| This study is a response to the call for scholarly research in the area of religion and online communication. The study employed in-depth interviews with Christian young adults to explore how they use the social networking site Facebook for religious and/or spiritual purposes and if they gain any spiritual fulfillment from doing so. Using the theories of Face-work, Linguistic-Politeness, Social Information Processing Theory, Social Construction of Technology and Coordinated Management of Meaning as theoretical frameworks, this qualitative examination discusses how Christian young adults are expanding, altering or reinforcing their own religious beliefs and practices as a result of their Facebook use. It also explores the concept of personal, social and religious identity as it relates to the use of Facebook and how these experiences may have shaped the study participants' personal and social identity. The findings indicate some Christian young adults use Facebook to communicate faith-based material, particularly prayer requests and passages from the Bible in order to connect and encourage their Facebook friends. Other study participants indicated they do not share their faith on Facebook because of their lack of trust with their Facebook friends and fear of their comments being judged negatively by others. |
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