Prayer Proposal

For a religious case study, I have chosen Facebook as my platform to focus on. As I look at Facebook I am wanting to observe how people request for prayer on Facebook. I have followed/liked 3 different pages that I will observe for the next 6 weeks. The three groups are called "The Four Men Prayer Group", "Prayer Request Group", and "Prayer Warriors Prayer Group". The reason I have chosen there 3 as my pages to study is because I saw them as all being different in a way but also being able to find similarities between the three as well. I really want to look into how people ask for prayer of Facebook. As a Facebooker I know I will post thing on Facebook more than actually saying them because I feel more comfortable being able to write it out and think every thing through before I "post" it.

I am hoping to be able to observe why people want to post their difficulties on Facebook and ask for prayer more than praising God. Prayer is more than just asking for help or listing what needs fixing, so I find this interesting in how people post prayers for themselves.

I feel that this is different than the usual prayer form that is in the church. By not going to church or asking your friends for prayer, you can open your heart out to a computer and ask people you know, or may not know to pray for your difficulties. 

Media has played a big part in making people more comfortable to be themselves and open up to complete strangers on the internet. Although prayer is not a dangerous thing to ask for or tell people about, it is still very personal. The personal part about a prayer is where I feel this study to become very interesting. I look forward in observing these groups and see what makes them so comfortable to open up their personal lives on a Facebook page.