The state of anxiety associated with the pandemic and post-pandemic has led a certain number of people to turn to traditional spiritual foundations and religion. The crisis period of 2020-2021 caused serious changes affecting religious institutions. One of the notable shifts in religious life over the past few years has been digitalization and mediatization. Young people react to new phenomena and processes in the religious sphere in their own way, expressing different assessments and expectations. This article analyzes the attitude of young people to the role of religious organizations in the situation of the pandemic and after it, the level of trust in religious organizations and their representatives, expectations from clergy, attitude to the processes of digitalization and mediatization of religious life. The article is based on the data of the sociological study carried out in a quantitative and qualitative strategy. It is a mass survey on a semi-formalized questionnaire that was conducted in January 2021 among students of 15 universities in Moscow and Kazan, n=456 people, and five focus groups conducted among young people without higher education in October 2023 in Kazan and Saratov. The participants were from 17 to 24 years old. Religious organizations cause a variety of assessments – from positive, mainly among young believers, to disapproving, among non-believers. Young people, especially atheists, are critical of the open interaction of religious structures with political institutions and the church's interference in various aspects of secular society. In part, young people express the usual criticism of religion which is popular nowadays. Some of the negative assessments are related to the lack of information, for example, about the real activity of religious structures and individual clergy in helping people who found themselves in a vulnerable position during the coronavirus pandemic. Numerous examples of social service from various parishes turned out to be almost unnoticed. The popularity of those pastors who use virtual space in their work testifies to the lively need of young people to receive information about religion. At the same time, young people trust informal communication, devoid of the traditional instructive tone. This once again indicates a gap in communication between traditional religious institutions and the younger generation, who have their own well-founded claims against representatives of faiths. Young people are ready for interaction if it is built on an equal footing with the help of Internet platforms and digital technologies.
The state of anxiety associated with the pandemic and post-pandemic has led a certain number of people to turn to traditional spiritual foundations and religion. The crisis period of 2020-2021 caused serious changes affecting religious institutions. One of the notable shifts in religious life over the past few years has been digitalization and mediatization. Young people react to new phenomena and processes in the religious sphere in their own way, expressing different assessments and expectations. This article analyzes the attitude of young people to the role of religious organizations in the situation of the pandemic and after it, the level of trust in religious organizations and their representatives, expectations from clergy, attitude to the processes of digitalization and mediatization of religious life. The article is based on the data of the sociological study carried out in a quantitative and qualitative strategy. It is a mass survey on a semi-formalized questionnaire that was conducted in January 2021 among students of 15 universities in Moscow and Kazan, n=456 people, and five focus groups conducted among young people without higher education in October 2023 in Kazan and Saratov. The participants were from 17 to 24 years old. Religious organizations cause a variety of assessments – from positive, mainly among young believers, to disapproving, among non-believers. Young people, especially atheists, are critical of the open interaction of religious structures with political institutions and the church's interference in various aspects of secular society. In part, young people express the usual criticism of religion which is popular nowadays. Some of the negative assessments are related to the lack of information, for example, about the real activity of religious structures and individual clergy in helping people who found themselves in a vulnerable position during the coronavirus pandemic. Numerous examples of social service from various parishes turned out to be almost unnoticed. The popularity of those pastors who use virtual space in their work testifies to the lively need of young people to receive information about religion. At the same time, young people trust informal communication, devoid of the traditional instructive tone. This once again indicates a gap in communication between traditional religious institutions and the younger generation, who have their own well-founded claims against representatives of faiths. Young people are ready for interaction if it is built on an equal footing with the help of Internet platforms and digital technologies.