Social Media Under Pressure: Socializing the Middle East

Twitter, whose big year was 2009, was certainly an innovate idea. Facebook, which launched in 2004 and was originally just for college students (those were the days), was equally innovative as well, at least if the definition of innovative is how many people something attracts. Of course, the number of people social media has been attracting in Middle Eastern countries has ironically been part of the problem. Social media itself is an innovative phenomenon, and, while its uses (and abuses) are clearly controversial, the Middle East may be benefiting, at least socially, from exposure to social media outlets.

Stereotypically, the Middle East, among other countries, experiences regular political and social oppression (especially compared to "democracies" like the US). As previously mentioned, some countries in this part of the world actually still lack easy access to the Internet. But, those that can get access (and more and more are jumping online everyday) in the Middle East are experiencing the rush of (global) social connection that social media facilitates.

The World Wide Web was born from a business need, not necessarily the need to remain connected. Similarly, according to an article posted on spotonpr.com this past February, those in the Middle East initially began using social media for business reasons. LinkedIn is primarily a professional contact and networking social media outlet, and Twitter was initially used for the same reason: business interests, prospects and networking, though the website only saw about 1-2 thousand users in the Middle Eastern region (Spoton's estimate).

Now, numerous tweet-ups have been popping up all over the region - Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and others. Twestivals and other online gatherings are much broader in scope than business, and things are getting rather social. There are, as of February 2010 according to Spoton, about 30-40 thousand Twitter users in the Middle Eastern region and many of them are actually meeting face to face, something that is less common in the United States. This meeting face-to-face was actually fairly rare in the Middle East as it was often culturally confusing. Carrington Malin, author of above-mentioned Spoton article, observes that 'online friends' and 'real friends' were generally compartmentalized, kept separate - the two were not to meet and online etiquette (or, 'twettiquette' as it were) was foreign and thus, uncomfortable.

Now, though, as Malin reports, Twitter seems to have gotten the region buzzing with social interaction. In fact, it seems to be easier to invite someone to an (actual) event over Twitter than over the phone. For those who are concerned making business contacts in the Middle East, Twitter was always the way to go, but it seems that, even when it comes to the social arena, online interaction is preferred over even the telephone these days.

The shift in social media use from primarily business-focused networking to socializing is more pronounced in the Middle East than in the US, maybe because of the starting points of each, or maybe because of the political climate. Is it the political pressure wrought by governmental oppression and federally mandated pushing the use of the Internet and social media outlets in the Middle East towards more "social" (rather than activist or political) persuasions? Either way, it seems that the path of least resistance for social interaction (if online, no voice/face contact could even be consider such anymore), important for "webbing" and networking in both business and social worlds.

Photo Credit: DubaiGirl