Smartphone Religious Networking: Negotiating Contested Identities within a Pious Community over WhatsApp

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...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Mishol-Shauli, Nakhi (Autor) ; Golan, Oren (Autor)
Tipo de documento: Electrónico Artículo
Lenguaje:Inglés
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Publicado: MDPI 2022
En: Religions
Año: 2022, Volumen: 13, Número: 11
Otras palabras clave:B Social Networks
B Jewish ultra-Orthodox
B messaging apps
B Identity Construction
B Whatsapp
B religion online
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Descripción
Sumario: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.
ISSN:2077-1444
Obras secundarias:Enthalten in: Religions
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3390/rel13111034