Friday, November 4, 2011

Supplement or Substitute? (Round II)

My paper will investigate whether the online community within Christianity is a supplement or a substitute to face-to-face interaction. As discussed in earlier blogs, this is a very interesting topic that will take a lot of research and first hand experience to investigate and get properly pinned down. Possible case studies include Second Life, Facebook, and Lifechurch. For the sake of simplicty, let's focus on Facebook for now.

There are a number Facbook pages that are dedicated to Christian religious practices and community. Whether it be sermons, message boards, or prayer requests, this social network is becoming a vital player in Chrisian community. I personally believe that Facebook is being used as a substitute for the original face to face community. In many instances in my own personal experiences, people have posted prayer requests, praises, and various lines of encouragement, but fail to lead the same lives offline. Facebook is becoming a platform for religious community that is evoling into a complete substitute for the "real thing." If these other case studies, such as Second Life and Lifechurch are similar to Facebook, I believe we are seeing a trend of the online community emerging into a complete substitute for the traditional face-to-face religious community.

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