Social networking by the youth in the UAE: A privacy paradox

Abstract

This paper has been written to take a deeper look into the influences which affect the way people decide to use the social networking websites. The main focus of the paper is to find why identities are being hidden by the youth in the UAE while using the social networking websites. It is believed that UAE social networking users do not reveal their identities mainly because of the culture and privacy. A survey has been conducted to collect data about the most visited online social networking websites in the UAE, the gender who uses them to the most. Also, the survey questions were prepared to explore the reasons for hiding personal information by some users, analyze the results and define the advantages and disadvantages of this hiding personal information.