Religion and Spirituality on Social Media in the Aftermath of the Global Pandemic

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Olanrewaju Tahir Aduragba, Jialin Yu, Alexandra I. Cristea

Published: 2023, Last Modified: 07 Jan 2026IEEE Big Data 2023EveryoneRevisionsBibTeXCC BY-SA 4.0
Abstract: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Church closed its physical doors for the first time in about 800 years, which is, arguably, a cataclysmic event. Other religions have found themselves in a similar situation, and they were practically forced to move online, which is an unprecedented occasion. In this paper, we analyse this sudden change in religious activities twofold: we create and deliver a questionnaire, as well as analyse Twitter data, to understand people’s perceptions and activities related to religious activities online. Importantly, we also analyse the temporal variations in this process, by analysing a period of 3 months: July-September 2020. Additionally to the separate analysis of the two data sources, we also discuss the implications from triangulating the results.