Not your father’s religion: A case study of Hoodoo practitioners on TikTok

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown in 2020 unequivocally shaped our modes of socializing with one another – primarily in how it collapsed our first, second and third places into one another. This thesis examines recent trends in how Hoodoo practitioners negotiate their religious identity on TikTok in a post pandemic world. To answer this question, the methodology was twofold. First, current published literature in the field of digital religions was reviewed. Secondly, religious content posted publicly to social media was reviewed and analyzed. The primary social media app targeted was TikTok, with content from Twitter (X), Instagram, Facebook, and Reddit serving as secondary support. Currently, TikTok has more engagement than any other social media app. Approximately 1.6 billion people use TikTok daily. Engagement on social media drastically increased due to the heightened isolation of the COVID- 19 pandemic, and one of the primary third places people were cut off from was their religious communities. Going back to a pre-pandemic society, the rise of individualism over the past few decades has permeated every realm of existence from religion to family structure to livelihood. Some trends noted in this study are the increased charismatic aspect of individual religious experiences, an increase in the number of young people leaving the religion they were raised in and embracing a religion they were not overtly raised within, a rise in the number of young people reconnecting their ancestral folk religions, and the formation of new religious communities in a digital sphere.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Religion

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Robinson, Ji Hae

Contributors dc:contributor

• Williams, Alexia
• Thurston, Stephanie Mota
• Tosato, Anna

• Hoodoo
• Digital Religion
• Religion And Media
• New Religious Movements
• African American Religion
• Rootwork
• Conjure
• Folk Religion

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2024 Ji Hae Robinson

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/127151

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F127151