The Use Of Social Media Among Arab Females

Personality detection from appearance by humans has long been a topic of interest in the domain of psychology, as it has deep implications in studying personal interaction and first impressions. The vast majority of the investigations in brain science have concentrated on outward appearances as individuals every now and again utilize facial qualities as a reason for identity attributions, while different examinations also thought about the posture of the individual (Naumann et al. 2009).

Human raters could effectively assess certain identity characteristics as evaluated through surveys, for instance extraversion (Penton-Voak et al. 2006). While human observation is vital, clinicians likewise raise the likelihood that PC vision calculations would have the capacity to foresee identity consequently as an approach to abstain from gathering expensive survey information (Kamenskaya and Kukharev 2008). With late advances in software engineering and a more extensive accessibility of reasonable client produced information, programmed identity location has turned into a critical research subject. Identity impacts an extensive variety of practices, a large number of which can be straightforwardly seen through social media use. Hence, strategies utilizing a scope of modalities have been effectively created: video (Subramanian et al. 2013), sound content or social information.

Social media are winding up progressively prevalent in this day and age (Gonzalez, 2011). Different examinations have discovered that individuals utilize social networking destinations to keep up long-remove connections and to help physical associations (Anderson et al., 2012; Tosun and Lajunen, 2010). Madge, Meek, Wellens, and Hooley (2009) recommend that Facebook is more utilized for imparting to companions about work as opposed to for doing any real work. For example, understudies use Facebook for venture discourses as opposed to for real work. Rosen and Kluemper (2008) found a positive relationship amongst's extroversion and good faith with the level of utilization of social media. The extent of a client's social system can be frequently controlled by the level of extroversion of the client.

Back et al. (2010) also suggest that Facebook profiles are a reflection of the user’s actual personality and are not just a self-idealization.

The use of Facebook and Twitter among Arab females has witnessed a slight rise from 32 percent at the end of 2010 to 34 percent in the first quarter of 2012 even though women make up almost half of the Arab population” (Al Arabiya News,2012). The cultural norms and restrictions that are still imposed on women hinder their participation in the political and social change more than they hinder men (Al Arabiya News, 2012). In its report, the Gender and Public Policy Program mentioned that the virtual world is perceived as a means of empowering women despite the discrepancy between the numbers of men and women on the social networking websites (Al Arabiya News, 2012). Another report, the third Arab Social Media Report, says only one third of the Facebook user in the Arab world are women, whereas they are around half of the users globally, and this is a result of the prevailing virtual gender gap (Khaleej Time, 2011).

Social media could enhance women’s participation in economic and political life, and allows them to increase their self-expression and promote social change, and this is a strong belief that has risen up in the society (Tomlin, 2012). Social media tools now expose aspects of millions of Arab’s daily life, and thus affect the way they interact with the government, do business, and engage in civil society movements (Tomlin, 2012). However, women face barriers in real life that hinders women from participating in social media and seeing the impact it has on their lives. One of the barriers is ICT literacy, which is the ability to use digital technology, communication tools, and/or networks to define access, manage, integrate, evaluate, create, and communicate information ethically and legally in order to function in a knowledge society. Women in the Arab world are not literate, or not enough literate in this matter. This lack of education can be overcome by training. Other kinds of constraints which are highly significant are the social constraints. Those include family and society barriers and stereotypes placed on women especially in the places where female users operate (Tomlin, 2012).

For the aforementioned reasons, it is obvious that Arab women are in need of training on ICT and the use of digital technology in order for them to be able to voice out their thoughts and advocate for women causes in the Arab world. Social media has proved to be a powerful vehicle for bringing women’s rights issues to the attention of a wider public, galvanising action on the streets of cities around the world and encouraging policy makers to step up commitments to gender equality. Recent cases in Turkey and India reflect the potential of social media to bridge the gap that often separates grassroots women’s activism from policy-making processes. The explosion of social media and unprecedented use by women of new technologies represents important opportunities to bring gender equality and women’s rights issues to the forefront of both policy making and media attention. In 1995, the Beijing Platform for Action recognised and predicted the media’s “potential to make a far greater contribution to the advancement of women” (para. 234). This call has been echoed in the proposed targets under Goal 5 of the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Like in 1995, challenges remain in utilising media to combat discrimination, counter gender stereotypes and raise awareness of women’s rights issues. While globally, women are greater users of social media than men (McPherson, 2014), many women, especially in developing countries, still do not have access to this technology due to infrastructure, costs and discriminatory social norms (ICRW, 2010). This briefing note examines the extent to which social media can be an effective lever to amplify women’s voices and identify strategies to better facilitate their impact on decision-making processes. Over the past seven years, the OECD Development Centre’s Wikigender platform1 has been engaging with a cross-section of gender equality actors, from civil society to governments, as a means of promoting women’s voices in policy-making fora.