Millennials: Faith Online Is No Threat

August 18, 2022Kathryn Post, RNS/Protestinter

A Canadian study reveals that a significant minority of millennials consuming religious content on social networks would still have a religious practice present.
For a large number of millennials (people born between 1981 and 1996, editor’s note), technology has been limited to discovering tamagochis in the playground. It was not until the 2000s that smartphones and social media invaded all aspects of their daily lives, from their social life to health issues, music and faith. Today, meditation podcasts, TikTok sermons, and Friday prayer live streams are available to everyone.

A Canadian study suggests that the last generation to have lived a childhood without a smartphone would keep a foothold firmly in the real world, at least as far as religion is concerned. The study, led by sociologist Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme of the University of Waterloo, found that a sizable minority of millennials in the United States and Canada (32%) turn to religious or spiritual pursuits. digital at least once a month. However, only 5% of them said they did so without engaging in religious activities requiring a physical presence.

41% of US respondents and 29% of Canadian respondents said they consume religious or spiritual digital content at least once a month. “For most of these people, these people are therefore involved in the field and supplement that through digital”, explains Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme.

Faith online is not a threat

According to Pauline Cheong, a professor at Arizona State University who conducts research on religion and communication technology, the study’s findings will reassure religious leaders concerned that technology is supplanting religiosity. “Digital religion does not represent a disruption or a huge tear in the social fabric,” she says.

Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme, herself a millennial, sought to gauge the extent to which her generation, which is less likely to take religious affiliation than earlier generations, engages in an online practice. To do this, she interviewed 2,514 subjects in March 2019, before the pandemic which may have changed the digital habits of millennials when many religious organizations and places of worship appeared online. “The conclusion of the study is that digital religious practice is now a reality, but only for a portion of the millennial population,” she says.

This digital consumption of religion by millennials occurs to varying degrees. Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme left it to the study subjects to define this concept, which can range from using a Bible app to watching a spiritually-themed Instagram video. 41% of US respondents said they passively consume any type of religious or spiritual digital content at least once a month, while only 32% of US respondents took the time to post about religion or spirituality on social media at least once a month.

Among millennials in Canada, where the population is less religious overall, only 29% of them consume religious digital content and 17% actively do so.

Generation Z

It is not yet certain that Generation Z (people born between 1997 and 2010, editor’s note.), who are even more comfortable with digital technology than millennials, will engage as much in religion in the real world. Paul McClure, a sociologist who studies religion and technology at Lynchburg University, welcomed Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme’s study, but notes that her own research shows, conversely, that greater use of Internet is associated with lower levels of religiosity.

Its latest study, published in June, found that among young Americans aged 13 to 19, increased screen time is inversely related to religious commitment, even when parents are highly religiously committed. “Still, we can’t say with certainty that online spiritual offerings make teens less religious in real life,” McClure’s study says, “but it’s clear that screen time tends to replace religious belief, identity and practice even among adolescents from religious families.”

Involve youth

For Pauline Cheong, it is worth thinking that if millennials take advantage of new virtual resources, digital advances in the religious field will not be enough on their own to seduce the younger generations. “Now religious organizations and leaders must do all they can to maintain and nurture trust, in order to create real bonds with young believers,” she says.

But how do you bypass smartphones and engage young people face-to-face? The Canadian study suggests that any religious leader wanting to connect with Gen Z or millennials should start by taking the phenomenon of digital religion seriously. And Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme adds that “religious groups that do not have an online presence will have a very difficult time convincing these two generations”.

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