Ask any twelve-year-old
Do they know all about computers? Or anything?
A running joke since about 2010 was, “If you have any questions about computers, find a local twelve-year-old; they grew up with them”.
The assumption was that, if they grew up immersed in the digital world, they were “digital natives” and would know, almost instinctively, everything about computers and tech devices.
I don’t hear that rationale anymore.
I am writing this in mid-2026. Twelve-year-olds have grown up in a world alien to most of us in more ways than digital devices.
Before about 2010, digital devices, at least in public, were still largely a novelty. And then they suddenly became visible everywhere.
And yes, they changed everything. From working remotely, to the widespread abandonment of landlines, to cyber security to digital devices prohibited (or required) at schools, to warnings about high frequency emanations impacting everything from brain development to headaches in users.
And then there was Covid. For twelve-year-olds, and all of us, Covid also upset and re-arranged school, work, travel and every other aspect of life since about 2020.
Those years, from about 2015 on, were distinct and far different from any other era that any of us, of any age, had experienced or imagined.
Most of us had never imagined empty grocery store shelves, toilet paper shortages (!) and even pet food abruptly becoming unavailable.
Were twelve-year-olds our guides through “unprecedented” times?
That word, “unprecedented” did seem to define the era.
From political gyrations across every arena from laws, policies, retractions and tortured explanations, seemingly arbitrary laws became the new normal as masked government agents (at least they said they were government agents) abducting workers, students and many others, often breaking car windows and dragging people out of their vehicles, leaving the cars, still running, in the street – sometimes leaving terrified children screaming and crying in their car seats.
Perhaps these twelve-year-olds would also be experts in constitutional law and immigration policy as well.
On a related note, the first war in Europe in many decades emerged. And many other wars – or at least government authorized conflicts and incursions – seemed to be the new standard of what had once been diplomacy.
The USA was at war (or not, depending on the day and who was talking) with Iran.
Russia and the USA were both in something like wars of choice. But wars, with varying intensities, seemed to abruptly emerge almost everywhere. About sixty armed conflicts were in play just about any time in 2026. You can track global wars, conflicts and invasions here.
Wars create chaos, refugees, economic instability and much more.
But in the USA, we didn’t need war. In the USA we, for whatever reason, had more than one mass shooting a day (defined by four or more shot in one situation) in 2026. You can track daily shootings in the USA here.
And, as if on a parallel track, somehow as of about 2015, US elections suddenly became “rigged”.
The USA had been an advocate of ever-increasing voter participation, but then abruptly became subject to “crooked” elections.
Perhaps our ever-resilient twelve-year-olds would also be experts in election policies and security.
At this same time, public trust in institutions and traditions from health care (especially long trusted vaccinations) to education (public schools and higher education) also became questioned.
Public book burnings became a feature of life across some regions of America. Even literacy became suspect.
It would be easy to make the argument that it was adults – not twelve-year-olds – that
made a mess of elections, public health, global tensions, the economy and technologies – among other things.
In short, twelve-year-olds, especially in the USA, saw the world, the economy and American streets in perpetual – and seemingly permanent chaos and upheaval.
They have learned, because it has been core to the fabric of the past decade or so, that no one can be relied on in this economy of no rules, no trust, no privacy, no reigning values or beliefs, no coherent or consistent political philosophy. And no limits to the level of intrusion in our lives.
Some media moguls, “influencers” and bloggers decided that for the USA, wars half way across the globe were not enough. War with ourselves, framed at first as “culture wars” would only be the beginning, the practice, trial run for a larger conflict against some unspecified, invisible, ever-present threat – and a war, as many demagogues have put it, that “must” be won.
Enemies previous generations couldn’t imagine or even define, suddenly became existential threats. From antifa to transgenders to transponders, “wokism”, viruses and aliens, scary things – or at least our fantasies of them were – or could be - everywhere.
It turns out that, like a delusional paranoid, suspicious individual, a society too can have a shared mental health crisis. Our fears, many of them manufactured for us, even sold to us, are more vivid and real to us than literal snakes or spiders ever could be.
What had been, and could have been a place of refuge, compassion, restoration and welcome – faith traditions – abruptly became just another rationale for invasion, hostility, judgement, assault and abuse. The word “evangelical” which once meant a bearer of “good news” suddenly became a one-size-fits-all excuse for all manner of abuse, manipulation and even terror.
And, with the Epstein files as just another example, those with money, power – and a few scripture verses taken wildly out of context – are, by some border-line divine miracle, immune from any persecution of crimes that would shame any hardened criminal.
Corruption, violence, extortion and more are perfectly fine in 2026 as long as you have a “spiritual advisor” who blesses them. Or a corporate sponsor with enough money to pay the way to respectability.
Or consider what our so benign billionaire class has in mind for us. For only $16,000, you could (if you were one of the invited elites) take part in one of the sessions to plan the future. See the plans they have in mind for us here.
Their message is very simple; why bother with stewardship of the earth’s resources, the fellowship of all human beings or the prospect of peace, Shalom and well-being, when you can have planetary dominance, racial hierarchies enforced and electronic monitoring of every single person?
It’s close to the opposite of what every prophet and messiah has called us to, but it is far more profitable.
These are just a few of the benchmarks, the defining features of the world and cultural impulses that have defined, and continue to define a generation.
It is not just smart phones, it is a culture, an interweaving of barely discernible values, beliefs and assumptions that, once visible, are horrifying. And of course, as prophet after prophet of the tech age have told us, once it gels, there will be no escape.
Not all twelve-year-olds
What were once digital natives have become passive, monitored and helicoptered victims of the “screen-based childhood”.
Instead of becoming guides to the rest of us, a generation has become captive, even borderline helpless in world of social media manipulation and deception, where AI is as “real” or at least as (or more) influential than actual IRL reality.
Maybe we do need a twelve-year-old to sort it all out.