RT Article
T1 Smartphone Religious Networking: Negotiating Contested Identities within a Pious Community over WhatsApp
JF Religions
VO 13
IS 11
A1 Mishol-Shauli, Nakhi
A1 Golan, Oren
LA English
PB MDPI
YR 2022
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1820327183
AB Online social networks can be considered harbingers of modernity and are claimed to encourage individualization in religious practices. Nevertheless, religious minority groups, including reclusive communities, legitimize their use for religious and communal purposes. Accordingly, social networks are emerging as dynamic third spaces of identity reflections on key issues of lived religion. This study examined how members of a religious group negotiate their identity over online social networks. Accordingly, we conducted a content analysis of 70 ultra-Orthodox Jewish public (Haredi) WhatsApp groups and 40 semi-structured interviews with participants. Findings revealed three primary facets of identity performance: communal affinity; proclaimed conformism and practiced agency; and contesting dogmatism and pragmatism. Through these facets, a new social identity is crystallized within the Haredi sector in Israel. Thus, the secluded spaces of WhatsApp groups enable a marginalized grassroots religious public to promote incremental social change without shattering communal boundaries.
K1 Jewish ultra-Orthodox
K1 Whatsapp
K1 messaging apps
K1 Social Networks
K1 religion online
K1 Identity Construction
DO 10.3390/rel13111034