Remediating the Sacred: Building of Collective Spiritual Memory in the Digital World

The growth in media consumption in the twenty-first century has been rapid and substantial. The advent of social media has led to a significant shift in both the production and consumption of content over a shorter period of time. The growing field of artificial intelligence enables creators to produce visuals that go beyond imagination. On the other hand, there is a significant increase in the consumption of Infotainment content. From lifestyle categories to the most advanced technology, users have the information at their fingertips. This paper examines an Instagram page that posts content related to spirituality within Hinduism and the audience's reception of it. Instagram, as a platform, has created a space where ancient philosophies are reinterpreted through digital media aesthetics. The collective memories that social media, as a medium, is trying to build around, including representation, affect, and influence on the users’ side, are some of the areas this paper will explore. These contents that are being circulated are engaging a larger user base and act as micro-narratives of memory, reviving and transforming the collective memory of the young Indian audience. While digital platforms aim to modernise the spiritual experience, there is a gap in understanding how these platforms could mediate collective spiritual memory and what impact they could have on digital natives, whose first-hand knowledge about various topics comes from digital sources. The paper examines the experiences from a specific Instagram page (@sacred_narratives) and analyses them using qualitative methods to determine if they actually have a greater impact on people’s lives.