The Conundrum of Digital Religiosity in Pakistan: A Netnographic Exploration of Internet Memes as Contested Religious Capital

Abstract

The digitalization and virtual enactment of religious discourses as the text of everyday life in Pakistan has engendered contentious debates in the county. The production and consumption of religious capital via internet memes are a popular genre whose humorous presentation of religion created serious debates about the lived religion in Pakistan. The current blended Netnography explores the role of social media in the portrayal of the memetic context in Pakistan and how various humorous religious contents create contested debates in the country. For this study, in-depth interviews and online participant observation were employed to obtain comprehensive data and deep insights. Online participant observation was carried out on four social media platforms including Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. In-depth interviews were taken from 41 (22 males and 19 females) social media users belonging to varied age groups and diverse sectarian, educational, socio-economic, and cultural backgrounds living in Rawalpindi. The findings of the study suggest that the memetic presentation of religious discourses on social media sites is a contested religious capital that is both celebrated and condemned. On the one hand, the comic presentation of religious discourses creates a space for the critical inquiry of religion, as well as offers a space for the spread of radical ideas by those who consider religion to be a sacred entity and oppose treating it in a humorous manner.