Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Digital Religion: Chabad Online

This isn't about youth, however I have been working on online religion for the past couple of years, with a particular emphasis on the Jewish Internet, and and thought I might share some thoughts about it with you readers.

I might disclose that I recently got a paper accepted for publication that I have collaberated upon with Dr. Heidi Campbell of Texas A&M University entitled: "Creating Digital Enclaves: Negotiation of the Internet Amongst Bounded Religious Communities" in Media Culture and Society. I'll talk about that paper another day.

Today I want to share with you the abstract of a paper I have written for a book Heidi is editing. Its' still a draft, so there may be changes, however I thought some of you might be interested. It stems from my last year of ethnographic work in New York and interviews with Jewish website operators. In this case, the Jewish-Chassidic Chabad movement that offers a rich and fervent tracts over the Internet, particularly in websites such as Chabad.org or col.org.il. The paper is entitled: Charting Frontiers of Online Religious Communities: The case of Chabad Jews. Here is its abstract, please let me know if you have any comments or ideas about it all:

Late modernity and its new media forms place the religious world at an ongoing tension to accept the Internet for advancing their community building efforts or actively avoid its adverse effects. By examining the case of Chabad Jews the study aims to show how religious communities use the Internet to invite new members and expand their influence while catering to their own communities and consolidating existent membership. A comparative examination of three key websites: chabad.org, crownheights.info and col.org.il that include net observations and interviews with 15 website operators in Israel and the US between 2009-2010 unveil a ‘division of labor’ between websites that either emphasize outward exposure towards a transnational community through Jewish education or are oriented inward and focus on communal rites (e.g. weddings, bar-mitzvahs), safety and inner doings. The community building that occurred in Chabad illuminates the ways these websites act as institutional builders that fortify solidarity and reinforce its values and religious zeal.

Why do Kids Trust each other Online?

In spite of the heat the Internet gets for its many dangers, especially for youngsters, it thrives as a space for forging friendships and establishing new forms of peer groups. So how do young people gain trust in their interlocutors?

To address this question I got two papers published this year on Trust over the Internet among cyber youth. The first is entitled: Impediments to and Affordances of Creating Trust over the Internet: The case of Israeli youth. It was published in a volume dedicated to online Trust and its abstract can be read here: http://www.igi-global.com/bookstore/Chapter.aspx?TitleId=42902

My other paper is entitled: Trust over the Net: The Case of Israeli Youth

Here is its abstract:

The Internet has been highly acclaimed for its innovation, financial and cultural benefits but a major obstacle to its expansion lies in the question of trust relations. This paper focuses on trust-building over the Internet among Israeli youth and how youth construct trust over the Internet. The study is based upon 38 in-depth interviews with adolescents ages 12-21 and an analysis of chat rooms, personal homepages, blogs and popular youth newsgroups. Findings uncover three strategies for identifying trust among youth: (1) control over anonymity; (2) “technological affordances” for maintaining trust; (3) continuity and durability of online relationships. These findings show the Internet’s potential for fostering social integration and reveal the ways youth communicate and fraternize in contemporary society.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Symbols and Language of Youth on the Internet: Rhetoric, Idioms and Iconography

I just published a new paper on the meanings of symbols and practices in use among peer groups of young Israelis on the Internet.

You can check out the abstract here : http://www.socis.tau.ac.il/en/issues.asp?issue_id=63