Religious Minorities of the Internet: the Case of Lodz, Poland

Abstract

The review of the contents of the above-mentioned websites indicates that the religious minorities of Łódź do not make full use of the possibilities which widespread access to the Internet carries. They appear to be aware of its advantages but at the same time appear to utilize it in only a limited and conventional way in practice. All their websites dedicated to Łódź concentrate on presenting more or less detailed information on background, location, church services and so on. They clearly lack the elements which would enable potential users to make virtual contact, which is lately emerging as being of greater importance than physical, direct contact. Virtual contact has for instance enabled new religious movements in the USA to recruit the largest number of new members lately. In Łódź, however, even the traditional Internet communicators do not seem to work well. Only the Calvin pastor replied to the author’s e-mail. Other e-mails remained unanswered or else were replied to after a very long time. The author entered chat rooms on two different websites, but failed to find anyone willing to enter into discussions. Another, more advanced ways of communicating – text, verbal or visual, were not used on the websites included in the study.