Abstract
Today, social networks have become a space for the active development of Buddhist online communities. In the new digital environment, new social forms of interaction between users are emerging, often with different ideas about Buddhism. Moreover, many of them are not integrated into offline Buddhist communities and practices. This process can be considered as the development of a digital religion, admixture of online and offline social structures, practices and ideas. The paper is aimed at identifying the characteristics of the structure of Buddhist communities on the VKontakte social network. We have used automated data collection and mathematical modelling methods to study the interaction between the existing online communities, identified and described the clusters of Buddhist users.
Highlights
Research on religion on the Internet has become an actively developing field of modern sociology
Over the past twenty years, this research field has evolved from the study of "cyber religion" as religious practices on computer networks to "digital religion", which manifests the differences between "real" and new "digital" religious structures
According to the data obtained as a result of the system of queries in the VKontakte search engine, we have revealed a considerable increase in the number of users who chosen Buddhism as their worldview
Summary
Research on religion on the Internet has become an actively developing field of modern sociology. Campbell [3], the prevailing approach within current digital religion studies is consideration of the admixture of online and offline religious spaces and the development of hybrid forms of "digital religion". While describing digital religion it is important to analyze how religious online communities as active agents in mediatization of religion are integrated They represent a system of interactions between users of connected digital devices, websites, networking platforms and messengers focused on religious ideas, symbols and practices. Heidi Campbell understands online religious community as a network of social relations, integrated by a set of common life practices, and reproduced through a shared history. H. Campbell describes them as a system of multiple online and offline interactions between individuals and communities, new and old sources of authority and legitimacy, publicity and privacy, where people find themselves in the intersection of many religious networks and meanings. Heidi Campbell appeals to the concept of “third place” to describe how digital religion emerges from the admixture and hybridization of everyday practices of “living religion” and digital culture
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