Josep Lluís Micó
Miriam Díez Bosch
School of Communication and International Relations Blanquerna
Universitat Ramon Llull
Barcelona, 2016
With collaboration from the Directorate of Religious Affairs
Amb la col·laboració de la Direcció General d’Afers Religiosos
Team / Equip
Josep Lluís Micó
Míriam Díez
Alba Sabaté
Meritxell Cabanas
Laia Roigé
Laia Dorca
Lara M. Villalón
Blanquerna School of Communication and International Relations
Facultat de Comunicació i Relacions Internacionals Blanquerna
Plaça Joan Coromines s/n. Barcelona 08001
Tel. 93 253 31 08. http://blanquerna.edu/fcc
First edition / Primera edició: May 2016 / Maig 2016
Copyright: Blanquerna School of Communication and International Relations at Ramon Llull University
ISBN: 978-84-944764-4-0
Legal Deposit: B-14.080-2016
Table of Contents / Índex
Prologue
Enric Vendrell i Aubach
Introduction
Research Methodology
Digital Religion in Catalonia
Showroom of Digital Tools on Religion
Beyond the Data
Conclusions
The way young people approach religion is a question that has been examined by all manner of experts in recent decades. It is a recurrent issue because it ultimately hides a certain fear; a fear that the new generations will abandon traditional religious practices and beliefs, the fear that our society will forget its spiritual side, or the fear that, in the end, our actions may not be accompanied by a transcendental meaning.
Often, however, many of these analysts forget that religion, like any other social phenomenon, is also subject to transformations. Throughout history, humans have expressed our spiritual concerns in multiple ways, and yet religiosity has been shown to be a phenomenon that has survived despite all kinds of political and social adversity.
In that sense, I think we would be entirely wrong if we imagined young people today as a collective without spiritual concerns. In my opinion, young people still wonder –like they always have– about the transcendence of their lives and the principles that govern their actions. It is true that, in many cases, this interest in transcendence is expressed in a different way than it might have been decades ago. But we should bear in mind that, in the same way that our society is transformed and evolves with surprising speed, that is also the case for how our interest in religion is expressed.
Today, people can approach religion in many different ways. New technologies have put an enormous amount of information within people’s reach. That information, as is only natural, also encompasses the sphere of religion. A large part of our lives are currently mediated by the use of these technologies, so it should not come as a surprise that many people –especially young people– turn to the Internet for information and resources to satisfy their need for spiritual answers.
It is worth remembering that the youngest segments of the population have spent their whole lives relying on the Internet. It isn’t a “new technology” for them. It is simply a space of modernity, which complements other kinds of media. For many young people, the Internet is their main source of information; an essential tool that they use to learn about all kinds of realities and to relate with other people, groups, and organizations.
Religious organizations are increasingly aware of the potential of using the Internet as a medium for getting their message across. They know that if they want to transmit their vision to broad layers of society, they need to harness the advantages offered by technology. Defending a doctrine with a thousand-year-old history is not incompatible with using the most modern means of communication. It is increasingly common for religious organizations of all kinds to create their own spaces on the Internet, in an attempt to make the foundations of their beliefs and their organization structures more accessible and transparent.
The book you are reading is a window onto this new reality. It lets us understand, first hand, how young Catalans approach religion through the Internet. It not only reveals what young people are looking for on the Internet when it comes to religion; it also helps us understand why they are looking for that information and how they are linked to religious organizations through digital technologies. Based on the research project “Religious Apps, Interactive Websites and Non-Urban Young People in Catalonia”, undertaken by the Blanquerna Observatory on Media, Religion and Culture, with financing from the Directorate of Religious Affairs and the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants, this book provides a new perspective on religiosity in our country. This new point of view makes us aware of the need for careful analysis of the relationship between young people and religion.
This new viewpoint helps us leave behind stereotypes, prejudices, and fears and shows us that religion is not only expressed in places of worship and at the heart of religious organizations. Today, people can express their religious beliefs or their religious concerns without the need for direct contact with any members of a religious organization. This is a new phenomenon, which is very surprising to some people. It is at the same time, however, an inevitable phenomenon. With the understanding that we need to delve into this phenomenon and understand it in more detail, I am pleased to present the prologue to this research, which is being published to share the results of an investigation that has opened up an avenue that has the potential to bear further fruit.
Enric Vendrell i Aubach
General Director
Government of Catalonia’s Directorate-General for Religious Affairs