Spirituality — there's an app for that! (but not a lot of research)
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The iTunes App Store contains over six thousand apps related to spirituality and religion. The ACM digital library, however, contains only 98 works that address this topic from the perspective of human-computer interaction (HCI). Despite high-profile calls for research in the area, the HCI community has produced only 19 research works focused on the topic, almost half of which are the work of one person and her colleagues. In this paper we provide an overview of the relevant HCI research in this area, a partial inventory of spiritually oriented apps in the iTunes US App Store, and a comparison of research and real-world developments. We discuss the gaps in the HCI literature on techno-spiritual practices and speculate about some of the difficulties and challenges that face the HCI community in conducting research in this area.
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Spirituality — there's an app for that! (but not a lot of research)
- 1. Spirituality: There’s an App for That! (but not a lot of research) Elizabeth Buie and Mark Blythe @ebuie @markblythe Northumbria University Department of Design
- 2. Great Exhortations Genevieve Bell, CHI 2010 (keynote) Three main underexplored areas of HCI research: » Sex » Sport » Spirituality This paper looks at spirituality — HCI research vs. “in the wild”
- 3. “Spirituality” vs. “Religion” Spirituality » “…the essential, core, central, integrating dimension or domain of life … the deepest part of a person’s life” (Connelly & Light, 2003, p. 37) » A feeling of connection with something larger than oneself Religion » Beliefs, practices and ethics » Often derived from a religious body or faith tradition » Formal worship
- 4. “Larger than yourself” can mean many different things.
- 5. HCI research: fairly sparse 98 mentions of spirituality or religion in ACM Digital Library 22 focused on it 19 research works 8 by one person
- 6. Research: Three types of use Institutional: Support religious institutions in spreading their message and fostering members’ spiritual growth Example: Large displays for religious services in American mega-churches (Wyche, Medynskiy & Grinter, 2007) Example: Ministers’ use of computer tech for pastoral activities (Wyche, Hayes, Harvel & Grinter, 2006)
- 7. Research: Three types of use Practical: Support spiritual practice without directly participating in the experience Example: Sabbath home automation in Orthodox Jewish households (Woodruff, Augustin & Foucault, 2007)
- 8. Research: Three types of use Experiential: Directly facilitate subjective experience Example: AltarNation for shared meditation in an online community (Hlubinka, Beaudin, Tapia & An, 2002) Example: Sonic Cradle to facilitate mindfulness meditation (Vidyarthi, Riecke & Gromala, 2012)
- 9. Apps abound! A wide variety of uses and purposes * These do not include apps tagged only for specific faiths. More than 6000* iPhone & iPad apps tagged with spiritually oriented keywords Over 1500* with 4-star ratings or better (out of 5)
- 10. Examples of uses “in the wild” Sacred texts Meditations Daily inspirations, verses, prayers, devotionals Education (adults and children) and stories Personal spiritual growth Prayer exchanges Quizzes and games Individual leaders Memorisation aids TV/radio, music, news, magazines, podcasts
- 11. Use: Sacred texts Bhagavad- Gita Hebrew Bible Acro Bible Listen the Holy Quran
- 12. Use: Meditations BIA Meditation Catholic Meditations for Lent
- 13. Use: Daily inspirations, etc. Daily Light Daily Satsang
- 14. Use: Education and stories OT39 Old Testament Flashcards SikhNet Audio Stories for Kids
- 15. Use: Personal spiritual growth Awakening Joy Muslim Purification
- 17. Use: Quizzes and games Torahific Bible Trivia
- 18. Use: Individual leaders Eddie L. Long Radhanath Swami
- 19. Use: Memorisation aids LDS Scripture Power Memorization Divine Names – Memorize the 99 names of Allah
- 20. Use: Communications Tathaastu Magazine The Bridge Radio Hay House Radio
- 21. Summary: A Huge Incongruity Techno-spiritual apps far outpace HCI research. The iTunes App Store offers several thousand apps for spirituality & religion. Yet the ACM Digital Library contains fewer than twenty research works on HCI and techno- spirituality. Why might this be?
- 22. Why might this be? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Irrelevant? Not funded? Difficult? Sensitive? Risky? Unscientific? ?
- 23. Why: Irrelevant? Academics and scientists are, overall, less religious than the general population. Are HCI researchers simply not interested because spirituality and religion don’t relate to our lives?
- 24. Why: Sensitive? Religion is among the topics “not discussed” in polite company. Spirituality and religion can be sensitive topics to ask people about. Some religious leaders threaten harm to people who portray their faith in ways they dislike.
- 25. Why: Difficult? Studying subjective experience is hard, even with recent advances in methodology. Objective observation must give way to empathy and relationship. Spirituality and religion can be difficult for people to articulate.
- 26. Why: Professionally risky? Do HCI researchers worry about being accused of bringing a religious agenda to our work? Mark and I confess to having more than a little sympathy with this concern. Yet we are confident that a professional, academic approach can overcome the objections.
- 27. Why: Unscientific? Is the study of HCI and religion somehow different from other qualitative research that we conduct? Do researchers think that studying religion might give scientific credibility to the religious beliefs? It does not.
