Study needed to enhance the use
Published: 15 Nov 2016 - 11:01 pm | Last Updated: 03 Nov 2021 - 09:49 am
Waleed Al Hadethy(centre) with speakers Ali Abdullah Khalifa (right) and Dr Hanan Al Fayad at Conference yesterday. Pic: Qassim Rahmatullah/ The Peninsula
Doha: A conference on Arab identity which concluded yesterday called for promotion of Arabic language on internet and social media by increasing its content and making it an official language for different media programmes.
Participants also highlighted the importance of setting up a regulatory framework for social media use so that it can play an effective role in advocating and supporting national and social issues.
To enhance use of Arabic language, there is a need for research to address the difficulties and challenges associated with the new media, a session at the conference was told.
The two-day event was organized by Qatar Heritage and Identity Center under the theme “The impact of technology and social media on identity”
Role of families and elders was also highlighted by the participants in transferring values and traditions to the younger generation. Over the two days, more than 14 papers were presented in six sessions along with some key note speeches.
Maisara Taher, in his paper entitled “Technology, family and identity” highlighted the importance of modern technology in education to enhance values related to identity, faith, language and history. Enriching internet content in Arabic was one of the issues emphasized by speakers including Taher who recommended more translations into Arabic and publication of researches. In his paper entitled “social media and children’s identity”, Ali Abdullah Khalifa said that people are afraid of the impact of social media and this is natural as the same happened when new technologies like TV and videos emerged. Dr Hanan Fayad, in her paper “The impact of social media on national identity”, drew a comparison between personal identity and national identity saying that the impact of social media on national identity comes through its influence on the personal identity.
Qatari media personality Hassan Al Saai said that there are more than 150m users of Snapchat and over 70 m Arab users of different applications. One of the negative impacts of social media is that it makes children communicate with other people who they do not know, who would try to convey undesired thoughts and ideologies. Therefore the role of family is essential. Qatari columnist and director of projects at Al Sharq daily, Abdulaziz Al Ishak rejected the idea that social media has led to social disintegration. Rather it has brought people in touch round-the-clock regardless of their whereabouts.
