Sharing Christian Faith Through Social Media: Influence on Young Adults Who Do Not Identify as Christian

Abstract

This qualitative descriptive study examines how young adults who do not identify as Christians describe the influence that encountering Christian faith sharing through social media exerts on their thoughts and behaviors. Four themes emerge: when they perceive faith sharing through social media positively, they typically regard the posts as encouraging, culturally relevant, helpful, clear, and/or passionate; when they perceive it negatively, they view the content as condescending, demanding, judgmental, dishonest, and/or hypocritical; when they do not seem opposed to Christianity, they nevertheless often dislike how faith sharers conduct themselves online; and when this faith sharing influences them toward Christianity, they typically report positive cognitive responses, but when it influences them away from Christianity, they often report negative emotional responses. Overall, three themes developed from the non-Christians’ behavioral data: they often exhibit a fight or flight response when they perceive Christian online faith sharing negatively by either challenging the faith sharers or avoiding them and their religion; when they experience faith sharers online positively, it often results in them practicing the teachings posted and imitating the faith sharers' Christianity; and they often seem unaware of the Christians’ online faith sharing influence or underestimate its magnitude.