“Faith to go or devil’s work” – Social media acceptance in taboo-related usage contexts

Abstract

Beyond their ubiquity, social media have fundamentally changed the nature of social, economic, and communicative pathways in modern societies. Communication and information with digital media are present everywhere and at any time. Social media overcome physical as well as mental borders and are increasingly incorporated in our private lives. While there is a substantial body of knowledge about the usage of social media in public or working areas, yet, there are also uncovered fields. Religious applications delivered by social media are one of the unlighted areas of mobile application development within the last years. In contrast to their low publicity in research stand a high number of various applications for any number of persuasions. Using a qualitative pre-study and a quantitative survey, this study gains insights into personal perceptions of using religious applications and the acceptance by believers and non-believers.