Emiratis prolific social media users

Female Emiratis are among the highest users of social media in the world, a study has found.
In an article published by Abu Dhabi based daily, The National, Hanan Abdullah tells of her Master's degree research at the University of Wollongong in Dubai, whereby she discovered that a surprising 99 percent of Emirati teenage girls had at least one email account, compared with 97 percent of Emirati adult women.
It also found that 97 percent of the teenagers in the sample surveyed had three or more accounts on social-media websites, as did 87 percent of the women.
Ms. Abdullah questioned women aged between 17 and 24 years of age, according to a report in Al Ittihad, the Arabic-language sister newspaper of The National.
She said that most survey respondents gave their reasons for the use of social media as sourcing information and socialising with friends, among others.
Ms. Abdullah recommended further studies of social-media usage among young people, as motivations vary according to different age groups.
Instagram was the most commonly used site by teenagers and adults for networking purposes, while the adults preferred Twitter to keep an eye on world events. The study also found most teenagers used YouTube for educational purposes.
According to The National, Emirati teenage girls supported the findings, saying they were avid users of social media to communicate with each other.
Source: WAM