As we, as a society, have become more affiliated with these forms of virtual communication we seem to have begun, if not already mainly completed, a complete digitization of everything within our lives. We have moved from 45's and 78s records, to Cassettes, to Compact Disks, to now MP3 with our music collections, Online Dating, Online Banking, Online shopping, Online religion, Online games, Online messaging, Streaming Movies, Online Newspapers, Online Books and book readers such as Amazon's Kindle... need I really go on? Does this digitization of life alter the way in which society works? does the convenience offered to us by the internet really alter the true intrinsic nature of what it is to 'live'?
One thing I have noticed which has been on the increase over the past decade to the extent that now, in contemporary society, seems as though the world revolves around, is the ever-growing usage of social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, and also the recently growing dependence on smartphones to help us within our everyday lives. So as we have moved our social organisational skills to an online context, does this mean the social aspect of religion is thusly affected also? Let us look deeper.
Within contemporary society, we seem to be in the trend of making everything 'Facebook Official', that is to say, if its not on Facebook its not real... how ironic that our physical lives have to be confirmed by the virtual... so what could this mean for religion? Well if we type into the Facebook Search Bar a religion of choice, which for the purposes of this blog i went for Jedism, the religion will pop up. (
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Religion-of-Jedism/219871688828?sk=wall). This therefore allows a connection between all people who practice, or who wish to practice the religion who are affiliated with Facebook. They are able to communicate with each other whether this be through Message, Wall Posts, Event Invitations, Facebook Chat etc. Therefore could this be seen to be a creation of a sense of community? However, not only are they able to search for and join groups to do with their religion, they are also able to stipulate your religion on your information page, thus allowing people to put their religion as Jedi, does this therefore mean that people are using this form of internet phenomenon of social networking sites as a means of validation for their beliefs?
I believe, to an extent, that they are. This is because through the declaration on Facebook that their religion is indeed Jedi, they declaring to the world that they are proud to be affiliated with the religion itself and therefore deem themselves as practicing members of the order. For the larger more established and sociologically accepted religions such as Christianity, there are different webpages dedicated to not only the different denominational sects, but also to individual churches, where people are able to get involved with upcoming events and also use it as a way of getting to know fellow congregational members outside of the normal Sunday service, with the added convenience of the Internet. Therefore, it seems as though this could prove beneficial for every religion, due to the fact that people are able to discuss, help, aid, and organize a religion much better through the usages of websites such as these, and could therefore mean that, if the demand and interest was there, Jedism could in fact become a much more established, world wide religion.
I found this image on Google Images and thought it represented something quite interesting... not only is Jedi deemed on Facebook the 10th most popular religion tradition.... but also on an even more intrinsic level... there are comparisons with religious beliefs in the physical world and religious beliefs in the virtual world!!!! What doe this suggest for religion. However, i think one of the most important thing to draw from this is the fact that religion has moved into the virtual, how far i think is still under great debate, but with sites such as Facebook enabling users to communicate with each other, and also practice their religion in a world wide community.... i think it undeniable that social networking sites will hold an important part to play within religion in the future!
So what part do smartphones play in religion within contemporary society? Smartphone operating systems such as IPhone, Blackberry and Android massively dominate the phone market within society, not only due to the popularity and reliability of the phones in question through the advancements and increased affordability of technology, but also the increased introduction of the Application Markets. These application markets offer programmes which enable users to become more in-tuned with certain aspects of their life through the increased convenience of being able to interact and control certain things with their phones.
These applications vary in usage, from games, to compasses, to spirit levels, to cookbooks, to novels, to banking to religion, all able for instant download and immediate usage. Although, at this present time, there does not seem to be many if any Jedism applications available, other denominational religions do! There are applications aiding a Christian in the proverbs of Jesus or as an event calendar for a specific church, or a compass to aid Muslims in the way in which to face whilst praying, to telling them the nearest mosques, to confessional applications for Catholics. What does this suggest about then nature of religion within modern day society? It seems to suggest, in my opinion, that as we are busy with the hecticness of todays lifestyle, working long hours and never seeming to have enough time, that we have moved religion into a medium which can be accessed instantaneously when we see fit wherever we are, whether it be at 2 am in the morning tucked up in bed or on our dinner break at work... religion seems now to be much more controlled by human's lifestyles, as opposed to the traditional aspect of religion controlling peoples lifestyles! What do you think?
I believe also that if there was a growing surge of popularity in Jedism or at least a continuance of interest there will come a time in the near future where there will also be applications applicable to the practicing of Jedism becoming available.
Do you think this would be, or indeed is for traditional religions, detrimental to the nature and purpose of religion? Do you think we should pick when we can fit it in? Or is it a necessary part which we should make time for in the physical work like we used to? is this problematic due to the nature of the multicultural and mutli religious society in which we live now?
May the Force be with you
