04 February 2026
Swipe, Click, and Pray: Mapping the Digital Religion Landscape of Singapore
The introduction of the Internet, social media, and other digital tools has greatly influenced the way individuals and communities engage with religion and spirituality. Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, religions have shifted to digital platforms to disseminate their messages and practices, augment their offline rituals with online resources, and provide greater all-round support to their communities. As religious communities continue to expand their work online, it is prudent to analyse further how and why some communities in Singapore are motivated to make use of the online space whereas others feel less so. Understanding this contrast can shed light on the potentially complex relationship that religions and religious communities have with technology and how it might contribute towards or fragment social cohesion. This report intends to explore some of this complexity.
The introduction of the Internet, social media, and other digital tools has greatly influenced the way individuals and communities engage with religion and spirituality. Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, religions have shifted to digital platforms to disseminate their messages and practices, augment their offline rituals with online resources, and provide greater all-round support to their communities. As religious communities continue to expand their work online, it is prudent to analyse further how and why some communities in Singapore are motivated to make use of the online space whereas others feel less so. Understanding this contrast can shed light on the potentially complex relationship that religions and religious communities have with technology and how it might contribute towards or fragment social cohesion. This report intends to explore some of this complexity.
