Boyd, Danah. (2007). Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics
in Teenage Social Life. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Learning – Youth, Media Volume (ed. David Buckingham). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Identity, and Digital retrieved May 5, 2007 from http://www.danah.org/papers/WhyYouthHeart.pdf
This article explores the explosion of myspace and the new norms that are forming because of this networking site. She writes of how not all students participate in social networking...those who contentiously object and those who are disenfranchised. She also notes the increasing public nature of young people's lives and the strengths and potential negatives of this public living.
Campbell, H. (2004). Challenges created by online religious networks. Journal of Media and Religion. 3(2), 81-99.
Heidi Campbell found in her research that people are increasingly forming relationships both online and offline. She encourages the discussion of the benefits and stumbling blocks of online relationships and offline relationships. She doesn’t feed the common fear of these network relationships but also doesn’t assert that online networks can effectively fully replace face to face religious community.
Campbell, H. (2005). Spiritualizing the Internet: Uncovering discourses and narratives of religious Internet usage. Online-Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet, 1 (1). Retrieved April 30,2008 from http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/volltexte/2005/5824/pdf/Campbell4a.pdf
Heidi Campbell investigates a few different claims about the use and views of the internet as a spiritual space. She seeks to further explore the view of the internet as a tool that promotes religion and religious practice, the use of the internet as a sacred space by those who attend virtual temple, the use of the internet as a technology for affirming religious life, and the internet as a medium that facilitates spiritual experience
Cramer, M., Zutty, D., Foucault, B, Huffaker, D., Derby, D., Cassell, J. (2007). Everything in moderation: The effects of adult moderators in online youth communities. In Steinfield, C; Pentland, B.T.; Ackerman, M; Contractor, N. (Eds). Proceedings of Communities and Technologies 2007. Berlin: Spriner. Retrieved on May 2, 2008 from: http://www.davehuffaker.com/papers/Cramer_Adult_Moderation_Online_Adolescents.pdf .
This is an interesting paper on the impact of adult presence within youth forums, chats, and online communities. This team explores how youth communities where adults are viewed to be in charge decrease in productivity and flourish when youth feel they are controlling the conversation and interaction. There is also some data from the late 90s Usenet and MIT’s Junior Summit project from 98.
Dalton, J.C., Eberhardt, D., Bracken, J, & Echols, K. (2006). Inward journeys: Forms and patterns of college student spirituality. Journal of College and Character. VII(8), 9-31.
A group article discussing contemporary forms and patterns of college student spirituality and their analysis of the implications for colleges and universities. They spent time reading blogs, talking to students and then remarked on the increasing number of faculty positions designed to serve students’ needs and interests in spirituality. Also, this interest in spirituality amongst college students has led to an increased number of classes on topics of spirituality. Not an article that really delves into the issue of online spirituality but it speaks to the need to be aware of this place of seeking that occurs during the college years. I see this article as a means to explain why the internet is being used as a main source of community and question answering by students who aren’t at a school with resources designed to engage the spiritual seeker.
Hampton, Keith N. (2007, October). Neighborhoods in the network society: the E-neighborhoods study. Information, Communication & Society. 10(5), 714-748. Retrieved March 31, 2008, from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13691180701658061
This study sought to answer the questions through a study done in a variety of neighborhoods with an online website.
1. Is the Internet increasingly a part of everyday neighborhood interactions?
2. Under what circumstances can the Internet facilitate the formation of neighborhood social networks?
They found that a neighborhood website didn’t increase face to face discussion amongst those who had no face to face time. But it did increase the relationships among those who were already interacting face to face. The e-neighborhood & e-mail list increased connectivity amongst those who participated in neighborhood functions. The researchers in this study also found that there was a social network gap; that the haves are more likely to benefit from the e-neighborhood than the have-nots.
Helland, C. (2005). Online religion as lived religion: Methodological issues in the study of religious participation on the Internet. Online-Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet, 1 (1). Retrieved April 18, 2008. from http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/volltexte/2005/5823/pdf/Helland3a.pdf
Helland provides an explanation for the difference between “online religion” and “religion online”. Online Religion= religious websites where people could act with unrestricted freedom and a high level of interactivity. Religion Online=religious information but limited or no interaction. He struggles with what online activity can be considered genuine religious action.
Helland, C. (2007). Diaspora on the electronic frontier: Developing virtual connections with sacred homelands. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(3), article 10. retrieved on April 20, 2008 from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue3/helland.html.
This article is written about a study that looked at how populations forced to leave their homeland have utilized the Internet to connect with each other and their roots. According to Helland’s research in 1996 the Time Warner Company estimated that there were 3 times as many sites concerning God and spirituality as there were concerning sex. In 2000, it was estimated that more people used the internet for religious or spiritual purposes than were using it for banking or online dating. He goes on in this article to outline briefly the history of online religion concluding with an argument that online tours of temples and virtual interaction with sacred places creates a sense of “immediacy, which shrinks distances and allows for a level of interactivity and accessibility that has not been available in the past.”
