DIGITAL ISLAM: WHATSAPP USE AMONGST MIDDLE AGED MUSLIM WOMEN IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

With the evolution of affordable technology, research on older adults, who are fast adopting social media and instant messaging applications are still scarce. How do older Muslims use instant messaging application in their daily religious routine? Why are they drawn to the particular media to satisfy their needs? How does the media meet their spiritual needs? To address these questions, this research carried out in-depth interviews with 27 middle-aged Singaporean Muslim women (average age: 55.4 years) about how and why they used WhatsApp to satisfy their religious needs. Data revealed four typical ways of how the participants used WhatsApp (filtering before sharing, creating religious messages, using group chat and WhatsApp profile as well as reflecting on the religious messages). The data analysis also revealed three motivations for why participants used WhatsApp to satisfy their religious needs (closed platform, lack of algorithms, and affordances of WhatsApp). Based on these findings, the research further discussed whether riy? and age affect participants’ motivations to use WhatsApp and whether there is “digital Islam” in the Malay-Muslim community in Singapore.