Dr. Bahaa Helmy Writes: Electronic Communication Sites, Between Culture and Time Management

Perhaps the expression “electronic communication sites” is more accurate and realistic than the term “social media”, given the channels these sites offer for electronic contact and communication with others in all fields, whether political, economic, cultural and humanitarian, or terrorism and organized crime, or any other activity conducted from behind devices connected to the international information network. As for the expression “social media”, it was perhaps adopted to attract and invite the largest number of people and to offer the opportunity to connect with other members who share the same interests and hobbies; these services are provided by major companies that seek to devise new methods to increase the number of subscribers and viewers of these sites for the purpose of making profits. These sites have come to dominate the time and thoughts of many different age groups around the world, especially the young, who now spend most of their time behind the screens of modern means of communication, using these sites for purposes that differ according to their needs, cultures and time. There is a scarcity of documented scientific studies on the number and volume of users of or participants in electronic communication sites. Some indicate that three billion people use these sites — roughly 40% of the world's population — spending on average about two hours a day browsing these sites and interacting through them; others estimate the number of users of a single site, Facebook, at 22 billion users a month over the past twelve months, and that 3% of this site's users are aged 25 to 34; and on WhatsApp about 42 billion texts are sent, with 16 billion photos shared, every day — not to mention the other sites, which are so many now and will be in the future. The companies that run these sites have perhaps not yet officially announced the results of any social studies or accurate statistics on which peoples use these sites the most, the time consumed in electronic communication, the rates of change in the behavior and patterns of the societies that use these sites the most, and the health and psychological effects and the effects on social relations resulting from high rates of use. Many countries educate and warn children, adolescents, students and their families about the dangers of misusing electronic communication sites or wasting time without benefit, and urge that they be made aware and followed up on how to deal with these sites and benefit from them in their studies and lives, while developing their self-control and spreading proper awareness of how to use these sites. In other societies, the reality may be shocking: you see little children playing with smartphones and handling sites and scenes with extraordinary skill and professionalism, under an umbrella of neglect and encouragement from their parents, who smile at them or praise their intelligence. As for the other age groups, whether adolescents and young people or older people, there is no end to what can be said about the excessive use of electronic communication sites by some of them. You can observe hundreds of messages and pictures arriving on your phone every morning, some urging you to send them on to ten people or more, and many of them repeated, recycled messages without any meaning or benefit worth mentioning; most often, the motive for forwarding them is generosity or the satisfaction of an inner urge that consists of an addiction to electronic communication. The benefits of the development of information and communication technology cannot be denied, and the means of communication have come to play a major role in our lives; but swimming in the sea of cyberspace without any means of rescue leads to drowning, and therefore misusing these sites without being armed with knowledge and culture and an awareness of the importance of time has dire consequences for individuals and for societies as well. It is fitting that we master the culture of dealing with electronic communication sites — that newcomer that has penetrated people's lives under the name of globalization without any barriers or obstacles, and whose scope will widen in the near future — and that we believe in the importance of time and in managing it through its optimal use in benefiting from new knowledge and sciences, in work and production, in improving the level of income and in developing society. It would be appropriate to include in Egypt's new electronic curricula and educational programs the benefits and harms of using these sites, and the fact that excessive use of these sites known as social media will inevitably have a negative effect — indeed, has already had one — on family, kinship and social communication; and we call on sociologists and professors of sociology to put the subject on the table for research and study in all its aspects, for the good of the nation and its future.