Goal: Rational agency and belief in divine values is the elixir of moving forward, resilience, uplifting and value-creating in individual and communal human life in the digital age. The present study was conducted with the aim of analyzing the perception and lived experience of senior high school students about the role of cyberspace in transforming their religious beliefs.
Method: To achieve this objective, a qualitative approach and a descriptive phenomenological method were employed along with interviews with email and open-ended questions. The participants were chosen using the snowball sampling method within the research field, which consisted of female students in senior high school, between 15 and 18 years old, residing in districts 1, 16, and 20 of Tehran. The semi-structured interview process concluded after the 15th interview, upon reaching saturation. Data were analyzed using the MAXQDA software based on Colaizzi’s method. In order to increase the reliability, credibility, and confirmability of the data, the methods of “investigation and review in the time of coding”, “using the opinions of research colleagues”, and “long-term immersion” were utilized. The findings led to the identification of 85 significant statements, and the classification of 15 sub-themes and 5 themes, including cognitive, doctrinal, behavioral, emotional, and practical themes.
Findings: By investigating the views and experiences of students in facing the cyberspace and the expansion of its use during the Covid-19 pandemic and afterwards, significant and sometimes worrying changes have occurred in the students' religious beliefs in all five mains cognitive, doctrinal, behavioral, emotional, and practical dimensions.
Conclusion: The right upbringing and setting the ground for the promotion of beliefs and agency for religious teachings in the students studied does not have a satisfactory condition; rather, with the influence of diverse factors, especially the content and values common and dominant in the cyberspace, it has been accompanied by extensive changes in the opposite direction of the expected religious beliefs. It seems that the existing trend of facing with and accessing to the cyberspace, without intelligent management of teenagers, with all levels of content and lack of attention close to passivity to the content presented and released in the cyberspace, which according to the evidences has worked more effectively in schools, can undermine the foundation of students' religious beliefs. It is important to pay serious attention to teaching media literacy to parents and teenagers; creating a basis for giving functionality to the incentives and actions of all educated people and those concerned with education, including teachers, lecturers, professors, trainers, counselors, psychologists, sociologists and cultural promoters for the public production and republishing of the noble and original content in accordance with the cultural teachings of our country; and especially its publication and dissemination based on entertainment and educational principles, even so late, can provide a basis for reducing the risks of this highly effective and original space known as cyberspace and free the society from some of its dangers.
Keywords: religious beliefs, cyberspace; transmogrification; senior high school students, phenomenology |
