Social media orientation of local and global values in the Saudi Arabian context
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https://doi.org/10.70116/2980274185Keywords:
Social media orientation, top-down globalization, Saudi Arabia, fourth ındustrial revolution, values education and clarificationAbstract
The role of social media in influencing personal norms and values has rarely been examined. This position paper addresses the impact of the flood of global values arising from top-down globalization and Western hegemony on Saudi Arabia’s (SA) locality (i.e., religion, culture, and language). Using a neologism coined for this paper – social media orientation (i.e., how values are oriented and perpetuated via social media) – the issue was anchored within the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) with its focus on technological innovation especially social media platforms. I focused on what can be done to preserve SA’s locality in the face of social media orientation to avoid being swept up in the flood of global values that contradicts Islam’s core value system and SA’s core culture and rich heritage. After profiling SA’s locality (Islamic religion, Hofstede’s cultural profile, and the Arabic language), and Saudi’s social media usage patterns, I shared my opinion on how best to protect the locality. The next generation must become flood resilient, so youth can lessen the risk the flood of global values poses for Saudi citizens and the Saudi religious/cultural/language infrastructure and view the flood as a chance to analyze, clarify, and adjust values. Pushback against a juggernaut empowered by social media orientation is possible if the momentum is reframed as an opportunity to leverage the local to redirect the flood to benefit Saudi’s cultural heritage and economic future.
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