I would like to once again reference the Puja in this post. The authority I will look at is the role of the ceremony. The Puja is someone's individual act of repsect and worship to the deity. Cheong says that online/real religious authorities have been described as having a relationship that is "primarily characterized as one of dislocation or coexistence" (Cheong, 5). The Puja has many steps that can be done virtually but are of course meant to be undertaken in a tangible way. The challenge to the Puja that online mediation poses is that of the second assumption, that the offline religious authority is be being sustained and reframed by online practice. The Puja is meant to be something physical, with sensory messages filling the body as well; but is being reshaped by the simple point and click method that the new online Puja are offering as an option. It almost seems to be undermining the true value of the ceremony; changing the physical aspect could in essence change the way that a participant feels both during and after the completion of the Puja.
Source: Cheong Reading
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