Religious groups move to social media to reach younger audience

Religious groups have recently moved to social media to try and reach a younger audience. According to data released by Pew Research Center, 35 percent of all millennials identify as religious unaffiliated and this percentage is on the rise. Since younger people are leaving organized religion, faith groups are trying to reach these people through social media. A freshman at the University of Central Florida, Yasmine Plantilla, posted a video on Facebook sharing her own personal story of faith. In her video, she discussed how she was searching for her identity in high school and how she came to find purpose in faith. Yasmine’s video was posted on Facebook along with many others as part of backstory project through a campus Christian ministry called Cru. Religious organizations and churches are trying to reach a younger audience through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Periscope, Pinterest, and YouTube. "For a lot of churches, the push is to be where the people are," says Heidi Campbell, a communication professor at Texas A&M University. "And people are online."

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