Titel
Religious “Bubbles” in a Superdiverse Digital Landscape? Research with Religious Youth on Instagram
Autor*in
Christoph Novak
Institute for Urban and Regional Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Autor*in
Miriam Haselbacher
Institute for Urban and Regional Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Autor*in
Astrid Mattes
Institute for Urban and Regional Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences
... show all
Abstract
Religious activities are no longer confined to local religious communities, but are increasingly taking place online. In that regard, social media is of particular importance for young believers that connect with their peers via platforms such as Instagram. There are conflicting views on the functioning of social media platforms: they are either conceptualized as superdiverse spaces, in which social boundaries can be overcome, or as resulting in separate bubbles that foster exclusive exchanges between like-minded people sharing certain characteristics, including religious affiliation. This article assesses online religious activities based on qualitative research involving 41 young, urban, religious Instagram users of different faiths. We demonstrate how young believers’ interactions on social media produce thematically bound content bubbles that are considerably homogeneous when it comes to religion, but superdiverse in other areas. Religious activities online often have an affirmative effect on religious belonging. This is especially true for young people that perceive themselves in a minority position and search for like-minded people online. We have found that religious content bubbles are clustered around religious traditions. Interreligious exchange (e.g., between Christians and Sikhs) is largely absent, whereas intrareligious boundaries (e.g., between Lutherans, Catholics, and Pentecostals) become blurred. This suggests that differences within religious traditions are losing significance in a digitalized world, while interreligious boundaries remain.
Stichwort
religious youthsocial mediadigital religiondiversitybelonging
Objekt-Typ
Sprache
Englisch [eng]
Persistent identifier
https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:1671441
Erschienen in
Titel
Religions
Band
13
Ausgabe
3
ISSN
2077-1444
Erscheinungsdatum
2022
Verlag
MDPI AG
Erscheinungsdatum
2022
Zugänglichkeit
Rechteangabe
© 2022 by the authors

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