Religion and Social Networking

            

            America is a nation of many religions. The Pew Institute U.S. Religious Landscape Survey crated a statistical analysis of people affiliated with various religions in the United States.  From the survey of 35,556 people the pew institute calculated the percentage of people in the United States who identify with any religion and what religion they identify them selves as. 

Religion	Percentage
Evangelical	26.30%
Catholic	23.90%
Protestant	18.10%
Historically Black churches	6.90%
Mormon	1.70%
Jehovah’s Whiteness	0.70%
Orthodox	0.60%
Other Christian	0.30%
Jewish	1.70%
Muslim	0.60%
Hindu	0.40%
Other World Religions	<.3%
Other Faiths	1.20%
Don't Know or refused	0.80%
Unaffiliated	16.10%

 

            From these numbers it is easy to see that the United States is predominantly a religious nation. American culture there are places that are more appropriate for displays of religion.  There is also a cretin amount of religious presence that pervades daily life.  The newest space in American culture is the Internet, or cyber space.  There are countless websites dedicated to religion, but with in social networks, or the social space on there internet, is little religious presence.  Facebook has 39,055,940 users that identify as living in the United States. The problem with statistics on face book is that they are only as accurate as the users want the statistics to be as there is no prerogative to not lie.  The advertising function on Facebook allows users to measure the size of the demographic that list particular words in their interests.

Word in interests	Number of people who use word interests	Percentage of total Facebook population
God	456,200	1.168068161
Jesus	140,040	0.358562616
Jesus Christ	106,160	0.271815248
Christian	368,920	0.944593831
Christianity	35,780	0.091612185
The Bible	1,181,780	3.025864952
The Holy Bible	61,480	0.157415236
Bible Study	55,380	0.141796613
Bible Studies	7,400	0.018947182
Studying the Bible	5,180	0.013263027
Reading the Bible	14,700	0.037638321
The Book of Mormon	26,120	0.066878431
Islam	27,240	0.069746113
Quran	18,140	0.0464462
Quraan	280	0.00071692
The Holy Quran	7,260	0.018588722
Jew	26,640	0.068209855
Jews	1,780	0.004557565
The Torah	4,620	0.011829187
Buddhism	12,420	0.03180054
Buddha	2,200	0.005632946
Orthodoxy	2,740	0.007015578

 

From these statistics it possible to see that Facebook like other social space in the United States is not seen as place for religious interaction.  It is not surprising that religion is not prevalent in the social sphere of the internet, but because Facebook provides the opportunity for people t write themselves into existence it is surprising that such a small percentage of people choose to mention their religion given their overwhelming percentage of the population.

Works Cited:

Facebook. "Advertise on Facebook." Facebook What do you want to advertise? Facebook. 28 Nov. 2008 http://www.facebook.com/ads/create./http://www.facebook.com/ads/create

Pew Institute. "Afiliations." Church Statists and Religious Affiliations - U.S. Religious Landscape Study - Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Pew Institute. 28 Nov. 2008 ./http://religions.pewforum.org/affiliations