United Arab Emirates

Embracing New Forms of Networking

Social networks encompass social relationships such as connections between friends and discussion forums. The expansion of electronic technology has caused a growth of interpersonal contacts among Emirati nationals due to the low cost and pervasive availability of e-mailing, online chatting, mobile phoning, and short message services (SMS) as well as other means of electronic social networking. Social networking Websites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and YouTube are frequently used by Emirati people. Both men and women in the emirates have positive perceptions of the Internet, but men tend to have more constructive perceptions than women, especially in the domains of economic or scientific information and social connections with relatives and friends. Also, men spend more time than women in using these social networks. For instance, Emirati women, both married and unmarried, refrained from using the Internet and mobile phones in the 1990s for fear of being accused of misconduct. However, since the early 2000s, they have gradually started to use the Internet and mobile phones with such frequency that now many Emirati women enjoy owning more than one computer or cell phone.

In the UAE there is an acute juxtaposition of the local and global, indigenous and imported, traditional and modern, and idealistic and pragmatic. New technologies are changing the nature of communication and creating unprecedented forms of virtual realities. Since certain parts of electronic messages are closely related to certain kinds of traditional communication, they can be viewed as a new medium of vernacular culture. Electronic communication does not eliminate but rather provides alternatives to traditional means of communication. Cybercirculation, e-communication, and digital visual language can thus be used to expand traditional verbal and written communication. Mobile phones and the Internet are used not only for information purposes but also for entertainment and online contacts as well as exchanges of personal and social views. This type of immediate social reaction to new phenomena has created a special pattern of written visual contacts, global in form and local in content, within which both English and Arabic languages (with various colloquial dialects) are used in e-communications, displaying economic, cultural, and gender differences. Due to the government policy surrounding Bedouin settlements as well as the impact of globalization, traditional patterns of neighborhoods are changing. Modern buildings and spectacular villas exist side by side with traditional local houses, creating vivid displays of cultural and ethnic diversity. The new phenomenon of commuting between places of residence to places (and other cities) of work has also [Page 898]necessitated social networking via electronic communication between spouses and family members. However, problems arise when a predominantly traditional culture employs techniques from technologically mediated modes of communication. For example, social and legal issues related to critical contents of e-mail and text messages, especially those implying the sensitive issues of marriage and divorce, are publicly and privately debated.

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