The Philosophy Department at the College of Arts at the Kuwait University organized the world conference on ‘Social Networking Sites, Theoretical Frameworks and Problems of Application’ in cooperation between the department, the Abdulaziz Saud Al-Babtain Cultural Foundation and the German Konrad Adenauer-Stiftung Foundation, in the presence of a prominent academic and diplomat.
Acting Dean of the College of Arts, Dr. Abdullah Al-Hajri, said the college was keen to benefit from electronic communication programs during the Corona pandemic, as its various departments organized many conferences and seminars. Speaking at the event, he said, the conference brings together a group of philosophers and thinkers from inside and outside Kuwait, to deal with it with a correct methodology for most users. The conference, he said, discussed, through scientific papers, studies and research, this problem in an attempt to reach solutions, proposals and recommendations, which are hopefully beneficial, reports a local Arabic daily.
The deputy head of the German mission to the country, Frank Neumann, stressed that the topic chosen by the conference organizers is often controversial and is considered an ongoing artistic and cultural revolution.
Neumann said there is an urgent need to discuss developments in the new media, and practical recommendations for successfully navigating the world of communication in the future, especially since human communication has moved to a high level that enables people around the world to communicate with each other freely and directly.
He pointed to the impact of the means of communication on their diplomatic work, and said that the German embassy in Kuwait reaped many benefits by using these means, including conveying a positive image of Germany in Kuwait, conveying government views quickly and easily, and linking people from our two countries to achieve a better understanding between them.
He pointed out that it is not possible to turn a blind eye to negative aspects surrounding this means of communication such as potential violations of user rights, violation of privacy, and fake news.
Head of the Department of Philosophy and Professor of Contemporary Political Philosophy at Kuwait University, Dr. Muhammad Al-Wuhaib, emphasized that sociologists have identified 3 main forces linking successful democracies — the social capital provided by broad social networks with high levels of trust, and strong state institutions andnd stories shared by people, pointing out that the means of communication have weakened these three elements.
Al-Wuhaib added the German-American philosopher Hannah Arendt once wrote that “political judgment or opinion must fall between individuals who are organized by a political community, or who have common sense,” noting that it is an idea borrowed from the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, which “cannot be talking about a political rule in the absence of community judgment and approval by it.”
He pointed out that the biggest challenge facing any appeal to common sense today is that most political rulings and opinions divide society, which govern the part, not the whole, and to the extent that polarization has become a sign of our political dialogues.
Al-Wuhaib indicated the New York University’s social psychologist Jonathan Haidt claims that the pervasive polarization in our political world has been exacerbated by the means of communication in the past decade, such as Facebook, Twitter and other platforms.
On the sidelines of the conference, Professor of Metaphysics in the Department of Philosophy at Kuwait University Dr. Sheikha Al-Jassem said that the conference sessions received excellent and fruitful interventions on the problems of social communication and its concept, freedoms of expression, the responsibility related to it, fictitious accounts, and ethics related to the global events that occur.
The first session of the conference was launched under the title “Theoretical Frameworks for Understanding Social Networking Sites”, headed by Professor of Metaphysics in the Department of Philosophy Dr. Sheikha Al-Jassem, and the speakers called for urging young people and training them on the safe use of social media.
A faculty member at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, Dr. Abdullah Al-Mutairi, said that “modern means of communication have provided man with a magic ring similar to the one that Plato talked about, and therefore it brings back the question of freedom and responsibility not only as an intellectual contemplation, but as a realistic event that constitutes daily life.” For his part, Professor of Modern Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at the College of Arts at Kuwait University, Dr. Mahmoud Ahmed, on training young people on the safe use of communication sites, to counter rumours.
The second session dealt with “Social Media and Culture” and was moderated by the Professor of the Philosophy of Mind in the Department of Philosophy, Dr. Hanan Khalaf. A professor of electronic media at Kuwait University, Dr. Fatima Al-Salem, said “The frequent follow-up of social media makes people dissatisfied with their lives, because it creates feelings of jealousy and sadness by entering into the social comparison.”
She added the study, which was conducted on a number of 4,275 people inside Kuwait, that 41 percent of them use social networking sites for 6 hours a day, while 25 percent use them for four hours a day, and 22.4 percent spend from two to four hours daily.
She emphasized that 19 percent are satisfied with the content on social media, and 14.2 percent are completely dissatisfied. A field study on the use of social media by Kuwaiti residents show 41% use it 6 hours a day, 25% use it 4 hours a day, 22.4% spend two to four hours while 19% are satisfied with the content and 14.2% are not fully satisfied with the content.