Spirituality Trends

I work for the Christian division of Sony-BMG called Provident Label Group. This info, passed onto me at work, is interesting because I try to market Christian products to consumers. We are seeing an uprising trend to many "Spiritual" answers to mainstream crazes. We have GodTube.com which competes with YouTube.com and Shoutlife.com which is the Christian MySpace. One thing that has always been a turn off is the fact that every time I walk into a Christian bookstore, most all the products are some type of rip off of something mainstream. The worst are the t-shirts, would you agree? I just shake my head and repeat "Why can't they come up with something original?" But maybe the following information is good news. Maybe "having faith and spirituality" will step up and become number one instead of number two. I ask, what is motivating this change? Are people just becoming more comfortable and confident? Or are they just more willing to ask the questions? Either way, maybe it will provide a little job security my way.

A social trend we're currently following with great interest and intrigue focuses on the audience's growing interest in spirituality. Spirituality is not acting as a replacement for religion among teens and college students. In fact, regular attendance levels to religious services has remained steady and even increased slightly among teen and college men over the past two years. Feedback and comments from panelists interested in the concept of spirituality lead us to believe that it is really part of the larger health and wellness macro social and lifestyle trend we've been tracking for quite some time now. Spirituality means lots of different things to different panelists, which it turn makes our jobs a little harder, but based on the latest immersion and Lifestyle Report results, this is definitely a topic on the minds of many young people:
Spirituality Trends

- "Spirituality is cool and popular at my school" - 23% (21% male/25% female)

- "I am interested in learning about products that can help me connect with my spirituality" - 19% (14% male/24% female)

- "I regularly participate in exercises (physical or mental) that help me connect more deeply with my spirituality" - 16% (12% male/20% female)

- "Becoming more spiritual is more important to me than regularly attending religious services" - 31% (23% male/39% female)

- "I consider myself a spiritual person" - 18% (15% male/21% female)