Journal of Cyberspace Studies

Journal of Cyberspace Studies

Platform convergence, divergent reported benefits: Persian spiritual content across Kashmiri and Iranian youth

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original article

Authors
Syed Humaira Ahad Chura
Reza Saberi
Seyed Reza Naghibulsadat
Department of Communication Studies, Faculty of Communication Sciences, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran.
10.22059/jcss.2026.420523.1276
Abstract
Background: Instagram has become a significant site for the circulation of Persian-language spiritual content.
Aims: This paper asks not simply why such content is consumed, but how its reception differs across three related youth populations: Kashmiri Muslims in Kashmir (K-K), Iranian Muslims in Iran (I-I), and Kashmiri Muslims living in the Iranian diaspora (K-I).

Methodology: Drawing on a structured survey of 225 participants (75 per group, recruited by purposive, convenience and snowball methods), each pattern is read through a specific theoretical lens– cultural hybridity, mediatization, religious-social shaping of technology, plausibility structures, and uses and gratifications– offered as a possible reading, not a tested explanation. The study used a comparative, cross-sectional survey design.

Findings: Near-identical platform preference across the three groups; sharply different usage rhythms, with K-K respondents most often using the platform daily (56.0%) and K-I respondents mostly weekly (61.3%), a pattern that holds within each gender and age band; and lower self-reported benefits among I-I respondents than among either Kashmiri group on all sixteen separately worded outcome measures, where, after adjusting for gender and age, K-K respondents report a benefit 1.7 to 2.5 times as often as I-I respondents and K-I respondents 1.1 to 2.0 times as often (clearly so on ten of the sixteen), while K-K and K-I cannot be distinguished from each other and reported mosque attendance and prayer do not separate the groups clearly. All three groups converge on Instagram as their preferred platform for this content; what varies is how often it is used and what respondents report gaining from it. Because the outcomes are self-reported benefits in non-probability samples recruited through different channels, the paper treats these patterns as descriptive.

Conclusion: The paper closes by considering what a descriptive, non-probability design can and cannot establish, and what an inferential follow-up study would need to test directly.
Keywords
cultural hybridity
digital religion
Instagram
Iran
Kashmir
Persian spirituality
Subjects
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Journal of Cyberspace Studies

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 11 November 2026

  • Receive Date 10 August 2026
  • Revise Date 11 October 2026
  • Accept Date 16 October 2026
  • First Publish Date 11 November 2026
  • Publish Date 11 November 2026