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| Arabia |
| 68 Percent of Saudi Girls Drop Last Name on Facebook |
| 2010-01-20 |
| [Asharq al-Aswat] Are you on Facebook under your real name? This is the question that continues to haunt a large number of Saudi Arabian women, despite the fact that internet social networking sites rely primarily on factual personal information. However a recent study carried out in Saudi Arabia shows that 68 percent of Saudi girls prefer to withhold their family name due to the sensitivity of this information, in comparison to just 32 percent of girls who appear on Facebook under their own full names. The study revealed that 16 percent of girls polled were members of Facebook under aliases or false identities. As for the Saudi Arabian boys who use Facebook, the study showed that 60 percent of those questioned were members of Facebook under their own full name, with just 4 percent appearing under an alias or a false name. This information was disclosed as part of a study entitled "The Methodology of Saudi Youth When Utilizing Social Networking Sites" which was carried out by a group of students at the School of Computer Science at the King Saud University in Riyadh. The group of students surveyed a number of Saudi students, half of whom were studying at the King Saud University, while the other half were studying at secondary schools in Riyadh. Ahoud al-Shaheel, a Professor of Communication at King Saud University, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the latest statistics on the Facebook phenomenon indicate that membership of the site is experiencing an annual growth of 9 percent amongst the youth. According to these statistics, there is one Saudi female for every 5 Saudi males registered on Facebook as of the end of 2009. Al-Shaheel confirmed that she wanted to shed light on the methods which the Saudi youth were utilizing social networking sites, as a response to these sites gaining popularity, and more people spending more time on them. The study highlighted how young men and women in Saudi Arabia are utilizing the social networking website Facebook. The study revealed that of the university student polled, 60 percent of male students uploaded a real picture of themselves, in comparison to just 5 percent of female students. While 10 percent of male students used an image of a famous person, while 10 percent of female students use an image of somebody from their family, their father, brother, or another family-member, with the remaining 8 percent utilizing an "ineligible image" [such as a drawing or cartoon or close-up of an eye etc]. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Facebook *requires* that you register under your real name. If you don't, then your account can be cancelled at any time. It's one of the things that makes Facebook so insidiously evil. |
| Posted by: gromky 2010-01-20 12:39 |