“The Effect of Social Media on Teenagers in the United Arab Emirates”

Name: Shama AhmedStudent ID: 200705799

EDC- 495-503

1

The Content

Abstract -----------------------------------------------------3

Introduction -----------------------------------------------4-5

Literature Review ----------------------------------------5-7

Research problem ----------------------------------------7

Hypothesis --------------------------------------------------8

Methodology and Procedure ---------------------------8-9

Results and Discussion-----------------------------------10-17

Limitation ----------------------------------------------------18

Conclusion----------------------------------------------------18

Reference-----------------------------------------------------19

2

Abstract

Social media plays an important role in teenagers’ life in present time. It

might influence or affect them in good ways or bad. But social media exposures

differ from one country to another depending on people’s culture and reaction to

the exposure of media to them. This research paper examines the questions:

What is social media? Does social media influence the way teenagers think and

behave in the UAE? What are the positives and the negatives of using social

media? This study used one method to collect date, which is qualitative. 60

surveys distributed among teenagers both female and male in primary school

and teenagers users of social media in the UAE. Then charts will be created and

database to analyze and compare results. The study also provides articles that

had been chosen from the Internet.

3

Introduction

“I'm in the 7th grade. I'm 13. I'm not a cheerleader. I'm not the president of the student body or captain of the debate team. I'm not the prettiest girl in my class. I'm not the most popular girl in my class. I'm just a kid. I'm a little shy. And it's really hard in this school to impress people enough to be your friend if you're not any of those things. But I go on these really great vacations with my parents between Christmas and New Year's every year. And I take pictures of places we go. And I write about those places. And I post this on my Xanga. Because I think if kids in school read what I have to say and how I say it, they'll want to be my friend.” – Vivien, 13, to Parry Aftab during a “Teen Angels” meeting2

So, what is social media? Social media is usually defined as “ a type of

online media that expedites conversation as opposed to traditional media, which

delivers content but doesn't allow readers/viewers/listeners to participate in

the creation or development of the content” (Ward, 2011). There are several

categories of social media like social bookmarking, social news, social

networking, social photo and video sharing and wikis. Facebook, Tumblr,

Blogger, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube are the most known sites of social media

that are been used since couple of years.

The history of social media started long time ago. It started by the idea of

emailing from two computers were sitting right to each other. Over time the

concept of social media or social networking changed to websites. In fact, the

first social media website is Sixdegrees.com. It is allowing users to create profiles

and a list for their friends. Then others sites launched like Facebook in year 2004

and twitter in year 2006. Another fact, the first month of lunching Facebook

4

19.500 students at Harvard collage in United State of America created an account

in it. In that time it used in a way to connect the student collage together.

However, Social media can influence people in many different ways

especially teenagers because they are the majority who more often excess these

websites. These influences could be positive in a way or negative. One negative

is social media is lack of body language, tone of voice and facial expressions so

teenagers might get fooled by the other side. One positive is teenagers could

develop social skills throughout interacting with people all over the world. This

research paper will discuss the issue of the impact of social media on teenagers.

Literature Review

Social networking might considered as a bad thing to be used for some

culture and people, but in fact social networking has some good things that could

develop some skills in the teenager. Some expert like MacArthur Foundation

think that they could develop some skills in the teenager by using social media

like technical and social skills online while adult might not understand it.

According to Mizuko Ito of the University of California states that

“spending time online is essential for young people to pick up the social and

technical skills they need to be competent citizens in the digital age”. Kids are

learning basic social and technical skills to fully participate in modern society.

Kids learn to adapt to permanent and public socializing and managing elaborate

network of friends and acquaintances” (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter: Good or

Bad for Kid's Brain?, 2011). Another good benefit is “social networking makes

kids more peer-based. Young people are motivated to learn from their peers

online. They interact and receive feedback from one another. They are

5

motivated to learn more from each other than from adults. Teachers and adults

are no longer the only sources of knowledge” (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter: Good

or Bad for Kid's Brain?, 2011).

While the bad things that others think that the social media could do is

“Facebook and other networking sites “are infantilizing the brain into the state of

small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a

short attention span and live for the moment”. There are hardly any

concentration skills required in participating in these social networking sites,

and these train the brain to have poor attention span” (Facebook, MySpace,

Twitter: Good or Bad for Kid's Brain?, 2011). According to a study that had been

done by Larry Rosen, a professor of psychology at California State University

“concludes that extended use of social networks like Facebook can result in a

decrease in empathy among teens, and thus an increase in narcissism”

(Facebook, MySpace, Twitter: Good or Bad for Kid's Brain?, 2011).

While, Dr Beshir believes that “with media, the Internet, and social

networking, kids from all over the world are subject to many of the same

problems and pressures. As a result, it’s critical for parents to understand their

kids’ environment, and not to simply assume it’s the same as the one in which

they were raised” (Bringing Up Teenagers in Dubai, 2011).

