From fashion to music, from political movements to online trends, one truth is consistent across time: culture is driven by the young. The 15–25-year-old age group has always been the engine of change. They set the tone for what is considered “cool,” “progressive,” or “cutting edge.”
But here’s the paradox: the majority of the population is older, more experienced, and wealthier. If cultural influence were determined by numbers or resources, older generations should dominate. Yet they don’t. Why is that, and why does it matter?
The Energy of Youth
There’s a natural reason why youth drive change. Biologically, the human brain isn’t fully developed until the mid-20s. The emotional centers are overactive, while the judgment centers lag behind. This creates the perfect storm:
- High passion, low caution.
- High confidence, low wisdom.
This energy makes youth bold, expressive, and disruptive. They aren’t afraid to break traditions, reject authority, and chase what’s new. And because culture thrives on novelty, this recklessness becomes the fuel that keeps society shifting.
The Illusion of Novelty
Every generation of young people believes their moment is unique. The problems of the past, the warnings of elders, the lessons of history, those feel irrelevant in the face of new technology, new movements, new opportunities.
It’s why 1960s hippies dismissed their parents’ war-time sacrifices. It’s why social media generations today scoff at the values of their grandparents. In their eyes, “you just don’t understand.” Yet history proves the opposite: human nature doesn’t change, only the setting does.
The Pride of Youth
Scripture addresses this arrogance head-on:
- “The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice” (Proverbs 12:15).
- “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil” (Proverbs 3:7).
Youth tends to confuse confidence with correctness. Being sure of something feels the same as being right about something. That’s why this age group so often refuses to learn from those who went before them. And every person alive has gone through this phase, only to look back later and realize how wrong they were.
The Cycle That Always Repeats
Here’s the sobering reality:
- Youth sets the cultural tone.
- Their choices lead to excess, error, and cultural instability.
- As they age, they finally see the flaws, only for the next generation of youth to rise up and repeat the same mistakes.
This cycle has been with us since the beginning of time. It always goes poorly, yet it always continues.
The Redemptive Tension
Still, there’s a strange beauty in this design. Youth brings zeal, energy, and change. Age brings wisdom, reflection, and balance. Alone, either one collapses, zeal without wisdom is chaos, wisdom without zeal is stagnation. But together, they can create transformation.
That may be why God consistently works through both. He uses the young, David, Jeremiah, Timothy, to spark new movements. He uses the old, Moses, Abraham, Paul, to anchor those movements with wisdom. The problem isn’t that youth drives culture. The problem is when elders stop speaking truth, and when the young refuse to listen.
Conclusion: Culture Needs Both
Every generation will face the arrogance of youth, and every generation will look back on their younger years with humility. The question isn’t whether the pattern will continue, it will. The question is whether wisdom will still have a voice in the conversation.
Because without wisdom, culture becomes nothing more than youth in charge of the steering wheel, convinced they know the road, while refusing to read the map that elders already hold.
Troy P Zehnder 