By: Igor Colonno, Fatima Durrani and Maher Basharahil
Online religious communities assist in bringing together individuals who seek to strengthen their faith and make connections.
Jannah Mohamed, a student at Long Beach City College, is involved with the Long Beach Mosque and believes social media positively influences religious communities
“It really helped strengthen my bond with the community,” Mohamed said. “It also advocated for my personal identity and I felt like it was a really big part of who I am.”
When the Long Beach Masjid was first being built around 2012, a video posted on YouTube helped gain attention for the project. Mohamed said that advertisements of communities needing help brings crowds together.
According to a press release by Harvard School of Public Health, a survey stated that about 18% of people who attended weekly religious services in their adolescence were more likely to have “higher happiness.” As religious services have been adopted to online formats, this allows for more of a community to be involved.
Many religious places of worship, like the Long Beach Masjid, have expanded their platforms online as society turns to social media as their first option to learn more about something. In fact, Churches now offer jobs within social media.
Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and X can help foster religious communities and build positive connections with like-minded individuals, serving as a support system for community building.
Christian TikTok content creator based in Little Rock, Arkansas, Christian Greer has amassed over 85 thousand followers and 1.6 million likes over his social media career. His videos are dedicated to talking more about his faith and to Christians all over the platform.
Greer started doing videos on TikTok during the COVID-19 pandemic to help alleviate some of the loneliness. He grew a large audience talking about dating issues.
“It was mostly me talking about… the dating landscape, especially for Christians. A lot of stuff on singleness, a lot of stuff on waiting for the right person or things around that nature,” Greer said.
Greer’s online presence helped people overcome their personal struggles.
Two specific cases mentioned by Greer were when someone’s depression was helped by his videos and when someone converted to Christianity due to his videos.
Greer said that the purpose of his online community is to help and remind Christians of their faith during burdensome times.
“When it comes to Jesus and Christianity…, just in the world today, you see a lot of, fire and brimstone,” Greer said. “The most central aspect of who Jesus is, was love. I want my videos to be a form of love to people… my main goal is that somebody watches my video and feels the love of Jesus.”
Greer said that Christian online communities have a positive impact towards the community, However, he prefers in-person interactions due to the online stigma where someone may be more condemnatory of one’s actions.
“I just think sometimes the Christian community online can be slightly more corrective or judgmental than they are in person. Whereas if you, actually went to most churches… you would see that these people don’t really talk like that,” Greer said.
Beach Hillel, a Jewish student club located at Long Beach State under leadership of Executive Director ChayaLeah Sufrin, serves as an example of online community building.
They initially used their platforms for event promotions during the COVID-19 pandemic leading them to embrace virtual engagements.
“When COVID hit and school shut down, we basically pivoted to being a totally online club. We did everything online,” Sufrin said.
It included virtual learning cohorts and holiday gatherings. One of their adaptations was their approach to Shabbat dinners, a cornerstone of their activities.
According to the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, study participants who continued and started using remote worship services increased in numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic amongst religious adults. They also felt an overall increase of 95% in their sense of well-being and social issues.
“During COVID, I would pack up boxes of food and students would drive by, pick up the box, go home and then we would all meet online to have Shabbat dinner together,” Sufrin said.
Despite the high engagement online, Sufrin notes a decline in virtual participation as the pandemic dwindled.
“When things started coming back, we tried to keep up half the time online, half the time in person. And I would say over the last year it’s kind of died out doing online things as the students really want the more in-person interactions,” Sufin said.
There is a trend observed among the youth in religious online communities as they offer invaluable resources and a path-way to maintain connection during crisis.
The physical presence and communal experience is irreplaceable to many.
“Judaism in general, you could do a lot of studying online. But to practice being a Jew, you really need a community,” Sufrin said.