However, some studies had shown that teenagers who interact on social

media websites like Facebook and MySpace “mimics how teens interact in their

offline relationships. California State in Los Angeles psychology professor Kaveri

Subrahmanyam found that teens characterize their online friendships into

similar hierarchies of closeness as their real-life friendships. Subrahmanyam

views the digital world as simply a new and more multidimensional place for

6

teens to do what teens have always done – form their own identities away from

their parents” (Natashamurashev, 2010).

Another study by the University of Virginia psychologist Amori Yee

Mikami mentioned, “Teens are using social media sites to keep in touch with

friends they already know, not to meet strangers. Although parents of teens

should still set rules for their young teen’s online behavior, they have really little

to worry about if their teen is psychologically healthy and well adjusted

(Natashamurashev, 2010).

According to another study that had been shown that almost 96% of

teenagers “with access to the Internet have a social networking account. For

teenagers, the risk of danger is even greater, caused by lack of experience and a

sense of invincibility. Many teenagers believe they cannot be harmed —

especially by something simple such as having a Bebo account. In reality, social

networking services do teenagers a whole lot more bad than they do good”

(Moore-Jones, 2009).

Research problem

The problem is when a teenager creates an account in one of social media

websites he might start to share much information about himself and about his

family, which sometimes it should not be there. Also, he might read other people

posts and pictures and then he might start to compare them to his life and get

influenced. That could lead the teenager to say, “ I want their life, I want to be

that person, I want that thing”. This research paper will investigate how many of

the same teenager exists in the Gulf.

7

The question that this research revolved around is (Does the social media

influence the way teenagers think and behave in the UAE?)

Hypothesis

The purpose behind it is to establish possible cause of social media in

order to solve the problem, or perhaps there isn’t a problem. Maybe the social

media did not influence teenagers, which could lead to the second purpose that is

solving the hypothesis of this topic. The hypothesis is that the social media does

influence teenagers thought of their behavior, and through this findings, the

truth will reveal whether the hypothesis is true or not.

In order to get to the bottom of the research, a primary and secondary

research will be conducted. However before that, first thing is to explain the

experimental process. Firstly, determine who the target group is when creating

a questionnaire or experimenting on candidates. Secondly, determine activities

with which to “experiment”. Thirdly, pick the individuals out of a population to

fill out the survey. Finally, collect and analyze the results in order to help discuss

about it.

Methodology and Procedure:

The research conducted one type of method, which is a quantitative

sample with the multiple-choice questions. Creating this type of method was a

better idea to ensure that the candidates would finish the questions fast and not

feel that they’re are pressured with many information to answer and that it is not

time consuming.

The size of the sample is around 60 surveys in order to gather enough

individual data to judge how the population sample respond to the questions and

8

to keep it as fair as possible. The selection has been divided in two different

environments. One environment is primary school and the second environment

is social media websites as it is target them.

The survey is focusing on all teenagers in the UAE and it contains 8

questions since this survey will focus on teenagers being exposed to the social

media websites. The target audiences are female and male teenagers from age 11

until age 19.

The survey are hard and soft copy. In hard copy, the pens and pencils

provided to the candidates to make it easy for them to answer. In soft copy, the

link was shared so it is easy to them to open and answer the questions

After collecting almost 60 samples back, an excel file has been created to

ease the process of inserting quantitative data onto the cells. For each question

there was a column and another column nearby was created to list the number of

people who answered the specific choice. After adding the numbers onto the

data, a chart has been created for each of the questions and a percentage was

added inside to help compare along with its value.

Since this is a type of a social sampling, there was no need for any budget

or money to fund. The sheets have been printed from university for free and the

places that were accessed were free.

9

Results and Discussion

The charts below show the percentage of each question in the survey,

which 60 teenagers in the UAE have answered it. The survey contains 8

questions.

1- How old is you?

This chart shows the age of the teenagers who did the survey. The highest

percentage is 38% that tells that 23 teenagers from age 17 to 19 years old did the

survey. The lowest percentage is 30% and that tells 18 teenagers from both

gender did the survey. Their age is between 14 and 16 years old. While 32% or

19 candidates are between age 11 and 13 years old.

10

2- Are you male or female?

This chart shows how many female and male did the survey so we can

analysis the gender of who use more the social media website. The highest

percentage is 83% and that tells 49 of female answered the survey. While the

lowest percentage is 17% and that tells only 10 male answered the

questionnaire. It was not shocking to see that because female like to socialize

more and like to try new things unlike male.

11

3- Do you use social networking sites?

This chart shows the number of teenagers who use social networking

websites in their daily bases. Obviously all teenagers use social media websites,

which tells out of 60 candidates, no one is not using any kind of social network

websites or not having an account on any of them. For example, Blogger, Tumblr

and Twitter.

