According to a new survey by Public Religion Research Institute (@publicreligion), white evangelical Protestants are significantly more likely than other major religious groups to use technology for religious purposes.
· One-quarter of white evangelical Protestants say they’ve downloaded a podcast of a sermon or listened to a sermon online, compared to fewer than 1-in-10 white mainline Protestants and Catholics (6% each).
· White evangelical Protestants are also more likely than white mainline Protestants or Catholics to report that their church uses technology or social media.
· 4-in-10 white evangelical Protestants say their church has an active Facebook page or website where people interact, compared to 29% of white mainline Protestants and 13% of Catholics.
· Nearly half (49%) of white evangelical Protestants and about 4-in-10 (39%) white mainline Protestants say their church uses television or multimedia screens during worship services, compared to 11% of Catholics.
· Nearly 1-in-5 white evangelical Protestants (19%) report having posted a status update on their Facebook page or other social networking site about being in church, compared to 6% of white mainline Protestants and 2% of Catholics.
· Nearly 4-in-10 (37%) younger Americans (age 18-34) say they use Facebook several times a day, while about 6-in-10 (59%) seniors (age 65 and up) say they never use Facebook.
· Younger Americans are significantly more likely than older Americans to report following a religious or spiritual leader on Twitter or Facebook (9% vs. 1%), or to say they have joined a religious or spiritual group on Facebook (10% vs. 1%).
· Younger Americans are more than twice as likely to say they’ve downloaded a podcast of a sermon or listened to a sermon online (17% vs. 8%).
· Younger Americans are also much more likely than older Americans to have sent or read emails during a worship service (16% vs. 3%), posted status updates on Facebook or other social networking sites about being in church (16% v. 3%) or used a cell phone to take pictures or record video during a worship service (20% v. 3%).
· Among Americans who use Facebook, half (50%) say they don’t describe their religious beliefs at all on their Facebook profile. One-in-five (20%) Americans say their religious identity on Facebook is “Christian,” while 9% identify as Catholic, 8% identify as another Protestant denomination, 6% identify as “something else,” and 4% identify as atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular.
· White evangelical Protestants (53%) are more likely than white mainline Protestants (32%), the religiously unaffiliated (8%), and Catholics (3%) to identify simply as “Christian” on Facebook.
Interestingly, one aspect of the above survey seems to defy the trend of prominent religious leaders using social media to build a following and a brand. Here’s another perspective on the survey. And see Christianity Today's (@CTmagazine), "Religious Self-Profiling" by Sarah Pulliam Bailey (@spulliam).
Also see our previous blogposts:
· “Almost Half of Online Americans Use the Internet for Religious Purposes”
· “More Than 1/3 of Online Adults Visit Church Websites”
· “Study: Christians are Embracing Tablets & E-readers”
· “Study: Religiously Active People More Likely to Engage in Civic Life”
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