What it takes to be religious: Religion online vs. online religion1

Abstract

How individuals live their religion has been one of the most frequently studied areas of social sciences in recent years. The starting point of this study is based on the observation that people who describe themselves as religious have different ways of using social media platforms in relation to their religious beliefs. Similar to the diversity observed in the definitions of religiosity over Christianity in the West, different interpretations of Islam and Islamic way of living have also become prevalent in Turkey. With the intensification of computer-mediated communication, the communication resources and forms of discourses (re)produced online of the religious people have also diversified. This study aims to examine how active users of social media in relation to their religious values and commitments evaluate the construction and byproducts of religion online. The results show that there are three main repertoires related to the use of social media and religiosity in Turkey: religiosity as religious duties, religiosity as interpreting Islam and religiosity for managing impressions. The results can be evaluated together with the secularization theory, that is, discourses about being religious ‘warn’ individuals about the negative consequences of social media use, while offering an alternative to the positive ones.