Spirituality: There’s an App for That! (But Not a Lot of Research)

Elizabeth Buie, Mark Blythe

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

75 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

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 an HCI perspective. Despite high-profile calls for research in the area, the HCI community has produced only 19 research papers 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.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCHI EA 2013 - Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Subtitle of host publicationChanging Perspectives
EditorsMichel Beaudouin-Lafon, Patrick Baudisch, Wendy E. Mackay
Place of PublicationNew York, NY, United States
PublisherACM
Pages2315-2324
Number of pages10
ISBN (Electronic)9781450318990
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 27 Apr 2013
Event31st Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems:, CHI EA 2013 - Paris, France
Duration: 27 Apr 20132 May 2013

Publication series

NameConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
Volume2013-April

Conference

Conference31st Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems:, CHI EA 2013
Country/TerritoryFrance
CityParis
Period27/04/132/05/13

Keywords

  • Religion
  • Spirituality
  • Techno-spirituality

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