Church growth rate and the internet era

[Reluctant Watchman]

I found this chart to be quite interesting. You could attribute many things to the cyclical rise/fall cycles of church growth, but the prosperity cycles seemed to even out after the 90s and the emergence of the internet. People started talking. Please started researching. People started sharing stories... you know, like on a publicly available forum.

[Reluctant Watchman]

I should also note, Benson died *cough*, in 1994, Hunter took over for about a year... Interesting.

[p8riot]

I find the large peaks interesting- the first one right at the beginning of WW2, the second one in the early 60s, and the last one right around the fall of the Iron Curtain. I'm surprised that the last one was not more sustained. At the time, it seemed like there was a lot more interest in the church in eastern Europe than what the chart shows. But that may have been offset by the large shrinkage of the church in western Europe at the time. I wonder what drove the first two spikes.

[Niemand]

Disagree with the dating here. The WWW was certainly NOT very widespread in 1993. It really started to become popular in the late nineties not early nineties. Outside the US it only really started taking off after 2000 in some places.

I was on the web in '95, '96. Newsnet (text based) was still dominant and it was still very nerdy sometimes to the point of annoyance. (Every other bore quoting Monty Python, for example) I would often chat directly with academics in fields I was interested in. That phase was gone within a couple of years, when a lot of normies and older people started joining. Then spammers and pornographers moved in.

The 1990s internet was a much happier and more informative place. Not perfect (especially in terms of graphics and audiovisual) but preferable. It was very exciting. I can't say the same today where everything is corralled and curated.

NB – the internet itself dates back to the end of the sixties, although practically no one used it outside military circles. A few nerds and academics, and businessmen were on it in the 1980s.

[Mindfields]

Some day there'll be a song composed and called "Internet Killed the PSRs"

[Light Seeker]

Some day there'll be a song composed and called "Internet Killed the PSRs"

That was by the Buggles , correct?

The first video on MTV…

[endlessQuestions]

What’s the source here, RW? Is it part of a larger report?

[Reluctant Watchman]

What’s the source here, RW? Is it part of a larger report?

The OP graphic came from Reddit, but a deeper dive led to this website:
http://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/sea ... S%20Growth

Which points to this website’s long list of growth studies:
https://www.cumorah.com/articles/caseSt ... se-studies

[Teancum1]

Numbers from our recent stake conference (intermountain west of the US). %attendance at Saturday evening adult session was 16%. Sunday session attendance was 34%. Priesthood leadership meeting was 25%.
I would guess this is similar to prepandemic numbers- at least the Sunday attendance at stake conference.

[Teancum1]

Numbers from our recent stake conference (intermountain west of the US). %attendance at Saturday evening adult session was 16%. Sunday session attendance was 34%. Priesthood leadership meeting was 25%.
I would guess this is similar to prepandemic numbers- at least the Sunday attendance at stake conference.

Total stake population is a little over 2000.
Ward attendance at my ward sacrament meeting is about 120/330.

[Valheim]

the pandemic basically removed a third of the attendence in my ward

[Niemand]

the pandemic basically removed a third of the attendence in my ward

* Government restrictions

Covid 19 started in 2019.

--
It's taken a while for our figures to rise but they are getting close to old levels in early 2020.

[spiritMan]

Those hoping for years that the Carson City Nevada Stake would split will be disappointed with this news. Four wards were closed last Sunday, from 11 wards down to 7 wards.

[blitzinstripes]

Coincidentally??? Things started really dropping off about the time I served my full time mission.

Sorry, guys.

[Seed Starter]

Disagree with the dating here. The WWW was certainly NOT very widespread in 1993. It really started to become popular in the late nineties not early nineties. Outside the US it only really started taking off after 2000 in some places.

I was on the web in '95, '96. Newsnet (text based) was still dominant and it was still very nerdy sometimes to the point of annoyance. (Every other bore quoting Monty Python, for example) I would often chat directly with academics in fields I was interested in. That phase was gone within a couple of years, when a lot of normies and older people started joining. Then spammers and pornographers moved in.

The 1990s internet was a much happier and more informative place. Not perfect (especially in terms of graphics and audiovisual) but preferable. It was very exciting. I can't say the same today where everything is corralled and curated.

NB – the internet itself dates back to the end of the sixties, although practically no one used it outside military circles. A few nerds and academics, and businessmen were on it in the 1980s.

What do you think caused that steep decline?

[randyps]

I moved cities and a new ward last year. For such a densly populated suburban area I would have expected 3 or 4 wards, come to find out only one ward and maybe 60 people in sacrament.

[Niemand]

Disagree with the dating here. The WWW was certainly NOT very widespread in 1993. It really started to become popular in the late nineties not early nineties. Outside the US it only really started taking off after 2000 in some places.

I was on the web in '95, '96. Newsnet (text based) was still dominant and it was still very nerdy sometimes to the point of annoyance. (Every other bore quoting Monty Python, for example) I would often chat directly with academics in fields I was interested in. That phase was gone within a couple of years, when a lot of normies and older people started joining. Then spammers and pornographers moved in.

The 1990s internet was a much happier and more informative place. Not perfect (especially in terms of graphics and audiovisual) but preferable. It was very exciting. I can't say the same today where everything is corralled and curated.

NB – the internet itself dates back to the end of the sixties, although practically no one used it outside military circles. A few nerds and academics, and businessmen were on it in the 1980s.

What do you think caused that steep decline?

In around 2010, maybe slightly earlier, I heard that the Bilderbergers held a meeting about internet control. This was a year or two before Google started restricting results. Five years later and shenanigans happened on YouTube as accounts were demonetised. Bullying and crime were used as an excuse.

As for the decline otherwise. Each decade had a problem.

* late 1990s - Normies joining up. Many were bores or abusive.
* 2000s – Corporate takeover & spammers, cybercrime begins.
* 2010s – Emergence of social media and bots, censorship begins in earnest.
* 2020s – The internet being made compulsory. Ao called Fact Checkers.

The big problem other than spam/hacking was in the 2010s or so.

Golden Age of Internet was probably c. 1995-c. 2008. The silver age (if they can be called that) seem to be 80s-early 90s text based internet (which was before my time), maybe late 2000s.