More and More Americans Want to Attend Church Digitally, Study Finds

From a certain angle, you’d think that America had given up on religion. Our pop culture these days is about as secular as you can get and, for younger generations, organized religion seems increasingly like a thing to be avoided. To hear some tell it, you’d be hard pressed to find a millennial or Gen Z-er that wants to go anywhere near a church. But while religiosity may be waning in the U.S., the truth is that a majority of Americans are still connected to one faith or another. According to Pew Research, about 63 percent of Americans currently identify as Christian; another seven percent, meanwhile, say they are affiliated with a non-Christian faith, like Judaism or Buddhism. As of 2021, approximately 75 percent of Americans—or three out of four people—identified as religious, according to Pew.

In short: religion is still a major thing for most Americans. But how Americans interact with their respective faiths is notably changing.

As technology has become a larger and larger part of our lives, so too has the notion that it can be used to connect to a higher power. Notably, the covid-19 pandemic forced Americans to interact with their religious communities via more virtual means. Now, Americans are increasingly turning to tablets, laptops, and social media to tune into religious sermons and connect with spiritual communities. A recent study conducted by Pew shares some interesting insights about how Americans are digitizing their spiritual experiences. Here are some of the takeaways.