ABSTRACT
Storytelling has long been an important aspect of memory and identity. People tell stories about their past as a way of underscoring concerns about their present and future, as Ochs and Capps have argued in their influential research on narratives (Ochs and Capps 1996). We choose to tell certain stories as a means of communicating our concerns to particular audiences, and when our stories are received positively, we feel affirmed in our sense that we, and our stories, hold value. As Lövheim has noted in her chapter on identity in this volume, digital media offer new means of constructing religious identities, both as such media mediate self-representation and as they offer enhanced means of social interaction. As individuals use digital tools to produce and share religious narratives, they perform a certain form of self that is enacted in relation to others. Digital media therefore contribute to trends in the personalization of religion, as individuals can reflect on their own narratives and can also participate in collective reflection on what it means to assume a religious identity in a particular context.
