Exploring Social Media Use By Young People During Covid-19 Pandemic: A Case of Christ The King Catholic Church-Kibra

Abstract

Anchored on the Media Dependency theory and Technological Determinism theory, this study had three objectives namely: To establish the impact of social media use during the COVID-19 pandemic on the Christian commitment of youths at Christ The King Catholic Church-Kibra, to find out whether youths at CTKC Church-Kibra have experienced changes in their interest in social media use post COVID-19 pandemic, and to explore the challenges experienced by youths at CTKC Church-Kibra regarding the use of social media for online evangelization during COVID-19 pandemic. The research adopted a descriptive design with a quantitative research method. Stratified and purposeful sampling techniques were used to select a sample size of 195. The data received was cleaned and analysed using SPSS version 27. The findings of the study showed that the respondents had a high interaction with social media during COVID-19. YouTube (45.5%), WhatsApp (23.9%), and Facebook (23%) were the most utilized social media platforms for mediated worship. The findings further showed that the use of social platforms for online evangelization during the pandemic had enhanced the way youths participate in physical church programmes. The study also revealed that young Catholics’ interest in social media for online evangelization post-COVID-19 pandemic has increased. Conclusively, social media use has gained much prominence among young Catholics. The social platforms are seen as dependable allies in mediated worship and not as a hindrance to conventional worship. Therefore, the study recommended that CTKC Church-Kibra build a strong social media team to take charge of online evangelization, and add more social media platforms. The study further recommended that youth chaplains at the parish acquire some basic training in new media use for youth ministry. Lastly, the study recommended that the parish come up with a regular feedback mechanism.