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 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.
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,” reports a local Arabic daily.
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.
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.
Successive Kuwaiti governments have not ceased emphasizing the besieging of uncontrolled electronic publishing and the fight against corrupt accounts on the means of communication.
However, the observer finds that there is a huge arsenal of relevant laws, which include severe penalties and heavy restrictions, among them: Law 20/2014 related to electronic transactions, Law 37/2014 regarding the establishment of the Communications and Information Technology Regulatory Authority, and Law 63/2015 concerned with combating information technology crimes. and Law 8/2016 regarding the regulation of electronic media; and others.
That huge number of laws does not seem to be a sufficient deterrent, as governments thought, which requires a change in strategy and the adoption of methods that guarantee transparency and clarity in the news and statements of the official media, so as to help refute the malicious rumors and false and misleading news that are being promoted.
Staying away from following social media seems very difficult, for those involved in life on the back of the planet at this particular time, when people’s eyes are fixed on phone screens, but you must fortify yourself with all possible antibiotics, to ward off the spread of mediocrity, about you and your loved ones.
The first of these antipodes, which must be invested in to build a citizen capable of distinguishing between the fat and the wheat, is the school, and the second is the media, both governmental and private, to which the state must pay the greatest attention, by providing the material, legislative and human capabilities, in order to preserve the credibility that slips through the fingers, which affects it. Daily – Communication platforms are killing.
The following are the destructive roles
— Misleading public opinion
— Striking national unity
— Lying and spreading rumors
— Incitement to chaos
— Bullying and ridicule
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