Frequent Internet use may decrease the affiliation with a single religious tradition.

‘Internet is killing religion because it aggressively discourages the practice of sustained, undistracted attention to the real world.’

Frequent Internet use may decrease the affiliation with a single religious tradition, because Internet use encourages religious "tinkering", the researchers said. 




"Tinkering means that people feel they are no longer beholden to institutions or religious dogma," said Paul K. McClure, researcher and sociologist at the Baylor University in Texas.
"The more time one spends on the Internet, the greater the odds are that that person will not be affiliated with a religion," McClure added.
"Today, perhaps in part because many of us spend so much time online, we're more likely to understand our religious participation as free agents who can tinker with a plurality of religious ideas -- even different, conflicting religions -- before we decide how we want to live," McClure said.
The study, published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, also examined television viewing and found that it was linked to religion, but in a different way -- lower religious attendance and other religious activities that take time.
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McClure analysed 1,714 adults aged 18 and older.
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