12

4- If so how often?

This chart explains how many times the teenager use social media

websites every day. The highest percentage is 54% and that tells that 32 of them

use it multiply times a day. The lowest percentage is 5% and that is about 3 of

them use it or check their social media accounts once a week. While 17% of them

use it twice a week and 24% of them use it hardly ever. Finally, it is clearly state

that teenagers are more exposed with social media.

13

5- Which social networking website do you use most often? (You can choose more than one)

This chart explain what often do teenagers use in term of social networking

website. As what the chart mentioned the websites are Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr,

Blogger, Flickr and other. The highest percentage is 33% and that means 45 teenagers

use twitter to share and connect with their friends and people. The lowest percentage

is 2% or 3 teenagers use blogger to post their information. 29% of them use

Facebook, 14% use Tumblr, 7% use Flickr and 15% of them use other social media

websites.

14

6- When you're on social networking websites, about how much of your time do you spend posting things about

yourself?

This chart explains how much time do a teenager spends posting things

about themselves. The highest percentage tells that 39%, which means 23

teenagers spend some of their time posting. The lowest percentage tells that

10% of them spend their entire time posting. 20% use most of their time posting,

19% use about half of their time or a day to post things on their social media

websites and about 12% do not post a thing although they created an account.

Clearly, we can see that teenagers are spending some time just to share stuff in

their account.

15

7- When you're on social networking websites, about how much of your time do you spend looking at what other people

have posted?

While, this chart is showing how much time do a teenager spends looking

to other people posts or accounts. The highest percentage is 27% or 16

teenagers and they look to other post some of their time. The lowest percentage

is 9% or 5 teenagers’ say they don’t. 25% believe they keep track of others most

of their time.22% all of their time and 17% about half of their time.

16

8- Do your parents know your passwords for all your social networking website accounts (like Facebook or Myspace)?

Finally, this chart is showing if a teenager parents know about their

children passwords of all their social media website accounts. Most teenagers

candidates says no for 64%, which is the highest percentage. The lowest

percentage is 11% for yes. While, others are not sure if their parents know about

their passwords.

17

Limitation

I noticed several limitations in my study, such as lack of electrical

resources and studies that shows the effect of social networking on teenagers.

Moreover the participant skipped some of the questions. Some of the teenagers

who are between ages 11 to 13 years old faced some problems in understanding

some of the questions. Also, some of them delayed submitting their survey.

Finally. I found some difficulty in finding online teenagers user to do the survey.

18

Conclusion

In conclusion, this research paper is about the effect of social media on

the teenagers of the United Arab Emirates. Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Tumblr

and Flickr are examples of social media that most teenagers use. It contents a

brief history about the social networking and when and how it started. Also the

study proved some the positives and the negatives that could teenagers develop

when they start to create an account in one of the social media websites.

However, it is a problem because a teenager might expose too much in

social media websites by checking other people profile and that could lead him

or her wanted other people lifestyle. The hypothesis of this study is that the

social media does influence teenagers’ thought of their behavior. This study

conducted one type of method, which is a quantitative sample with the multiple-

choice questions

The research paper is proved by the survey that had been given to

majority of UAE teenagers. The survey showed that most of the UAE teenagers

have an account in one or more social media websites like Facebook and Twitter.

The age 17 to 19 years old are the most using to these websites them are from

female gender. In fact, they do spend some time looking to other people account

and share their interest and news on their account. As my view of point, in future

teenagers will be more aware about the effect of social media and how to deal

within the world on social networking.

19

Bibliography

Ward, S. (2011). Social Media Definition. Retrieved September 24, 2011, from About: http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/socialmedia/g/socialmedia.htm

Bringing Up Teenagers in Dubai. (2011). Retrieved October 12, 2011, from Counselling Dubai: http://www.counsellingdubai.com/bringing-up-teenagers-in-dubai.html

Facebook, MySpace, Twitter: Good or Bad for Kid's Brain? (2011). Retrieved October 11, 2011, from Raises Mart kid: http://www.raisesmartkid.com/10-to-16-years-old/6-articles/43-facebook-myspace-twitter-good-or-bad-for-kids-brain

Natashamurashev. (2010, May 20). Why Social Media Is Actually Good For Teens. Retrieved October 12, 2011, from Social Times: http://socialtimes.com/why-social-media-is-actually-good-for-teens_b13239

Moore-Jones, M. (2009, October 13). Social Networking is a Teenager's Most Dangerous Game Read more: http://technorati.com/blogging/article/social-networking-is-a-teenagers-most/#ixzz1aaP4tG1D. Retrieved October 12, 2011, from Technorati : http://technorati.com/blogging/article/social-networking-is-a-teenagers-most/

20