The Digital and the Divine: Taking a Ritual View of Communication and ICT Interaction

Drawing upon James Carey’s ritual model of communication as a framework, we argue that rituals, especially religious rituals, are important resources for technology design. We suggest that a ritual view of ICT interaction represents an alternative and significant model for ICT development and evaluation, and that the observance of religious rituals affords researchers the opportunity to see cultural values at the peak of their expression. To illustrate, we describe several examples and three case studies of religious rituals that involve technology. For each, we discuss the ritual’s enactment, where and how it intersects with technology, and the broader cultural values it embodies. We conclude with remarks about how religious values are meaningful for the design of culturally relevant consumer technologies and we offer advice on how other researchers can use ritual observation to inform and inspire their technology designs.