- 28. Why: Not funded? Research agendas often are set by government councils, which determine what topics to fund. We can address spirituality within topics that are currently funded. Other sources of funding may be available. Funding alone is not the issue.
- 29. Inspiration, activities & plans Inspiration: Kannabiran, Bardzell & Bardzell’s CHI 2012 paper on HCI and sexuality Adaptation: Omitted discourse analysis; added comparison with large collection of apps Activities: Adding apps tagged for specific faith traditions; analysing inventory Plans: Focus on highly rated experiential apps; analyse user comments and identify salient design features
- 30. The bottom line Any aspect of life that uses technology is fair game for HCI research. Any area of life that touches so many of the world’s people and uses technology so heavily can be a subject for HCI research. Indeed, it must be.
- 31. Merci! Elizabeth Buie and Mark Blythe @ebuie @markblythe Northumbria University Photograph by Elizabeth Buie
Editor's Notes
- This talk is about a preliminary analysis that we conducted to explore some differences between techno-spirituality in the wild and existing human-computer interaction research on the subject.
- We were struck by Genevieve Bell’s CHI 2010 keynote, in which she described spirituality as one of three major underexplored areas of HCI research (along with sex and sport) and urged the CHI community to devote more research to the use of technology in spirituality and religion. So we looked at the research and at some of the available technology.
- First, a quick note about terminology. Although they are related, spirituality and religion are not the same thing. I won’t go into the long, involved discussion here, so let me just say that for our purposes, we treat spirituality as the internal aspect and religion as the external one. Connelly, R, Light, K. (2003) Exploring the “new” frontier of spirituality in health care: identifying the dangers. J Religion Health. 42, pp. 35-45.
- “ Larger than yourself” means different things to different people.
- The research on HCI and techno-spirituality is fairly sparse in the ACM Digital Library. We found only 98 works that even mention the topic. Of these, 22 are focused on it as a primary area of interest. 19 of these are research works; the others are panels or SIG session reports. And of the 19, more than 40% are the work of one person and her colleagues.
- We found that the technologies studied in the HCI research literature tend to fall into one of three groups, according to the purposes they served and how they were used. The first is institutional: These technologies support religious organisations in doing their work.
- The second is utilitarian: These technologies support spiritual practice without directly participating in the experience.
- Experiential technologies not only facilitate subjective experience, but are directly involved in the experiences themselves.
- As of early December 2012, the US App Store contained more than 6000 iPhone and iPad apps tagged with general keywords for spirituality and religion. We inventoried the ones that had average customer ratings of at least four out of five stars, and eliminated the duplicates.
- The App Store offers products with many uses and purposes that are not well covered by the HCI literature — if they are covered at all. Here are a few examples.
- Sacred texts, in both texual and audio formats, in single languages and with translations. (The titles that appear above the images are the names of the apps depicted.)
- Meditation apps, for mindfulness and for meditating on a topic.
- Daily inspirations, verses, readings, quotes, lessons…
- Educating your kids and yourself, both by instruction and by storytelling.
- Personal spiritual growth, both in general and in a faith.
- Exchange of prayer requests and prayers. Our first impression is that these are mostly Christian.
- Quizzes and games, mostly about a specific faith.
- Teachings and sermons from individual spiritual and religious leaders.
- Aids for memorising texts, prayers, etc. This type of app emerged as an important use when we later searched for Islamic apps.
- Communications include radio stations, music, news sources, magazines, and podcasts. This type of app emerged as a major group when we later searched for Christian apps. This category does not include apps for specific churches and other congregations, as those are covered under the “institutional” use we mentioned earlier.
- Our analysis reveals that techno-spiritual products far outpace HCI research. People are using technology to support spiritual and religious practices, in ways that the HCI community is not studying. What’s behind this gap?
- We’ve thought about some possible reasons for this discrepancy.
- Do we overlook it or ignore it because it’s not relevant to our own lives? As a population, academics and scientists do tend to be less religious than average. Maybe we just don’t think of it as important?
- Does it seem an overly sensitive topic to ask people about? Some people do have strong negative reactions to even discussing it.
- Is it the difficulty of studying it? Recent advances in methodology have helped, but subjective experience is still pretty hard to study. We need to have empathy for the participants in our studies, and be in relationship with them. We have to be willling to introspect about our own experience. And the subjective aspects of spirituality can be exceedingly difficult for people to express.
- Maybe we feel concerned that we’d be seen to have a religious agenda. Mark and I are very sympathetic with this; in fact, I worry about it sometimes. Yet we are confident that the objections can be countered.
- Could it be considered an unscientific topic? HCI researchers are very open to other types of qualitative research. Is this really different? Do we fear that studying a topic that involves beliefs might imply that we share those beliefs or give them credibility?
- Perhaps it’s just a matter of lack of funding. Or maybe not.
- We took great inspiration from a paper on HCI and sexuality, presented at last year’s CHI. (The reference is in our paper.) Instead of conducting a discourse analysis as they did, we inventoried a large collection of techno-spiritual products and compared the coverage. We are currently adding apps tagged for specific faith traditions and beginning to analyse them. Next we will look at user comments and design features of highly rated experiential apps.
- Thank you!