The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Interest in Prayer and Spirituality in Poland According to Google Trends Data in the CONTEXT of the Mediatisation of Religion Processes

Abstract

The research undertaken in this article uses the Google Trends tool to study the degree of interest in prayer and general spirituality during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland and Europe. The authors assumed that for people interested in prayer during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Internet served as a virtual prayer book. The main research questions addressed the frequency of typed queries, referring not only to the word “prayer” but also to specific types of prayer. In addition, interest in prayer was compared with interest in the word “prophecy” to explore the relationship between religiosity and interest in the supernatural sphere in its broadest sense. The analysis shows that there is distinct recurrence regarding the terms searched, with some of them noticeably intensifying with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings also show that keywords related to prophecies were searched more frequently at significant moments in Polish history (2005—the death of John Paul II, 2010—the plane crash in which the President of Poland died) than in the months of 2020 when the pandemic struck and escalated. At that time, searches related to religion were more frequent. It can also be concluded that the outbreak of the pandemic contributed to an increase in the religious activity of Poles. The article is interdisciplinary in nature, referring primarily to Religion Studies and Mass Media and Communication Studies.

Lockdown, social control of space and religious freedom

“…With varying degrees of intensity, worship was restricted and changes in religious practice were forced: prohibition of kissing images, obligation to keep the faithful away from each other, imposition of communion in the hand, limitation of occupancy (Mazurkiewicz 2021). The use of new technologies to mitigate the effects of restrictions on religious practice increased markedly during the pandemic (Stańdo et al 2022). Religious authorities themselves were often called upon to contribute, as those with greater credibility and closeness to the most marginalised sectors of society, to the management of hygiene and social distancing measures: "Religious leaders should be engaged to create alternatives to mass gatherings, and to safely provide spiritual assistance, in order to ensure religious needs are also cared for, e. g., over radio or social media" (Wilkinson 2020, 513).…”