I think that digital media strengthens an individual's
ability to construct or perform their religious identity. In the chapter on
Identity by Mia Lovheim, she discusses how the internet opens up a new social
world for people and how its popularity has created a whole nother place where
people can live out part of their lives. Lovheim talks about how one of the
main aspects to the internet is social interactions and how they give us a way
to forge our identity. I think that by being able to use the internet as a way
to talk about your religion, people are able to create stronger identities than
they had before. The main point of the internet is to give people a place to be
heard and to voice their opinions and in doing this we show the world a bit of
who we. This results a stronger sense of self and identity. For example, one website called
NewBuddhist.com is a blog that posts different issues pertaining to Buddhism.
They also have a part of the website that allows for discussion among users in
their discussion board. The discussion board allows social interactions between
members of the website and gives them a place to meet more followers of
Buddhism as well as a place to come to gain more information about their
religion. When the members use the discussion board I feel that it strengthens their
religious identity because they are able to verbalize how they feel about
certain issues and can see how others feel about the same topic. For example, one of the discussion board topics is "higher power in
Buddhism". The member who posted this wanted to get others opinions about
whether or not a higher power exists in Buddhism.When the other users shared their beliefs with this member, their religious identity was able to been seen and the users got a better sense of who that person was and what they believed. By sharing
their viewpoints and addressing some issues or problems they are dealing with,
I think that members gain a more concrete sense of themselves and their beliefs.
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