Social media is any Internet or mobile-based technology that promotes social interaction and sharing of user-generated content. It includes blogs and microblogs such as Twitter, social networking sites including Facebook and video sharing sites like YouTube.

The symposium was held to examine the key role that the social media plays in developing communities and bringing individuals that share common interests together.

These individuals not only share opinion, they sometimes take actions that affect society.

“The Jeddah floods were considered the first event that proves the power of social media as it brought a number of volunteers together in order to effect positive change. People became more aware of what is happening in Jeddah because of the social media,” said  Haifa Jamal Al-Lail, president of Effat University.

“We want to make the people aware on how to use the social media and maintain their values.” Ghazi bin Zagar, board member of the Binzagar Group, stressed on the importance of using social media to effect social change.

“Social media is helping the community to act. Social media makes a strong impact on all sectors of the society,” he said.

“The youth have started forming movements, but after the floods, we noticed that a huge number of groups expanded, while other groups changed their activities. In addition, there are groups that faded away because they discovered they did not have any positive impact on society.”

Rasha Hefdi, a Saudi volunteer who is the founder of a charity group established during the Jeddah floods, participated in the event and shared her experiences. She delivered a message for the youth on the importance of using the social media to take positive action.

“Social media can be divided in to two periods, before and after the flood. Facebook had been launched in Saudi Arabia in 2007 and all the available groups were aimless. The flood was considered an awakening moment for the groups,” said Hefdi.

“Without social media tools, we could not mobilize a large number of people. It was otherwise impossible to gain 500,000 volunteers within one month.”

Mohammed Jastiniya, a Saudi volunteer during the Jeddah flood stressed that before the disaster he never had a Facebook account.

“After the floods I started to think about how to form groups of volunteers and help people. I started by using my BlackBerry, then I opened a Facebook account to share appointments, videos, and schedules with friends. In addition, I used the account to invite large number of volunteers,” said Jastiniya.

According to Jastiniya, if the flood had happened two years back, there would not be any help from the volunteers because of the lack of exposure from social media.

Ali Azaoui, a Saudi blogger and volunteer who helped during the Jeddah floods, confirmed that social media was more preferable and believable than the mass media and newspapers.

“By posting the flood diaries on my blog, bringing people from Lebanon and the United Kingdom to see what happened and coordinating relief efforts, I believe that the social media did a great job during the floods. For example, when I went to the flood-hit areas, one of the children there asked me if I was from Facebook,” he said. “The child there didn’t ask whether I am from a newspaper or television channel. This is actually because of the great effort from volunteers through the social media. Social media is considered stronger than the mass media because social media doesn’t follow the agenda of the government.”

Dr. Yeslam Al-Saggaf, research and consultancy institute director of Effat University, confirmed that there are restrictions on what is presented in the mass media in the Arab world.

“Restrictions on freedom of expression dominate the mass media in the Arab world. The social media opened the door for the citizens not only to share ideas, but also to take action,” said Al-Saggaf.

Tony Proudian, Managing Director of Pan Arab Research Center (PARC) in Saudi Arabia, gave a speech on serving the community using the social media. “Social media proves that this world is a small village. We asked people from 27 countries about the financial crisis, all of them gave the same answer (regarding use of social media),” said Proudian.

“Our survey of 27 countries confirmed that all the people who are using the social media are using it for the same reasons, such as browsing, downloading, uploading, sharing videos and chatting.”