SCROLLING TOWARD GOD: ALGORITHMIC MEDIATION AND MUSLIM GEN Z PSYCHOSPIRITUAL RESONANCE

Abstract

The rapid expansion of algorithmically curated digital environments has fundamentally altered how Muslim Generation Z encounters religious knowledge, negotiates identity, and experiences spirituality. Yet how these platforms shape psychospiritual experience producing both resonance and alienation remains underexplored. Guided by an interpretive-constructivist paradigm, this study adopts a qualitative design using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to examine how young Muslims experience spiritual longing within algorithmically mediated religious environments. Approximately 20 Muslim Generation Z participants aged 18–26 in Mataram City, Indonesia, were purposively selected based on active engagement with digital platforms and Islamic content. Data were generated through semi-structured in-depth interviews, three-week reflective digital diaries, digital ethnography, and participant-shared digital artefacts. Interview and diary data were analyzed using idiographic and cross-case IPA procedures; ethnographic and artefact data provided contextual triangulation. The study proposes Psychospiritual Resonance as an integrative theoretical framework that conceptualizes four interconnected dimensions: spiritual longing, algorithmic spiritual landscapes, the resonance–alienation dialectic, and psychospiritual outcomes. A central finding is that abundant access to religious content does not ensure spiritual fulfilment; meaningful spiritual transformation depends on the quality of individuals' engagement with algorithmically mediated religious experiences. This framework advances scholarship in digital religion, the psychology of religion, and Islamic studies by offering a conceptual vocabulary for analyzing lived psychospiritual experience in digitally saturated environments.