From socialization to self-socialization? Exploring the role of digital media in the religious lives of young adults in Ghana, Turkey, and Peru

Abstract

Previous research has pointed to the central role of media for the current young adult generation when it comes to finding information about religion, exploring beliefs, and developing a religious identity. This article explores how young adult university students in three different contexts -Ghana, Turkey, and Perureport using digital media for religious purposes. The article builds on previous research on the role of media in religious socialization and explores the usefulness of the notion of selfsocialization in a transnational study. The studied contexts are all shown to differ when it comes to levels of self-reported religiosity and use of media for religious purposes.The article illustrates the independent use of digital media in all contexts and selfsocialization taking place on a general level, but also highlights the continuous importance of traditional socialization agents, thus questioning simplistic understandings of the role of media in religious socialization.

Will You Talk about God with a Spirituality Chatbot? An Interview Study

“…Religious identity is an important theme in digital religion studies and technology offers a place where people explore and negotiate their religious identity [3,22]. We envision three scenarios that people encounter in the development of their religious identity and how the chatbot plays a role to facilitate the exploration, formation, and/or transformation of their beliefs.…”

“…In the first scenario, a user is seeking religious information from the chatbot. As chatbots have been used to provide information and user support [3,22], we envision that users may seek information in a conversation with the chatbot. This scenario helps us explore whether and how chatbots can be a source of religious information, as well as the position of chatbot in people's religious life relative to other sources of religious information -a common inquiry within digital religion studies [3].…”

“…Religious socialization mediates the perception and attitudes toward religious beliefs and behaviors [23], and technologies mediate this socialization. For instance, a comparative study in Ghana, Turkey, and Peru finds varying degrees of transformation to selfsocialization for religious purposes among young people [22]. With this scenario, we explore how people perceive the use of a spirituality chatbot for religious socialization and what an interaction like this would mean to them.…”

Theorizing religious socialization: a critical assessment

“…However, this compilation of articles also includes texts that challenge traditional understandings of religious socialization. Moberg et al (2019) build on the fast growing field of media, religion and socialization research and analyze the role of media in religious socialization in Ghana, Peru and Turkey. The article from Dahl et al (2019), in turn, provide interesting insights into how young people understand the interplay between different socialization agents on their paths toward the non-religious worldviews they currently hold.…”

“…While the interview and FQS data from YARG reflect the perspective of young adults at a more general level, perspectives of agency are especially prevalent in three articles in this issue. In their article on the use of media for religious purposes, Moberg et al (2019) discuss the concept of self-socialization and the interrelated idea of agency (Arnett 1995(Arnett , 2007Heinz 2002). Their article ties into previous research on religion and media and tests how well notions of self-socialization can be argued to work in different contexts.…”