Groups use social media to reach younger people
Yasmine Plantilla had to pray through her jitters as she considered sharing her story of faith with friends on social media.
But when the University of Central Florida freshman finally sat down in front of her camera and pushed the record button, the words poured out naturally. Condensing years of personal history into a roughly four-minute explanation, she described her search for identity in high school, her initial uncertainty when encountering Christianity and how she came to find purpose in faith.
Plantilla posted her video to Facebook along with dozens of others in November as part of the UCF Backstory project, an effort coordinated by a campus Christian ministry called Cru. The short videos, in which students describe their religious backgrounds, have drawn more than 57,000 views so far, said Brianna Ordenes, 19, a ministry staffer with the campus group who contributed her own story to the project.
Plantilla, 19, said the project illustrated the power of social media to spark faith conversations. It allowed her to reach out without being preachy and opened doors for her to discuss faith with co-workers.
“I would never want to shove my religion down anyone’s throat,” she said. “It was a really good conversation starter, because they saw I was passionate about it in the video.”
Data released earlier this year by the Pew Research Center showed that 35 percent of all millennials identify as religiously unaffiliated and that this percentage is on the rise. But as younger people leave organized religion, faith groups are trying to follow them onto social media.
Churches, clergy and religious organizations are flocking not only to Facebook and Twitter, but to Instagram, Periscope, Pinterest and YouTube to engage a digital audience.
“For a lot of churches, the push is to be where the people are,” says Heidi Campbell, a communication professor at Texas A&M University. “And people are online.”
Campbell said up to this point, social media has supplemented rather than substituted for in-person religious experiences. However, her research shows this is starting to change. Increasingly, she said, young people are first introduced to religious concepts through their online feeds.
Many religious leaders in the Orlando area have embraced social media.
Paula White, who pastors New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka, has a Twitter following of more than 441,000. Orlando Catholic Bishop John Noonan refreshes his Twitter stream almost daily with updates and morsels of religious meditation. Episcopal Bishop Greg Brewer, who heads the Central Florida diocese, also Tweets regularly. .
“I really see Twitter as the public square of the 21st century,” Brewer said.
The Episcopal bishop said he also owns accounts on Facebook and Instagram and finds each digital platform puts him in touch with a different demographic. Younger people tend to favor Twitter, while on Facebook, he communicates mostly with people over age 45.
Churches and faith groups turn to social media both to build communities and to reach outside of them. The digital platforms allow people who are physically unable to attend services to stay plugged in, said a spokeswoman for St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Orlando.
“That’s been really heartwarming to know that no matter where people go, they consider St. Luke’s their home and their family,” said Dawn Fleming, spokeswoman for St. Luke’s.
Social media can also help churches reach people who might not otherwise come into contact with St. Luke’s, she said.
Recently, a post about a wild turkey that tried to get into the St. Luke’s sanctuary in the days before Thanksgiving caught fire on social media and drew international media attention. But Fleming said going viral isn’t the measure of success for church staff, whose main goal is uplifting people.
“We just try to be hope and light in people’s news feeds,” she said.
For the Islamic Society of Central Florida, using social media involves an added layer of complexity because of fears and stereotypes about American Muslims, said Bassem Chaaban, the society’s outreach director.
The society’s policy is to stay positive over social media and avoid politics, while still addressing misinformation where possible, Chaaban said.