ICTs in Religious Communities: Communal and Domestic Integration of New Media Among Jewish Ultra-Orthodoxy in Israel

Abstract

In the past two decades, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been deeply instilled into contemporary life. While domestication theory has focused on ICTs integration into modern families, its absorption into religious and bounded communities begs further scrutiny. While offering meaningful gains and opportunities, ICTs raise concerns by such communities for their potential rupture of cultural boundaries. Focusing on Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jewry, we inquire how grassroots socializing agents negotiate ICT usage within informal educational spheres for adults and children. Analyzing interviews and children’s drawings, findings demonstrate that while ICTs are proscribed from formal ultra-Orthodox education and mass media, the home constitutes the epicenter of computer education, and web-journalism becomes a valued information outlet for adults. Thus, the study elucidates how traditionally inclined societies infuse new technologies, which subsequently leads to a negotiation process between long-established leadership and emergent socializing agents concerning these societies’ opted level of insularity.