Is Media the New Religion?

How close are you to your phone right now? Probably within arm’s reach, and you’re waiting to pick it up again after you had it in your hands less than 5 minutes ago. How many times a day are you hopping online? The number might be more than you’re willing to admit. These questions are not posed to invoke shame but rather to bring awareness to the norm of our society. In this age of technology, religion seems to be phasing its way out of the mainstream. It is starting to be replaced by the internet and media. The way our society has evolved to lean on the internet and our favorite forms of media as a source of information, morality, and lessons reflect similar parallels to the way earlier societies leaned on religion to guide them. Religion has been the traditional way humans have guided their way through life and its absurdity. However, with the evolution of the internet and its pervasive role in our lives, it seems that religion has taken a backseat as guidance in life for many young people.

Millennials and Gen Z are statistically the least religious people in America, and it’s no coincidence that this generation was raised on the internet. Religion has historically served as an amazing guideline for how people and societies should live their lives and interpret the world around them so they can inherit a higher purpose. However, public sentiment on faith reflects a disconnect between itself and young people. For some, the strict rules, confusing language, or radical followers have made young people feel like it’s outdated. At this same time, the internet has come to serve a similar purpose that religion does for its followers.

Being chronically online can be to blame for why religion fails to resonate with a lot of the younger generation. Constant contact with desensitizing information can alter people’s perception of the world, making it hard to believe in a higher power. How often are we reading and seeing videos of tragedy on social media, leaving us to only show our support through “thoughts and prayers?” Not only this, but the internet is a breeding ground for discussion and debate. Lessons taught through stories are the traditional framework for most religions. Now, search engines can pose the same questions and get a hundred million results in a fifth of a second. Links to articles and videos of the most outlandish theories and conspiracies that make believing in a God sound more reasonable are easily accessible to all of us as long as you have a Wi-Fi signal. This ability of the internet to grant answers that religion once served to answer has made many people feel as if religion is obsolete.

Religion and its trait of granting a sense of community is no longer a unique one, thanks to the internet. Before the internet, American society built its identity on patriotism and faith. Every morning in schools, classes would come together and pledge allegiance to the United States of America, one nation under God. Nowadays, we find our sense of community online, and it’s so expansive that religion cannot compete. The internet has granted us access to connect with people all over the globe, sending us to places where we share similar interests. Social media algorithms are intelligent enough to link you to different parts of the internet where they believe you’ll belong. The sense of community through the internet is more valuable to younger people than through religion because it’s also less judgemental. The strictness of certain religious values and beliefs often turns people away from them. In contrast to the internet, you have direct control over finding a community that will embrace you with open arms.

The media’s ability to influence people reflects how religion affects people’s actions. Social media has birthed a new form of self-help through the form of “daily affirmations” that serve a similar purpose to religious scriptures. These posts on people’s feeds remind them to be grateful for their life and to practice empathy and forgiveness. These accounts dedicated to spreading ideas of self-love and setting guidelines for how people should practice living life have replaced religion for a lot of people. There has been a renaissance on the internet of “spirituality” that has amassed a huge following. It draws inspiration from religions without strict labels and rules.

written by jd delcastillo art by sergio pimentel

Now that we’ve become aware of this shift in society, we ask—is this for the better or worse? Although most people frequently use the internet, many are reluctant to say it’s been good for them. Like religion, the internet breeds division among people. The internet, being as untamed as it is, allows hate to flourish. The quantity of misinformation on the internet is another ingredient to this recipe for disaster, where content creators can amass a cult-like following based on hate and discrimination. The unregulated system allows this kind of content to fall into the hands of young people who are still in their formative years and are spoonfed ideas that they cannot contest as untrue because they haven’t had a chance to think for themselves. This parallels how extremism in religion damages some people’s psyche when exposed to it at a young age and then growing up to deny it as they are exposed to different aspects of the world.

Although it may feel like we’ve been utilizing the internet and media for a while now, the younger generations are still the guinea pigs of this age of information, and the long-term effects have yet to be seen. We won’t have a complete evaluation until Generation Alpha (aka the Zoomers), who have grown up in a society engulfed in media and the internet, come of age to make their own interpretation of how these tools have affected their perspective on life. It could all be an overreaction, and the kids might just be alright. However, if this new societal norm does result in major repercussions, we could be looking at a new reality that’s more dystopian than we’re used to.

Photography by Max Williams and Kimara Pretlow Beauty by Sam Acello and Kallyani Prakash Styling by Aidan Rourke, Alyssa Nelson, and Gabriela Ferreira Models are wearing skirt and pants by Txchnicolor 8383