A Counterargument to Hussein Shobokshi’s “Saudi Tweets!”

This morning, I read Hussein Shobokshi’s article in the Saudi Gazette, Saudi Tweets!. I myself am an avid Saudi twitter user, and was in agreement with much of what Mr. Shobokshi said until I came to the last two paragraphs of his piece:

“Twitter has “exposed” Saudis to the world and the world to them like nothing they have seen before or were used to. With this comes a series of growing pains as freedom of expression becomes freedom to insult without enough rules, laws and awareness to protect the users. The experience can easily turn ugly and destructive. 

Twitter, with its limited 140 characters per tweet, has become the de facto strongest source of news and information and with that comes huge expectations which unfortunately in Saudi Arabia seems far away from attained.”

Twitter has not merely “exposed” Saudis to the world, but it has more importantly exposed Saudis to one another! In a society where gender segregation is heavily in place and where talking to strangers – even smiling at them – is a strong taboo, Twitter provides a window to get to know members of society. Neighbors, distant cousins, even coworkers – they all get to know each other by way of Twitter.

These people may see each other a few times a year and keep their conversations formal (as is custom in Saudi with anyone who is not a member of the immediate family), but it is through their tweets – their 140 character long blasts of frustration, gladness, pondering, or admiration – that they truly get to know each other. That they truly discover how their fellow Saudi citizen’s mind works, thus learning more about their nation and culture as a whole.

I wouldn’t call Saudis experience on Twitter “destructive” – because there is nothing bad about discovering the intricately intertwined truths that form our society. The backwards ideologies that exist and manifest themselves in extremely rude tweets of chastisement are what Saudi society needs! They are what will push us to change, to question those ideologies by tweeting even more, to debate, to challenge, to continuously educate ourselves. Just as the negative tweets will push us to change, so do the positive ones. It is only on Twitter that Saudi’s can find other like-minded Saudis and get to know them and the projects they are working on, the passionate visions they hold for Saudi’s growth and future. Twitter is a tool for collaboration, an invitation to get to know the people we share our world with – in this case, the Saudi world.

Saudi consists of a largely fractured society, though we often deny this and hide our flaws behind the perfect whole that is Islam. Twitter, through the insults “without enough rules, laws, and awareness to protect the users,” in the words of Mr. Shobokshi, is precisely what we need to recognize the problems that threaten our society’s development. Only upon recognizing these problems and getting to know each other can we work together to steadily move upward, tackling one problem at a time – one tweet at a time.

On belief

 When I think of what I believe, I think of what I stand for, and I’m tempted to say I stand for a lot of things. I’m tempted to say I stand for world peace, for the equal treatment of all humans. I’m tempted to say I stand for loyalty, honesty, integrity – tempted to list the numerous virtues I’ve learned from fairytales. There’s a strong urge to list all that I know as good and honorable as my own beliefs – all that is ideal. But then, I think about my own life, my own choices, and I am reminded that life is in no way ideal, that to think it so is painfully naïve. Life is not simple. Not black or white, not good or bad, not right or wrong. Life is grey and grey is complicated.

I believe in learning to maneuver the grey. I believe in forgiveness because we are created to make mistakes and to learn from them. We are created to grow – physically, emotionally, psychologically. Our entire narrative on this earth – as individuals and as the collective whole that is mankind – is a journey of growth. I believe that to fulfill this journey – to grow in the best way possible – one must put oneself first. Before one can contribute wholesomely to the world, or before one can fully help or give to a fellow human being, one must first give and contribute to his or her own self. That is why we are here: to build ourselves. The collective whole cannot be built without sturdy individual pieces – we need strive to be the future’s foundation. I believe in taking baby steps, in working today while aware of tomorrow, yet not allowing the notion of tomorrow to take away from what is now. I believe in recognition of the self – recognition of emotions, of disapproval, of questions and of working to resolve these issues, of striving to come to internal peace – the epitome of human growth.