Religious Use of Mobile Phones (original) (raw)

Anthropological Perspectives on the Religious Uses of Mobile Apps

Anthropological Perspectives on the Religious Uses of Mobile Apps, 2019

This edited volume deploys digital ethnography in varied contexts to explore the cultural roles of mobile apps that focus on religious practice and communities, as well as those used for religious purposes (whether or not they were originally developed for that purpose). Combining analyses of local contexts with insights and methods from the global subfield of digital anthropology, the contributors here recognize the complex ways that in-app and on-ground worlds interact in a wide range of communities and traditions. While some of the case studies emphasize the cultural significance of use in local contexts and relationships to pre-existing knowledge networks and/or non-digital relationships of power, others explore the globalizing and democratizing influences of mobile apps as communication technologies. From Catholic confession apps to Jewish Kaddish assistance apps and Muslim halal food apps, readers will see how religious-themed mobile apps create complex sites for potential new forms of religious expression, worship, discussion, and practices. To purchase the book online see: https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030263751

How the iPhone Became Divine: New Media, Religion and the Intertextual Circulation of Meaning

New Media & Society, 2010

This article explores the labeling of the iPhone as the ‘Jesus phone’ in order to demonstrate how religious metaphors and myth can be appropriated into popular discourse and shape the reception of a technology. We consider the intertextual nature of the relationship between religious language, imagery and technology and demonstrate how this creates a unique interaction between technology fans and bloggers, news media and even corporate advertising. Our analysis of the ‘Jesus phone’ clarifies how different groups may appropriate the language and imagery of another to communicate very different meanings and intentions. Intertextuality serves as a framework to unpack the deployment of religion to frame technology and meanings communicated. We also reflect on how religious language may communicate both positive and negative aspects of a technology and instigate an unintentional trajectory in popular discourse as it is employed by different audiences, both online and offline.

Connectivity and communion: The mobile phone and the Christian religious experience in Nigeria

New Media & Society, 2020

This article explores the integration of the mobile phone into the religious experience of Christians in Nigeria. Based on the results of an online survey and the author’s observation, it argues that the mobile phone has become an actant in the mediatization of religion, creating dependency among some users and transforming religious praxis in palpable ways. Unsurprisingly, perspectives vary on whether and how the phone should be used during worship. Attitudes coalesce around three viewpoints, leading to the emergence of user groups labelled critics, advocates, and dualists. The accounts of study participants give access into the ways some people seek to (re)configure their engagement with religion by inserting the mobile phone as a multifunctional techno-spiritual gadget.

GSM Technology and its Use in Religious Life - A Preliminary Inquiry

Masaryk University journal of law and technology, 2008

LIBUŠE MARTÍNKOVÁ GSM technology with all its highly interactive services and tools is closely related to the Internet and its growth in last few years has been enormous. It allows viewing the GSM communication space as the new terrain of scientific research. This study examines the way in which religious groups as well as the individuals use the GSM technology (including the service of SMS and MMS) in the Czech Republic. Communication-in all of its technologically available forms-is the important and official use of mobile phones. GSM technology-connected with Internet-also provides SMS services with biblical quotes or reminders with religious topics. Another characteristic of GSM use is the production and distribution of MMS with religious pictures (symbols). What was also found was the strong missionary effort of particular religious groups as well as of individual members, reflected in excessive GSM spamming. The typology is developed and the way in which mobile phones affect contemporary religious practice is discussed in this study.

Annals of the International Communication Association Religious communication and technology

his article provides a review of contemporary research on religious communication and technologies through the lens of Digital Religion Studies, which explores how online and offline religious spheres become blended and blurred through digital culture. Summarizing the emergence and growth of studies of religion and the Internet, and offering an overview of scholarship demonstrating how religious actors negotiate their relationships and spiritual activities within their online–offline lives, enable us to look critically at the state of Digital Religion Studies. This article also highlights current trends and emerging themes within this area including increasing attention being paid to theoretical developments, approaching digital religion as lived religion, and the influence of postsecular and posthuman discourses within this scholarship.

Texting and Christian Practice

Encyclopedia of Mobile Phone Behavior, 2015

This chapter examines the practice of texting in various Christian contexts and why this practice has become so important. It shows that the adoption of mobile technology to promote and disseminate religious thoughts and practices is a form of religious shaping of technology and vice versa . The chapter further gives a general overview of the practice of texting from different geographical contexts where Christian adherents and their leaders embrace text messaging in a wide range of religious and spiritual activities, as well as helping to create new ones. The chapter also gives an up-to-date account of current literature in religion and ICT. Lastly, it suggests further research directions on the possible social and spiritual dangers of texting to Christian living and practices.

There's a religious app for that! A framework for studying religious mobile applications

This article provides a new methodological approach to studying religious-oriented mobile applications available on the iTunes app store. Through an extensive review of 451 religious apps a number of problems were noted when relying solely on iTunes categories to identify app functions and purpose. Thus further analysis was done in order to present a new typology and framing of religious apps, which more accurately describe their design. We suggest that the 11 new categories offered here suggest a critical framework for studying religious apps. Thus this study provides a starting point for scholars interested in analyzing religious mobile applications to investigate how app developers integrate religious goals into their designs, and consider the primary ways people are expected to practice religion through mobile apps.

Contextualizing Current Digital Religion Research on Emerging Technologies

Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies

This article provides an overview of contemporary research within the interdisciplinary arc of scholarship known as digital religion studies, in which scholars explore the intersection between emerging digital technologies, lived and material religious practices in contemporary culture, and the impact the structures of the network society have on understandings of spirituality and religiosity. Digital religion studies specifically investigates how online and offline religious spaces and practices have become bridged, blended, and blurred as religious groups and practitioners seek to integrate their religious lives with technology use within different aspects of digital culture.