Changing the Subject: Looping Effects and Subject Transformation Matrices in Two Meditation Apps
Ivan Mayerhofer
Contemporary Buddhism July 2, 2020 DOI: 10.1080/14639947.2021.1978782 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key points | Argues that Buddhist meditation apps create value-laden conceptual spaces in which users are transformed into religious subjects through self-care, a dynamic the author proposes to analyze with a framework called the 'subject transformation matrix.' Contends this user-technology relation has implications for digital religion studies, understandings of religious subjectivity, and the role of religious apps in public spaces. |
Abstract
ABSTRACT The study of digital religion is currently in its fourth wave of research, focusing closely on the interrelation between users and digital religious technologies. In the fields of philosophy, cognitive science and cultural studies, looping effects, or the dynamic process of subject formation as a result of the development and internalisation of new categorisation schemes, have been investigated independently of the development of digital religious technologies. I bring these separate areas of investigation together to understand the way users are transformed by Buddhist meditation apps. By introducing the framework of a subject transformation matrix, I look closely at how meditation apps create value-laden conceptual spaces within which religious subjects are transformed through processes of self-care. Understanding this dynamic relation between users and digital technologies has deep implications for the development of digital religion studies, our understanding of religious subjectivities and the role of religious apps in public spaces.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |