(RNS) — How many times have you heard a sermon from a religious or spiritual leader about the internet that doesn’t simply talk about unplugging, or more recently, how to call into the next Zoom service. How many dharma talks, khutbas, d’var Torah or Gita studies have directly addressed how digital technologies have impacted our civic life and our religious traditions?
Over the last two decades that I’ve been studying the effects of the internet on religion and society I have asked this question in many settings and the answer is always: not many.
That’s a problem, because the internet is the most disruptive invention in human history, affecting every area of our personal and communal lives. The dawn of the internet is often compared to Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press, but the fact is the internet is more powerful, as it is interactive, immediate and omnipresent.
Like the printing press, the internet has major implications for how religion is expressed, how communities are formed and how we understand ourselves and others. Yet unlike the invention of print, the creators of the internet are not as likely to be embedded in religious communities, which had a huge advantage over the general populace in literacy in Gutenberg’s day. Today, religious leaders, theologians and ethicists largely sit on the sidelines and let others make decisions that radically impact humanity.
There are 300 million (and growing) internet users in the United States who are online an average of 8.5 hours per day — a third of their daily lives. A third of Americans say they are online almost constantly. The internet is where we work, play and pray.
The internet is the space where we gather with our friends and community and where we encounter new people from different backgrounds. As my colleague Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core, said recently: “Online and offline are false distinctions. Digital spaces are just as much a part of our everyday lives as streets and sidewalks.”
As more and more of our lives are mediated by digital technologies, people of every religious background need to reflect on what this means for our traditions and beliefs and equip ourselves to engage this technology and leverage it in a healthy, productive way that stays true to the values of our beliefs.
This is especially important in the face of rising evidence of the negative effects that the internet is having on our civic life as dangerous disinformation proliferates, and tech algorithms too often serve to inflame tensions rather than help solve them. The internet poses specific challenges for religious communities who are targeted for their religious identity, with both Jews and Muslims among the groups most frequently experiencing hostility.
However, the internet also offers an unprecedented opportunity for people of diverse religious backgrounds to encounter and learn about each other and build new bridges of understanding and cooperation.
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