Screen Time, Social Media, and Religious Commitment among Adolescents

ABSTRACT Research on the impact of new technologies on American youth often fails to consider their impact on religious commitment, and research on adolescent religiosity often fails to consider how technology use may influence adolescents’ religious lives. But the copious amount of time adolescents spend in front of screens and on social media platforms may affect their religious commitment through a process of self-socialization or by outcompeting religion for adolescents’ time and attention. Using data from the National Survey of Moral Formation (N = 3,033), we examine whether adolescent screen time and social media use are associated with religious commitment. We find that screen time is related to diminished religious commitment, and, for private religious outcomes, the negative relationship is stronger among adolescents whose parents are more religious. There is no unique negative effect of social media use on religious commitment except on the scripture reading of adolescents with religious parents. Studies of adolescent religiosity should consider technology use to be an important agent in the religious socialization process. Although social media use appears to pose no major unique challenge to adolescent religious commitment, researchers should continue to explore the effects of new technological developments on youth religiosity.