Social media refers to an informative and social platform that consists of modern technologies, applications, and websites. In the entire world today, billions of people utilize social media, and the numbers are growing day in day out. Through social media, people connect online through the use of modern technology tools such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, among others. Social media has played a dynamic role in changing human interactions and societal dynamics in a great way. People nowadays apply social media in virtually every part of their lives be it personal interactions, modes of entertainment, work, and even studies. In Arab countries, there has been a dramatic shift in society, whereby most of the stereotypes have been demolished. The Arab youths and women, through the use of social media, have been the key drivers of the regional change in the Arab countries today.
In the current day Arabian nations, digital media in marketing and advertisements has changed drastically. In the earlier days, advertisements were placed on newspapers and magazines but in the current days, advertisements are now done via television ads, social media ads and even e-posters that can be created and sent over the digital communication gadgets. Negotiations and bargaining has moved from a thing that happens on face to face meetups to online chats and business engagements.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Through social media, there has been a shift to activism in the Arab nations ( Gunter & Elareshi, 2016 ). The youths use technology social interaction drivers such as the Facebook and Twitter to create an online civic and political mobilization. The social media has aided people to disseminate information to a large number of people within a larger geographical region. Through this, they can organize pro and anti-government demonstrations at any given time. In Sudan and Algeria, there were protests in 2019 geared towards the removal of their corrupt leaders of which was mainly initiated by spreading of a photography of 2011 Arab Spring across the social media sites and applications ( Kushkush, 2019 ). The development and advancement of social media in these Arab nations and the shifting of its trends of usage, has played an important role in mobilizing as well as empowering people while impacting their opinions and influencing changes in the long run.
Social media is recognized to have played a vital part in the empowerment of women in the Arab countries ( Labin, 2014 ). The growth of social media, as well as its extensive usage, has been instrumental in the challenging of the existing stereotypes in the Arabian countries such as the oppressed and subservient nature of women ( Gunter & Elareshi, 2016 ). The upfront role that women have engaged in orchestrating and ensuring their full participation in social movements in countries such as Yemen has solidified their positions as equals to their male counterparts of which has been made possible by the social media influence. In recent times, besides allowing women access to social media, unlike earlier times, women can now access entrepreneurial opportunities at will.
Social media has allowed a space to assess the credibility and the actuality of the information availed by the local media in the Arab countries. The youths nowadays have tools that help them to critically evaluate what the mainstream media is telling them, selling to them and compelling them to believe, and through this, they can either promote or oppose them. In today's Arab world, traditional media is no longer the only player in the political and social transformations as it was earlier. Through the influence of social media and the advanced access to information, democracy is assured in the Arab countries today as opposed to the traditional times.
References
Gunter, B., &Elareshi, M. (2016). The Significance of Social Media in the Arab World. Social Media in the Arab World . doi: 10.5040/9781350988057.ch-001
Kushkush, I. (2019). Protesters in Sudan and Algeria Have Learned From the Arab Spring. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/04/protesters-sudan-and-algeria-have-learned-arab-spring/587113/
Labin, J. (2014). In the Arab World, Social Media Makes a Societal Impact. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/in-the-arab-world-social-_b_6075866
