Understanding the role of the Internet and social media in the religious lives of young adult university students in Ghana

The open and liberal media landscape in Ghana provides considerable access to new media. However, smartphones, tablets, and other gadgets are still rather expensive (FES 2017: 8). In comparison to many other groups in Ghana, however, our respondents have easy access to the Internet and social media sites (SNS) via mainly Wi-Fi at the University of Ghana campus where the study was carried out. It is, therefore, not unexpected that the frequency of use of new media, especially social media, among this sample is quite significant. This is reflected, for example, in the 88.8 percent who reported using social media and the 70.2 percent who reported using online news sources for acquiring information about news or current affairs. It is also highlighted in comments by respondents such as “Yes, I use the Internet a lot” (FGHFB148P) and “Oh yeah, I do WhatsApp” (FGHFB225P). These responses illustrate that the Internet is a taken for granted part of everyday life for particularly young adult university students in Ghana. Many of our respondents can be argued to live “onlife,” that is to say, with the Internet and other new media as an integrated and natural part of daily life (cf. Floridi 2014; Elwell 2014), including their religious lives.

The fact that this particular Ghanaian young adult sample displays high levels of Internet and social media use for religious purposes must also be understood against the wider backdrop of the massive online and social media presence of religious groups and communities in Ghana (cf. Moberg et al. 2019). It is well known, and expressed in our data too, that many religious communities and faith groups actively use different forms of media, including social media, to communicate with members and engage potential new members. Religion in Ghana can thus be argued to be quite strongly mediatized; media are intertwined with religious life in multiple ways and plays an important role in shaping religious interaction and understanding (cf. Hjarvard 2011). The centrality of (new) media in the religious lives of Ghanaians has been discussed in previous research too (cf. de Witte 2008; Meyer 2006). We would dare say that it would be difficult to understand the dynamics of religion among young adults in contemporary Ghana without taking media into account. Still, the connection between mediatization and secularization that has been suggested in Western contexts (Hjarvard 2011) seems more difficult to argue for in the case of Ghana. Though in Ghana media can be understood to shape many aspects of religious life, at least among our respondents, this would not seem to lead to any types of decline in religious beliefs or engagements.

The young adults in our study are thus a part of a broad religious media landscape, while also having easy access to the Internet and social media. The issue of easy access is an important one. Many of our respondents considered it easier to access and share information and to engage in communication using smartphones and other mobile gadgets than turning to more “traditional” types of media. This was already indicated by a respondent quoted in the previous section who preferred the Internet to TV. Others point in the same direction, such as this respondent who preferred Nigerian to Ghanaian preachers because they are easier to access:

Yeah! But one interesting thing too is that, I um - when I compare the Ghanaian preachers -1 have listened to more of the Nigerian preachers more because for them I get access to their preaching like on the net easily compared to - yeah, so it’s, I just have access to their preaching.

(FGHFB043P)

Similarly, the availability of WhatsApp groups that focus on faith or religion also play a role in the religious online engagements of many of our respondents. The popularity of social media use for religious purposes must also be understood against the background of “the strong presence of religious communities and the prevalence of various types of religious activities on the University of Ghana campus where the sample was gathered” (Moberg et al. 2019: 248). A concrete example mentioned by one respondent is a Roman Catholic youth affiliate Pax Romana group online:

I am a Pax-Romana. That is my church on campus. Yeah so we have the Pax-Romana group in my class. Yes, there is - people always put these devotionals messages and we read. At times if there are any matters arising, like we discuss.

(YGHFB325P)

In higher educational settings, as in society more broadly, social media are often perceived critically. Several studies have looked into the risks and negative consequences of social media use among youth and young adults. Social media have been argued to have a negative effect on learning outcomes and it has also been linked to cases of cyberbullying (e.g. Sam et al. 2019), as well as outcomes that impact negatively on the social, psychological, and emotional well-being of students (Markwei and Appiah 2016).

In Ghanaian society more broadly, some of the concerns with social media also have to do with the challenges that social media are perceived to pose to traditional modes of religious authority. Among our respondents, we find similar views. Some found that the information disseminated on the Internet and social media distorts religious beliefs and views and is therefore problematic. This leads to a need for negotiations and the incorporation of other, complementary sources. Considering that the majority of the young adults who took part in our study still follow religious leaders, teachers, or religious groups online (and offline) means their use of new media is interlinked with traditional religious authorities. While many of them deemed it necessary to search for and verify traditional religious views, they were also often able to identify media contents that contradicted their beliefs by relating these to traditional religious sources. Therefore despite perceptions about the negative aspects of social media, many of our respondents seemed to be able to negotiate their social media use in ways that was useful for them and their own personal religious lives. However, while they wereclearly active agents in this process, their negotiations cannot be understood as separate from their very specific religious context and its rich religious media landscape.

Conclusion

Ghana is a fascinating context both when it comes to religion and to media, and when exploring how religion and media can intersect. In this chapter, we have, based on the data gathered in Ghana for the YARG project, illustrated how the young adults who took part in our study were not only highly religiously active, but also active new media users. We have explored the ways in which they reported using the Internet and social media for religious and spiritual purposes and reflected on different factors that influence this use.

The rich religious landscape and the expanding religious media landscape in Ghana provide young adults with many types and sources of information about religion and many forms of material for religious engagement. As indicated in previous studies based on YARG (Moberg et al. 2019), our respondents predominantly use media and new media to complement traditional religious sources, not to challenge these. However, as illustrated in this chapter, many also use the Internet and social media to find material of interest for personal development relating to religion. Critical attitudes toward social media that are prevalent in many contexts in Ghana are also noticeable in the accounts of our respondents. Such critical perspectives seem to encourage our respondents to try to be careful media users and to question the information they seek out and encounter online. Thus, while respondents displayed high degrees of agency and actively used social media to, for example, establish connections, seek out and explore religious information, and develop their own religiosity, they were simultaneously acutely aware of the many problematic aspects and discontents of social media.

It is worth reiterating, however, that our sample is far from representative of all young adults in Ghana. Our respondents were university students with easy access to the Internet and new media via Wi-Fi at the University of Ghana campus. As university students, they were part of a vibrant religious context, where new media are frequently used by a variety of religious groups. Nonetheless, the findings do highlight some important aspects of the religious lives of young adults in Ghana and of religious life more broadly in this part of the world. To understand religion in Ghana we clearly need to take media into account. An important question remains to what extent theories developed in Western contexts - such as the mediatization of religion thesis - can help us explain the contemporary intersection of religion and media in the Ghanaian context, or indeed in that broader geographical region. Regarding other questions for future research, studies should further explore how different media are used for religious purposes, delving deeper into questions of agency and religious identity. Religious apps are, for example, in wide use in Ghana, and exploring the different uses and views on these would provide an important new insights about the impact of new digital technologies and mobile communications on contemporary modes of religious life and practice in what is generally a highly vibrant religious context.