https://arab.news/cte53
On any given evening in a typical Arab household, three generations may sit in the same room but live in different worlds, each glued to a personal screen. Conversation happens in short bursts and bedtimes seem flexible. The region’s high-tech revolution has opened wide a window on the world, but it has also created something many families do not know how to manage: a constant stream of digital distraction.
And the numbers tell their own story. In Saudi Arabia, 99 percent of the population have access to the internet and about half spends more than seven hours a day online, including about three hours on social media. In the UAE, users are online for an average of more than eight hours a day and spend close to three hours on social platforms. In both countries, access to social media is well above 90 percent of the population, among the highest figures in the world.
Those who watched the 1987 movie “Dirty Dancing” might remember the Alfie Zappacosta love song “Overload.” Today, a song with that title would probably be about society’s obsession with smartphones, laptops and smartwatches, whose screens have become the backdrop to everyday life from morning until well past midnight.
