In 1964, Sam Cooke famously sang this about the direction of the world;

It's been a long
A long time coming, but I know
A change gonna come
Oh yes, it will

Well, that change is heard. 

The way we now communicate has changed forever with the advent of social media.

With this change has come new challenges; we are more polarised than ever before, and the psychological health of the population is stretched - especially among younger people.

As we strap in for the rollercoaster of 2024, what can we expect in an ever-changing, ever-polarised society?

Change is gonna come - but will it be for the better or worse?

What if the purpose of marriage is to make us better? What if personal relational choice is a bit of a lie?

For many, a committed marriage may seem “old school”. 

What many people expect from relationships is satisfaction and freedom.

So it’s paradoxical then, that once again young people seem to be partnering younger and getting married younger.

Commitment, and casual interest: both are alive and well today.

There’s something about long-term love stories that capture our imaginations - regardless of what culture (and apps) lead us to believe.

Now there are two tribes: one who wants a life companion, the other stoically going forward alone. 

Sadly, the truth is, that rates of marriage are now dropping … sharply.

Traditional communities still exist though - they marry younger, in greater numbers, and have more children.

A minority are holding to older ways.

Will everyone return to this? Will everyone turn to marriage again? Of course not!

But it might mean that a correction - however small - might not be far ahead.

In a special Christmas episode, Steve takes some time to reflect on how Christmas - an ancient celebration -  is changing as fast as the culture itself.

The commercialism and pageantry of Christmas has sucked meaning from this important celebration.

The earliest Christmas memories of ordinary people can be lost in this meaningless procession.

But are we at risk of losing something even more significant? Are we in short supply of joy at Christmas?

It certainly seems to be in short supply at the moment - so what does that mean for Christmas in the years to come?

In the run up to Christmas, Steve McAlpine looks dubiously at the West's repeated calls for 'peace on earth'. 

Could peace - at least as far as the West is concerned - remain beyond reach because of the direction our culture wars have taken?

If calls for tolerance are now viewed suspiciously as a fig leaves for oppressive powers, so much so that we must behave in a violently intolerant way, then what room is there for peace?

Instead, we may find ourselves in a society that is perpetually at war with itself because we haven't learnt the ability to forgive our enemies without requiring their total subjugation.

What word do you associate with "masculinity"?

Guesses are, 'toxic' is high on the list.

With so many "damaged men" portrayed in our literature - especially in schools - what hope can young boys in the global west have of finding a good role model?

Perhaps it's time we broadened what the typical "man" looked like.

Only when we do that will sayings like "boys will be boys" be a thing of the past.

However bad you think it is, it seems the younger generation thinks it's even worse.

How about these figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, as reported in The Australian newspaper:

"Just under 40 per cent of 16-24 year-old Australians, 1.1 million people, reported having a mental disorder in 2020-21, That’s far higher than the overall proportions of 21.4 per cent for all Australian adults."

And the figures climb for young females to over 40 per cent. The Australian reports:

"More than four in ten 16-24 year-old females in Australia reported an anxiety condition such as social phobia or panic disorder in that period, around twice the rate as males of the same age."

Australia’s deputy chief medical officer for mental health Ruth Vine says, "There has been increasing levels of distress and anxiety in this cohort that predated Covid, but it has likely been exacerbated by Covid, with issues such as disrupted schooling. Social media is another consideration. It can be good in terms of connection but can also be a harm if it‘s leading to harassing behaviours. And young people are worried about global concerns as well.”

With the world seemingly out to get them, it's time to consider what the youth of this world might actually benefit from experiencing.  

Never mind gender identity. The new trend is 'reversion' - a 'return' to the Islamic faith.

A growing movement of young women are espousing the Quran, wearing the hijab, and calling on other young women across the West to do the same.

Is it a social media storm in a teacup? Statistics suggest it's definitely something to consider. The simple hashtag #revert has had 2.9 billion views, followed by #RevertMuslim (1.4 billion), and #MuslimRevert (525 million).

Such movements have happened before, particularly after 9-11. However, scratch the surface of this trending topic and Steve McAlpine shows you'll discover not a surge in religious affiliation but a growing desire for order in a completely disordered world.

Is choosing to be alone the "safe" option?

The show "Apartment Therapy" explores.

But there's a strange quirk - almost all people live alone: and they see this as the "self-crafted" pinnacle of their lives.

More people are alone now than ever before. One-seventh of all Americans live by themselves. The UK has similar numbers.

This is a global Western phenomenon though - a more accurate read is Westerners prefer to live alone more.

This runs parallel with an increasingly fractured society in the global West: many have traded their real communities for their online ones.

Society has to be built on a network - including ones that we disagree with.

Even Christians are now struggling to sit in fellowship with one another, with social circles built upon sectarian lines.

The late great pastor and author Tim Keller was aware of this: his final words in writing were in a book called Forgive: Why Should I, and How Can I?

He saw the urgent need for our culture to embrace forgiveness, community, and a sense of being together.

Christians have the tools to demonstrate true community to our world: true trust, and true relationship.

It's these qualities that the world needs now, more than ever. 

The Beatles have delivered a new single some 62 years after their first one - and some 22 and 43 years respectively since the deaths of two of their members, George Harrison and John Lennon.

The song, Now and Then, was written by John Lennon and was on tape with him singing over piano. But as a pre-release mini-documentary explained, until recently the technology wasn’t available to split the track up into its component parts.

Whatever you think of this curio from the past, it's release raises an interesting question: how hooked are we on nostalgia? In fact, are we finding nostalgia an essential component of our lives in order to cope with an anxiety-ridden present?

Or, to put it another way, is 'then' our refuge from 'now'? And will future generations increasingly yearn for how things were as they seek for a sense of stability in a fast-moving world?

There's been a lot of death in the news recently - but one made the front pages around the world, and generated hundreds of column inches in newspapers around the world.

It was the death of a friend - Matthew Perry

The Star of the smash-hit sitcom Friends passed away at just 54 years old, found drowned in his hot tub following a suspected heart attack.

The death of this "friend" caused a moment of sober realisation for many bystanders - especially millennials and Gen-Xers.

We're all on the slow, steady walk towards "the block" - death.

This idea of the fleetingness of life - that this is all there is - can lead to disastrous decisions. 

So much of our anxiety comes from the question "Have we lived the right life? Is there time to live another one?"

Ironically, the global West has a denial of death, yet also struggles to make sense of life.

"This is all there is" is leading us to nihilism.

However, it hasn't always been this way.

Christians have helped change the conversation around death - and life - for two millennia.

After all, "the block" is far from the end of the story - and that's good news for us and our friends.