Media

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted religious practices in the US from 2019 through 2021, as most modern religions rely on group worship as their primary organizational pattern. During the height of the pandemic, in-person worship had to be temporarily suspended, leading to a rapid shift towards virtual, online worship. This affected churches, synagogues, and mosques across the country, resulting in a survey that showed a quarter of American churches had to lay off workers, cut their pay, or reduce their hours. Many pastors are worried about keeping their church doors open after the pandemic ends.

Furthermore, the pandemic also affected the number of people attending church services. For instance, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in State College, which typically has a congregation of 200-300 people, had only five to seven people sitting quietly among the many rows of pews during the pandemic.

Although some individuals view social media and digital communication as negative influences, the Church has acknowledged the advantages of utilizing these tools to sustain its ministries during the pandemic. Digital communication and social media platforms have persisted on an even larger scale even after the official conclusion of the pandemic.

Social media refers to the online interactions among individuals who create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. There are various popular social media platforms available. For instance, Facebook is the largest social network, with over 1.55 billion active users monthly as of the third quarter of 2015. Users can create a personal profile, add other users as friends, and exchange messages, including status updates. Brands can also create pages, and Facebook users can "like" those pages. Similarly, YouTube and Vimeo are video hosting and watching websites. Instagram is a free photo and video-sharing app that enables users to apply digital filters, frames, and special effects to their photos and share them on social networking sites. Finally, email is another popular social media tool that enables people to communicate and send messages electronically. As of 2019, a staggering 293.6 billion emails were sent each day globally, and there are currently over 4 billion email users worldwide.

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