Facebook and Yoga: Gurus, New Age, and Spirituality through Social Media
This article reports a three-year repeated measures study on the effect of guru-led new religious movements’ (gnrm) customized Facebook yoga lessons on followers’ spiritual experiences and religious commitment. Participants comprised 3,488 followers across four gnrms. During the study period, each g...
| Published in: | Journal of religion, media and digital culture |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2019
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| In: |
Journal of religion, media and digital culture
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
New Age
/ Spirituality
/ New religion
/ Social media
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| RelBib Classification: | AZ New religious movements ZG Media studies; Digital media; Communication studies |
| Further subjects: | B
guru-led new religious movements
B Spirituality B Yoga B Followers B Facebook B Religious Commitment |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article reports a three-year repeated measures study on the effect of guru-led new religious movements’ (gnrm) customized Facebook yoga lessons on followers’ spiritual experiences and religious commitment. Participants comprised 3,488 followers across four gnrms. During the study period, each gnrm Facebook page had an average of 1,095 daily posts and 156 weekly yoga lessons. Results showed that at phase 2, scores of participants on spiritual experiences and religious commitment measures were significantly higher vis-à-vis the comparison group. Within the participant cohort, women, those with stable marital status, and those who performed a combination of devotional and social service activities at the gnrms scored higher. Disciplined Facebook usage influenced regular viewing of the customized yoga lessons, higher quiz scores, and regular self-practice. The strongest predictor of the phase 2 outcome measure scores was regular self-practice. With focused administering and usage, Facebook is an effective medium for intensifying spiritual experiences and religious commitment among gnrms’ fellowship. |
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| ISSN: | 2165-9214 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of religion, media and digital culture
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/21659214-00802004 |