JEDDAH, 20 October 2004 — With the fourth national dialogue on youth approaching, a newly released study sheds some light on issues the young face. A market research company conducted a lifestyle study on Saudi youth and their findings surprised both them and their clients.
Quest is a specialized research company based in Dubai and although its main clients for this sort of research are advertising and marketing companies, their findings can also be used to understand some of our young men and women’s perceptions, challenges and hopes. Significant differences were found between the young men and women randomly selected between 18 and 24. There were also some differences between the young of the three cities chosen for the study, Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam.
The company used qualitative research techniques and ethnography to speak to a cross-section of the target group. Among their key findings is that young men tend to feel powerless and alienated from the rest of society.
Young women, on the other hand, are very pro-active and seeking a wider role in society. They see themselves very much as pioneers and are keen to break down barriers in the workplace and to become good role models and contribute to the development of society.
Quest discovered that there was a lack of understanding and knowledge in the local population, particularly the young. Considering that the population has a very young age profile — 70 percent of Saudis are under 30 — this was a serious setback for advertising agencies. This was despite the fact that many of the leading multinationals have invested considerable sums in youth research in the past.
According to some statistics, by the year 2015 there will be 20 million Saudis under the age of 19. “That is a huge purchasing power, and companies wanted to know how to communicate with them, understand who they are and go beyond the stereotypes,” said Maher Al-Maskeri, projects director at Quest, to Arab News.
For the purpose of this study, the researchers focused on middle to upper class youth and those with at least a high school qualification. Out of the 130 participants, 80 were men and 50 women. The female investigators did not face any problems with the female participants in the study and was relatively straight forward. Information was given freely.
The men were more reserved, particularly with expatriate Arab moderators. To alleviate this, Maher Al-Meskari, who is an Omani national and familiar with the local culture and traditions, was brought in to spend time with the young male participants to befriend himself with them. Once he had built up a basis of trust, he was able to get a better in-depth understanding about how they really felt about their lives.
One of the words which the young men often used to describe their life is “mathloum” — victims of injustice. They feel that adults are too ready to condemn them as being at fault or just plain useless.
Overall, despite having to listen to the multitude frustrations which they complained about, the researchers came away with an optimistic outlook. Many of the young people were intelligent and determined. Their image as timewasters is inaccurate in many cases. Many are just looking for the opportunity to show what they can do.
They categorized the men under three distinct characteristics: dependent, follower and striver. The dependent and follower are the ones who complained the most and although they are not a large group, they are obvious. The strivers are the opinion leaders and they are an important group.
Among the participants, the researchers found that approximately 10 percent of the men in Jeddah are dependent, 30 percent are followers and 60 percent are strivers.
In Riyadh, 50 percent were dependent, 30 percent followers, and 20 percent strivers while in Dammam, 30 percent are dependent, 20 percent followers, and 50 percent strivers. They noticed an increased sense of patriotism among them. For example, in Star Academy show, they supported the Saudi because as one of them said, “I know no one else will support him so it’s my duty.”
They don’t watch television as much as before, although they like the music channels, but prefer the Internet and going to cafes. They all complain of the free time, “even going to the gym is considered useless by their parents who want them only to study, work or pray,” said Al-Maskeri.
Youths from Riyadh would like to live in Jeddah because of the freedom, although it’s hard for them to admit it, and they feel a contradiction because what they are taught is different from reality. Dammam youth consider themselves the ideal Saudi in terms of culture and religion and feel unique because of Saudi Aramco and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. Jeddah youth are the “cool” guys, they know it and the others know it too.
The young women represent a radical and ambitious generation. They see themselves better educated than their mothers and believe that this education will be the springboard for them to play a much wider role in society. They talk about the duality they need to have in their lives, in terms of having a role to play both “within and outside homes”.
They are losing their respect for their male counterparts — the extent of this surprised the researchers — and they feel that they have a lot to offer in confronting the problems of daily life. The women were categorized as assertive, progressive or submissive. The assertive type are independent and don’t feel they need a man, they are mostly from upper class and have been exposed to Western culture; they are a minority.
The progressive are the open-minded women who are financially independent and modern but within limits; they are the majority. And the submissive are the ones who feel they need a man and grow up believing that she must have a husband and kids and obey the man; they are also a minority.
Some of the girls expressed a fear of getting married — especially to Saudis — because they distrust them and believe that they will stand in the way of their education and career and hold negative opinions of them.
A majority of them are hungry for learning and work hard and feel they have the power to do something and maybe even take over from men. They also expressed different views on hijab. Perhaps the difference in attitude between the guys and girls is, society’s expectations. “Society does not expect much from girls but have high expectations of boys,” said Al-Maskeri.
There were some similarities though. Both expressed annoyance with some of the television advertisements. “They thought the ads were insulting and stupid. They don’t represent them in the accent, the look, the setting,” said Al-Maskeri.
Friendship was very important for them. They trust their friends too much.
