Page 461 - Essencials of Sociology

434 ChaPTEr 13 Education and religion

Mass Media in Social Life

God on the Net: The Online Marketing of Religion

In Thailand: Teenaged Buddhist monks post videos of them- messages that fellow believers in Jerusalem download and in-
selves on YouTube playing air guitar and reciting religious chants sert in the Western Wall.
to hip-hop beats. This upsets older Buddhists who feel that the Everywhere: No matter where you are, virtual church services
young monks are being disrespectful (Hookway 2012). are available. Just choose an avatar, and you can sing, kneel,
In Israel: You want to pray here at the Holy Land, but you pray, and listen to virtual sermons. And if you get bored, you
can’t leave home? No problem. Buy our special telephone don’t have to continue to sit. You can walk around the virtual
card—available at your local 7-11. Just record your prayer, and church and talk to other avatars (Feder 2004). And, of course,
we’ll broadcast it via the Internet at the site you you can use your credit card—a real one,
choose. Press 1 for the holy site of Jerusalem, not the virtual kind.
press 2 for the holy site of the Sea of Galilee, The changes certainly are far reaching.
press 3 for the birthplace of Jesus, press 4 for. . . . One rabbi celebrates Rosh Hashana, a high
(Rhoads 2007) Holy Day service, by having congregants
In India: You moved to Kansas, but you want use their cell phones to text anonymous
to pray in Chennai? No problem. Order your messages regarding their reactions to what
pujas (prayers), and a priest will say them in the is being discussed. The messages are pro-
temple of your choice. Just click how many you jected onto a screen in front of the congre-
want. Food offerings for Vishnu included in the gation (Alvarez 2012).
price. All major credit cards accepted (K. Sullivan Some say that the microchip has put us
2007). on the verge of a religious reformation that
In Rome: The Pope tries to reach out to youn- will turn out to be as big as the one set off
ger Roman Catholics by tweeting, little religious by Gutenberg’s invention of the printing
messages in 145 characters or less. The Pope press. This is likely an exaggeration, but
doesn’t actually write the tweets, but he “is in- Some people have begun to “attend” perhaps not.
volved” in what they say (Moloney 2012). church as avatars.
In the United States: Erin Polzin, a 20-year-
old college student, listens to a Lutheran worship service on the For Your Consideration
radio, confesses online, and uses PayPal to tithe. “I don’t like ↑ We are gazing into the future of religious practices chang-
getting up early,” she says. “This is like going to church without ing with technology. How do you think that the Internet might
really having to” (Bernstein 2003). change religion? Do you think it can replace the warm embrace
In Europe: Muslims download sermons and join an invisi- of fellow believers? Will tweets bring comfort to someone who
ble community of worshippers at virtual mosques. Jews type is grieving for a loved one?

A basic principle of symbolic interactionism is that
meaning is not inherent in an object or event, but is
determined by people as they interpret the object or
event. Does this dinosaur fossil “prove” evolution?
Does it “disprove” creation? Such “proof” and
“disproof” lie in the eye of the beholder, based on the
background assumptions by which it is interpreted.