Young Emirati does a balancing act

DUBAI — Fatma Bin Saifan, a young Emirati who finds herself spending most of her time online says, “Social media has become an addiction for me and many other young Emiratis. The first thing I do the moment I open my eyes in the morning is to check my Twitter and Facebook pages.”

by

Muaz Shabandri

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Published: Mon 26 Jul 2010, 11:56 PM

Last updated: Mon 6 Apr 2015, 2:54 PM

A visual artist by profession, Fatma takes pride in her social media skills as she says, “Social media and networking websites have helped me a lot in both my social and professional life. Through social media, I was able to market and promote my work as a visual artist, and thanks to it I’ve been contacted by different entities from all over the world to participate in various projects.”

Citing an example Fatma shares, “A local design studio was promoting ‘SKETCH’, a semi monthly art/social event on facebook. Following a virtual invite, I attended ‘SKETCH’ and to my surprise I got to meet the founder of FN Design. He has now become a very good friend and sometimes I find it hard to believe that it all started with a simple message on Facebook.”

Scrolling through a long list of tweets, Fatma says, “Staying up to date with all the information that flows through these websites needs attention and time. Therefore it has affected my real life presence.

Finding a balance between the two is hard, but it’s essential. Being active online and in real life takes a lot of energy but it’s not impossible.

However, she despises the presence of a growing number of miscreants on social networks.

“Young people are overly active on these social networks. We are hooked onto it. As other things, some people abuse these websites and use it for all the wrong reasons like flirting and sharing inappropriate data.”

news@khaleejtimes.com


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