WASHINGTON, April 7 — Nearly two-thirds of online Americans use the
Internet for faith-related reasons. The 64% of Internet users who perform
spiritual and religious activities online represent nearly 82 million
Americans.Among the most popular and important spiritually-related online activities
measured in a new national survey by the Pew Internet & American Life
Project:
· 38% of the nation’s128 million Internet users have sent and received
email with spiritual content.
· 35% have sent or received online greeting cards related to religious
holidays.
· 32% have gone online to read news accounts of religious events and
affairs.
· 21% have sought information about how to celebrate religious holidays.
· 17% have looked for information about where they could attend religious
services.
· 14% have used email to plan church meetings.
· 11% have downloaded or listened to religious music online.
· 7% have made or responded to online prayer requests.
· 7% have made donations to religious organizations or charities.
In sum, 64% of Internet users said they had done at least one of these
things online and many had done more than one. This figure represents a
substantially higher number of online faithful than the Pew Internet &
American Life Project has measured in the past. The Project worked with
scholars from the University of Colorado at Boulder to devise a new battery
of questions to prompt Internet users‚ recollections of the things they do
online on matters related to religion and spirituality.
“There has been much speculation about the impact of the Internet on
religion, particularly as increasing numbers of Americans have been turning
to sources other than their own traditions and clergy,‰”said Prof. Stewart
Hoover of the University of Colorado at Boulder, the lead author of the Pew
Internet Project report.
“The survey provides clear evidence that the majority of the online
faithful are there for personal spiritual reasons, including seeking
outside their own traditions,” Hoover added, “but they are also deeply
grounded in those traditions, and this Internet activity supplements their
ties to traditional institutions, rather than moving them away from
church.” The survey found that two-thirds of those who attend religious
services weekly use the internet for personal religious or spiritual
purposes.
The report, “Faith Online,” says that those who use the Internet for
religious or spiritual purposes are more likely to be women, white, middle
aged, college educated, and relatively well-to-do. In addition, they are
somewhat more active as Internet users than the rest of the Internet
population.
“The online faithful are quite serious about their spiritual journeys, and
they are committed to those in their social networks who accompany them on
those journeys,‰”said Prof. Lynn Schofield Clark of the University of
Colorado at Boulder and co-author of the report. “Most of the online
faithful describe themselves as spiritual and religious and that is a
perfect characterization of their use of the Internet. They probe for
information and network with others in order to enrich their spiritual
lives.”
· 28% of the online faithful said they had used the Internet to seek or
exchange information about their own religious faith or tradition with
others.
· 26% said they had used the Internet to seek or exchange information
about the religious faiths or traditions of others.
Online Evangelicals are a significant subgroup of the American religious
landscape. This study found them to resemble other Protestants in terms of
their Internet behaviors in some ways, but to be unique in other ways. They
are slightly less experienced in Internet use than other categories of
religious affiliation. But they are more likely than others to engage in
all categories of online religious activity.
The Pew Internet & American Life Project is a non-profit, non-partisan
research center, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts to explore the social
impact of the Internet. It does not advocate policy outcomes.
The full report can be accessed from:
http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=119
Tags: digital divide
