Media and Contested Christian Identities

This chapter turns to the world of social media and how it shapes Christian identities in Kenya, including Juliani's. It explores how even urban churches are tapping into such media to engage youth on matters of faith and lived sociocultural issues. Many Kenyan youth get access to the internet and such social-media platforms as Twitter and Facebook through their cell phones. Some service providers, such as Safaricom (the largest cell-phone company in Kenya), offer Facebook as part of their already installed applications for subscribers. Through mobile phone-based access to these kinds of platforms, Kenyan youth are able to virtually enter the wider world beyond their immediate environs, see life or constructions of it in other locations, imagine how it relates or contrasts or both with their own lives, and engage with it either by making meaning of their own lives or constructing it as they choose.