{"id":40,"date":"2012-02-17T01:54:04","date_gmt":"2012-02-17T09:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/tiffany7286\/?p=40"},"modified":"2012-02-17T01:54:04","modified_gmt":"2012-02-17T09:54:04","slug":"social-media-reshape-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/tiffany7286\/2012\/02\/17\/social-media-reshape-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Media Reshape Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"

I would say that I am a spiritual and religious person, but sometimes it is easy to forget to pray or make it to mass. I watch The Sunday Mass<\/a> as needed instead of going to traditional mass at church. That is convenient, but sometimes I feel it takes away the tradition and practice that goes into one’s spiritual life. My husband has an app for the Holy Bible and a book of prayers. I think that is resourceful, but I can’t picture myself opening those apps up in church.<\/p>\n

I think our society is definitely heading into a digital life in general (social media, smart phones, etc). So it would be wise for religious entities to get with the times. This is something that Elizabeth Drescher, PhD<\/a> writes about in Five Social Media Trends that are Reshaping Religion<\/em><\/a>. Drescher is a professor at Santa Clara University<\/a> who specializes on religious and spiritual studies. Her most recent work include Tweet If You <3 Jesus: Practicing Church in the Digital Reformation<\/em> (2011) and upcoming Click 2 Save: The Digital Ministry Bible<\/em> (2012). From her commentaries on ReligionDispatches.org<\/a>, published work, and professional experience, she comes with a credible history about how religion and technology intersect.<\/p>\n

The article I read is quite simple even though it looks long. She writes it in conversational voice so it is easy to follow. I don’t think there were many critical things one could say about religion and technology, but she still brings up good points. Social Prayer, Ministers-On-The-Go, O Holy App, Curate as Curator, and A Few New Commandments make up the trends she describes. The most interesting I thought were Social Prayer and O Holy App.<\/p>\n

When I read the ideas regarding Social Prayer and O Holy App, I could definitely see where Drescher’s commentary has manifested in people around me. As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, my husband has an app for the Holy Bible. It is useful when one is out and about, but I cannot fathom sitting in a church, mosque, or temple and using the app. I feel like it is a little disruptive. It looks odd, but I guess it will eventually become a norm since technology’s progression is going to lead us there.<\/p>\n

Lastly, Social Prayer highlighted for me that people are greeting sharing their faith on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a> by making pages, trending topics, and posts. Several of my friends post about when they are at a church service and have heard an uplifting message. Some even quote Bible verses or testify that God is good because something positive happened. Being spiritual, it puts a tingle in my heart to know people are bold enough to put something somewhat controversial (in public I thought you aren’t supposed to speak about religion and politics).<\/p>\n

So in general, the times are changing. Religious entities, beliefs, and people (like priests) are utilizing social media to evangelize. I feel it’s progressive, but doesn’t it depersonalize the religious experience? Or is it now okay to say that it updates the experience because it is a social norm to have a smart phone and be technologically advanced?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I would say that I am a spiritual and religious person, but sometimes it is easy to forget to pray or make it to mass. I watch The Sunday Mass as needed instead of going to traditional mass at church. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","kk_blocks_editor_width":"","_kiokenblocks_attr":"","_kiokenblocks_dimensions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"gutentor_comment":0,"qubely_featured_image_url":null,"qubely_author":{"display_name":"Tiffany Padilla","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/tiffany7286\/author\/tiffany7286\/"},"qubely_comment":0,"qubely_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"I would say that I am a spiritual and religious person, but sometimes it is easy to forget to pray or make it to mass. I watch The Sunday Mass as needed instead of going to traditional mass at church. … Continue reading →","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/tiffany7286\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/tiffany7286\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/tiffany7286\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/tiffany7286\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/tiffany7286\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/tiffany7286\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/tiffany7286\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions\/42"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/tiffany7286\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/tiffany7286\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/tiffany7286\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}