Online Religion

Last week’s discuss of Joshua Meyrowitz’s “No Sense of Place” provoked thoughts and questions about the influence of social media on religion. While my church actively uses social media – sharing links to content via Twitter, connecting people on Facebook, and providing studies on blogs – many churches have yet to embrace the technology.

Meyrowitz tells us that “we cannot have some of the forces for social change brought about by electronic media without having all, or most, of the forces.” I interpret this statement to mean that we can’t have the advantages our new technology brings us without the disadvantages, too. We discussed this earlier in the semester in regards to Postman’s evaluation of technology allowing us to gain something, but at the same time, lose something.

Four years ago, I examined the topic of online religion in my senior thesis in Sociology at Alma College. In light of our discussion last week, I thought it would be pertinent to share some of my findings.

I conducted interviews with 12 undergraduate students at Alma College who were active participants in religious campus organizations. I asked students about their use of the Internet to further their faith. In my research, I discovered three primary themes. The following are excerpts from my senior thesis:

• Information. First off, undergraduate students’ use of religious resources online supports the Pew Internet and American Life Project’s approach to the Internet as a vast ecclesiastical library. Religion Online is the provision of information regarding doctrine, political organization, and belief. This is clearly a main appeal for undergraduate students

• Spiritual Practices. Many students used online materials as spiritual practices. This was discussed in the literature review as online religion when an invitation is given to visitors of religious websites to engage in some dimension of religious life. The students who use online religion apply it as a supplemental tool to enhance their commitment to their beliefs and campus religious organizations.

• Online vs. Face-to-Face Community. The last theme which emerged from the data depicted a tension between online community and face-to-face community. This tension revolved around the belief that face-to-face community was much more authentic than online community. The subjects each seemed to possess a personal standard of acceptable and unacceptable online religious interaction, while at the same time becoming personally involved in online religious resources themselves.

I feel these themes remain applicable to online religion today, but I believe the Internet and Web 2.0 have evolved since I completed by research in 2007. This could possibly be a continued focus of study in my graduate work.

If you are interested in reading more of my thesis, I would be happy to share it with you – all 42 pages of it. J

Internet a Communication Tool We Can’t Ignore

Jaron Lanier encourages Internet users to fight the deterministic and anonymous nature of the Internet. He recommends we “create a website that expresses something about who you are that won’t fit into the template available to you on a social networking site” (p21).

Jaron follows his own advice.

After reading the first chapter of his book, I turned to Google to tell me more about the author who has such strong philosophical beliefs about the Internet.

One of the first things I learned is his name is spelled incorrectly on our handout.

While Jaron’s website was certainly unique and creative, it didn’t tell me very much about the man other than present a list of articles. I didn’t find his website informative or helpful.

I agree that the use of social networking needs to be limited (everything in moderation, right?), and that we should think critically about our frequent use of technology. It undoubtedly does have an effect on individuals and our relationships.

However, the Internet is one of the most powerful and helpful communication tools known to man. If we don’t take advantage of the opportunity to further express our entrepreneurial spirit or educate the world about a cause near to our heart, we’re failing. We should use the Internet as a tool to share messages we’re passionate about and connect with people regardless of time or space.

And it starts with a well designed web site…even one created from a template.

Is the Internet Hindering Education?

Carr raises many questions about how the Internet and new media affect the way we think. Several of his points interest me:

•            The amount of time we spend on a web page – discouraging for someone like me who maintains a corporate blog!
•           Different thinking fostered by Internet use
•           Linear reading vs. online reading
•           Multitasking

Throughout this class, our readings have hinted toward the use of technology and web 2.0 media in classroom settings. Carr led me to ask, if the Internet overflows our cognitive load, and our ability to retain information is hindered, then should Internet use of children be limited?

We may be better off giving our kids books instead of computers.

Carr hints that our obsessive use of the Internet may even change our brains to the point that we develop ADD when “we find distractions more distracting.” Furthermore, he references a study that found “the multimedia technologies so common to the Web…seemed to limit, rather than enhance, information acquisition.”

This is especially interesting in a time when electronic text books are proposed and laptops given to students at young ages. Are we helping or hurting our youth?

Are any members of the COM641 class doing their final paper on the topic of education and new media?