In this Replay episode, Matthew Lee Anderson, Derek Rishmawy, and Alistair Roberts are joined by Andy Crouch — Partner for Theology and Culture at Praxis — to examine what the data on social media and video games reveals about the diverging formation of young men and women. The conversation turns on a pointed question: what happens when the skills adolescence develops are simulations rather than realities? And what does that mean for formative communities — home, school, and church — that bear responsibility for shaping persons, not just managing behaviors?

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Chapters

2:00 — Guest Introduction: Andy Crouch
3:00 — The Tweet: Social Media, Video Games, and Diverging Outcomes
5:30 — Why We Now Have Reliable Data
7:00 — Social Media's Harm to Girls
8:30 — Why Boys Seem Fine (At First)
11:00 — The Idolatry Framework: Things That Work at First
17:00 — Pornography as Formation Failure
19:00 — The Feminization of Internet Culture
25:00 — The Algorithmic Turn: From Chronological to Algorithmic Feeds
31:00 — The Algorithm Catches You at Your Worst
33:00 — Mobile Devices and the End of Distance
36:00 — Practical Applications: Give Resistors an Off-Ramp
40:00 — Banning Phones in Schools: A Framework
44:00 — "But They Need to Prepare for the Real World"
46:00 — Instruments vs. Devices: A Distinction
48:00 — Closing & Patron Teaser

Replay: Put Social Media In Its Place with Andy Crouch