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

    79 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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