Social Media Breaking Families Apart: Expert
DAMMAM — Weaam Organization for marriage and family care’s 7th Marriage and Family Forum, set to take place on April 5-6 in Dammam under the title “The Saudi Family in 2025”, will feature a study on the negative effects of social media on the Saudi family. The author of the study, Wafaa Bin Nasser Al-Ajami, professor at Imam Muhammad Bin Saud Islamic University Social Sciences and Community Service College, said her study on the effects of social media on the Saudi family shows that social media usage is breaking the Saudi family apart.
“Social media has weakened our community ties and is among the most common causes of divorce and infidelity. People have no Internet ethics and are exposed to obscenities on a daily basis. Social media in the Kingdom has turned into a clinical addiction which has made people impatient and selfish in their needs,” said Al-Ajami.
According to statistics, there are 15 million Internet users in the Kingdom and Saudi Arabia ranks fifth in the Arab world in terms of the number of social media accounts. According to Al-Ajamai, the biggest danger of social media is the fact that children are exposed to all sorts of things on the Internet without any parental supervision.
“This generation of children probably does not understand the concept of parental supervision. They are exposed to all what is out there as the Internet does not consider people’s age. The absence of a guardian in their lives makes them impatient, rude and intolerable to any rejection in life,” said Al-Ajami.
She added children are also losing literacy in their own native language. “Instead of communicating in Arabic or English, children are communicating in “Arabizi” using Latin alphabets to express Arabic phrases” said Al-Ajami.
She added parents nowadays are no longer able to monitor the friends their children have.
“Children can grow up in a virtual environment different than their parents’ and develop different values and morals.
They begin to have their own ‘reference groups’ which are their primary source of upbringing and not their real family,” said Al-Ajami.
In her recommendations, Al-Ajami states that the media and educational institutes should intervene and implement programs which help children and their parents deal with social media.
“We need an authority which penalizes commercial institutes if they ever breach the Kingdom’s societal code of ethics,” said Al-Ajami.
The Saudi International Petrochemical Company’s (Sipchem) Corporate Social Responsibility Head Ali Al-Araq said the forum is very important as it will help highlight future employment trends.
“Sipchem recognizes the importance of the family in creating future employees. To dignify and maintain the Saudi family, the private and public sector must work together. Authorities must invest in research centers and academics specializing in the structure and development of the Saudi family,” said Al-Araq.
The forum’s academic committee member Abdulwahid Al-Mazrou’ said the Kingdom must adapt the philosophy of a comprehensive security system.
“The police and security authorities are indeed responsible for monitoring social media. We need to activate our anti-information crimes police. We need new laws to regulate the problems of social media today,” said Al-Araq.