Network Sociality and Religion in the Digital Age

The study of religion through a community-building paradigm has dominated sociology of religion, but does not account for changes to sociality and social spaces in the digital era which have influenced the ways individuals express their religiosity. A network sociality paradigm better explains increasingly personal and individualised approaches to religiosity in a contemporary social setting because of the de-hierarchized nature of computer mediated communication. Approaching religion, and digital religion through the lens of mediatised network sociality reveals the development of new groups and identities using the internet as an accessible translocal socio-cultural space.