Al-Madinah

Recently, Google launched a new site called Google Graveyard to pay tribute to the memory of its projects that have died. The graveyard includes 44 projects, some which were launched in 2004. For each project there is a tombstone that lists a description of the project, years of operation and the reasons why it failed. One of these projects was Google+ that lasted between 2011-2018. Google ended this project because it was not popular with people and because of its technical problems.

If these international companies are burying their projects that failed electronically, there are segments of society who are sadly burying their time and efforts in the Internet and its electronic programs. One of them is the “Saudi society”, which came first internationally on the list of countries that use social media sites.

A recent statistical study of 40 countries titled “Digital world in 2018” reported that Saudis spend two hours and 34 minutes daily on social media. When you add browsing websites and other programs, the time Saudis spend on the Internet daily is increased to six hours and 45 minutes.

More than 30 million people in the Kingdom use the Internet and 96 percent of the population has a smart phone. There are 25 million active social media accounts in Saudi Arabia and Saudis are among the major users of YouTube, Twitter and Snapchat. Electronic services have developed a lot in the country and have benefited our society. Some Saudis use the Internet to spread religion, culture and in defending the country.

However, most of the time our use of the Internet is wasted on useless things, such as following famous social media personalities and their activities, cracking jokes here and there, spreading rumors and participating in useless hashtags on Twitter.

Our time is wasted and buried electronically. This surely has a negative effect on individuals in their communication with their families and that will ultimately affect society and the country’s development.

Twitter: @aaljamili