Twitter and tragedy: A revamped American religious experience

[rug]

Timothy K. Snyder | Sep 13, 2013

BOSTON (RNS) On my first Patriots’ Day in Boston, I was enjoying lunch with several colleagues when someone rushed into the restaurant: There had been an explosion at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Moments later, caravans of ambulances and police cars raced, and the reports of casualties rolled in.

In the hours and days that followed, social media became for me, and many others, a sacred space to share our prayers and words of disbelief.

The scene gave personal immediacy to research I’ve been conducting with a colleague about the use of social media as public memorialization in the wake of last year’s shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Over the past nine months, we’ve spent countless hours sifting through thousands of tweets, amateur photos, and related media coverage that appeared in the aftermath.

Our research can be framed as a simple question: Is using Twitter a religious act? I’m convinced it can be.

http://www.religionnews.com/2013/09/13/twitter-tragedy-revamped-american-religious-experience/

Good grief. If posting on twitter can be a religious act, what is posting in the DU Religion Group?

[cbayer]

1. It is an interesting phenomenon, isn't it.

IRL, I don't talk much about religion at all.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. If you can earn plenary indulgences via Twitter, it seems to be a religious act

A plenary indulgence will also be granted for those cannot attend World Youth Day. “The faithful who on account of a legitimate impediment cannot attend the aforementioned celebrations may obtain Plenary Indulgence under the usual spiritual, sacramental and prayer conditions, in a spirit of filial submission to the Roman Pontiff, by participation in the sacred functions on the days indicated, following the same rites and spiritual exercises as they occur via television or radio or, with due devotion, via the new means of social communication,” the decree states.

http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/pope-francis-decrees-plenary-indulgence-for-world-youth-day

I wonder what 'practical theology', in which the article author is a fellow, is? Wishful thinking?

[Jim__]

3. I'm not sure what a religious act is.

But certainly in the difficult times following some tragedy, pictures can have a tremendous emotional impact.

[dimbear]

4. What is posting in the DU Religion Group?

To Dimbear, a mixture of blasphemy, sacrilege, and usually little known info on religion. This group is an invaluable place for the comparison of differing approaches. It's a place for settling religious questions without the usual IEDs.