. well, fewer hold this view than did in 2013. This shift has come as the percentage of Americans who are religious are, by nearly any measure, near historical lows,” Gallup reported.
In an article for Focus on the Family, “How to Prepare Your Teen to Stand for Biblical Truth with Grace and Boldness,” author Missy Eversole emphasizes helping teenagers know they are supported when they have questions.
“As parents, we cannot predict every challenge our teenager will face, but we can prepare them to stand for biblical truth with courage, grace, and humility.
“Our teens are being influenced daily by entertainment, social media, friendships, the classroom, and yes, even at church. As parents, we do not have to be afraid of the confusing culture, but we need to be aware of how it is shaping our children’s Christian worldview. We can use everyday moments and ask questions to help our teens seek God’s truth and build a firm foundation to stand on in a shifting culture,” Eversole wrote.
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