Al-Salem shows negative effects of excessive use of social media
Platforms describe as ‘means of divergence’ Kuwaiti photographer excels in displaying Italy’s pictures
KUWAIT CITY, Nov 26: A professor of electronic media and journalism at Kuwait University, Dr. Fatima Al-Salem, who recently assumed the position of director of the “KUNA” agency, presented at one of the sessions of the Arab Media Forum in Dubai
KUWAIT CITY, Nov 26, (KUNA): A Kuwaiti photographer, Ali Al-Arbash, was creative in displaying beautiful pictures of the Italian streets taken by his phone lens, to be attached to his exhibition participation in the 45th international Kuwait Book Fair.
The pictures show the beauty of the Italian building, it’s designs and the most prominent landmarks, as Italy is the guest of honor to the exhibition.
Kuwait Book Fair has attracted a large number of people following a two-year hiatus, manifesting unwavering interest in seeking knowledge from paper pages in spite of the largely dominating digital information means.
The restored annual event, a festival for the booklovers (also called bookworms), has been largely facilitated by the unprecedented initiative by Minister of Information Abdulrahman Al-Mutairi who relieved the participating publishing houses of fees’ burden.
At the fair ground in Mishref, on the southern outskirts of Kuwait City, the parking lots have been teeming with vehicles, and the inner divided halls have been crowded with visitors, inquiring or buying books to satisfy their thirst for reading from paper pages, the conventional
in 2015, on “Means of Social Divergence”, where she reviewed the negative effects of the excessive use of these platforms and concluded, through a random sample of 800 people, that Kuwaitis’ excessive preoccupation with social media has led to a “new type of social isolation,” especially among those who hide behind pseudonyms.
way of reading that had been widespread for thousands of years in mankind’s history.
Although the digital media has spread widely with a torrent of information, publications and cultural products, the “book has retained its special delight for the booklovers and the (Kuwait) fair has maintained its effective role in this respect, amid the presence of a large number of publishing houses,” said Dr. Mohammad AlFaili, the renowned Kuwaiti legal expert in remarks to KUNA.
Dr. Al-Faili has indicated that like many people nowadays he has been seeking information via the digital means. “However, reading books carries special pleasure and after all, this is kind of a festival is not merely an exhibition,” said Dr. Al-Faili, interviewed by KUNA at the fairground.
Saadia Mefreh, a writer and media consultant, told KUNA she was deeply delighted that the advance censorship was lifted, for the first time. She also thanked Minister Al-Mutairi, also the Minister of Culture and the Minister of State for Youth Affairs, for relieving the participating publishing houses of paying rents after undergoing difficult times during peak of the coronavirus.
This virtual world in which these people communicate with others, she said, “they search for sensitive social issues or taboos that they cannot find in their ordinary lives,” and takes them to “unrealistic virtual councils, in which they are stripped of the true expression of their feelings.”
Several Kuwaitis, years ago, turned social media platforms, especially Twitter, which they are fond of, into a platform for grudges and a “battlefield” whose equipment is defamation, mockery, and spreading rumors and false news, in which “electronic flies” buzzing fighting each other.
Social divergence
This matter could be seen with the naked eye, as proven by studies by specialists who suggested that it is appropriate to describe the platforms, in this case, as “means of divergence”, rather than spaces for communication, education, reflection and entertainment, which was picked up by the Academy and Professor of Media at Kuwait University, Dr. Fatima Al-Salem in a scientific study, in which she called the communication networks “means of social divergence.”
Anyone who follows the conversations of most Kuwaitis on Twitter, whatever their topic, will quickly see how the dialogue turns into insults, mockery, personal accusations, defamation, prejudices, defamation, and much more. And whoever tries tweeting there, who is not fascinated by controversy and eating people’s flesh alive, will be surprised by shocking and provocative responses, explanations that did not occur to him, and the unbearable load of his words.
While acknowledging the importance of communication networks as an additional arena for spaces of expression in society, and that it reflected a kind of impulse for public opinion that interacts with events, even if it is not yet sufficiently mature, the phrase “invasion of fools” seems correct at times.
Isn’t this what we prove through the many hashtags to make a “trend” out of, who writes in its space whoever wants, whatever he wants, and it is circulated and celebrated, until we are almost convinced that it represents a correct opinion that we must stop at.