20th session of URI MENA Cultural Cafe
On Saturday, 29 August 2020, URI MENA Cultural Café was on “The pros and cons of online entertainment content (e.g. Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Game sites, and Social Media platforms)”. Eng. Ayman Zoubi facilitated the session.
Major takeaways:
• We need to watch our “Digital Addiction” by managing our time effectively and maintaining an “internet-life balance”, especially in this COVID 19 pandemic era.
• We should spread awareness of how online contents is misused to empower the powerful; i.e. serving corporate and government agendas.
• With growing reliance on technological media for information, work, leisure, shopping, and communication, the online environment has improved and facilitated our lives. However, this may reduce our privacy and deprive us from enjoying offline social life.
• Online entertainment and social media are like food; they are things we all need because of the fast transformation toward digitalization in business, the job market and social life. Therefore, we need to adapt to this new normal.
• Online entertainment gives us many options, hence we can see what we want any time at almost no cost.
• We need a holistic multisectoral approach (that involves a deliberate collaboration among various stakeholder groups including people, government, civil society, and the private sector) to combat exposing young people to inappropriate or upsetting content (aggressiveness, violence, sexuality, etc.)
