The Role of Religion in Young Muslims’ and Christians’ Self-presentation on Social Media

Abstract

This article examines how young Muslims and Christians with ethnic minority backgrounds in Oslo reflect on their use of social media as a way to present themselves and their religiosity. The study draws upon Arlie Hochschild’s concepts of feeling rules and emotional labour and Erving Goffman’s typology of frontstage and backstage behaviour to analyse how young Muslims and Christian informants present themselves on social media. For minority groups, these strategies can be used to negotiate religion and create a different image. This study shows that both Christian and Muslim youth with minority backgrounds use different strategies to present their religiosity. Even though all the informants want to portray themselves as religious, they carefully consider what type of religious content they share to avoid social exclusion, conflict and religious discussions.