THE INTERNET AND THE EVOLVING U.A.E.The Emirates Internet Project - Year II

Dr. Ilhem AllaguiDr. Harris Breslow

Table of Contents

Introduction 1Executive Summary 2I. Brief Facts About the U.A.E 5 A. Population 5 Total Population 5 Age Structure 5 Ethnic Composition 5 B. Urbanization 5 C. Telecommunications Infrastructure 5 Fixed Lines Telephony 5 Broadband Internet 5 Mobile Services Telephony 5 D. Economy Rankings 5II. Research Methodology 6 Quantitative Survey Research 6III. Internet Usage Profile 7 A. Who Uses the Internet 7 Gender 8 Age 9 Education 9 Househod Income 10 Location of Residence 10 Internet Users’ Nationality 10 B. Internet Access 11 History of Internet Use 11 Frequency of Internet Access 11 Internet Connectivity in the Home 12 Non-Users 12IV. What Internet Users in the UAE Do When They Are Online 15 Frequency of Internet Usage 15 The Internet as a Source of Information 16 Knowledge Acquisition via the Internet 16 Online Media Usage 17 Ecommerce 18 Ecommerce Security 19 The Reliability of Information Found online 19

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V. The Social Impact of the Internet in the UAE 21 Impact of the Internet Upon Social Relationships: Friends and Family 21 Impact of the Internet on Time Spent with Family by Nationality and Age 22 Impact of the Internet on Time Spent with Friends by Nationality and Age 25 Impact of the Internet on Time Spent with People Who Share the Same Interests, Hobbies, Profession or Religion 27 Language Used Most Often When Using the Internet 28 Importance of Media Sources of Information 29 Involvement in the Production of Web Content 30VI. The Internet and the Public Sphere in the UAE 31 A. The Internet and Perceptions of Governance 31 Freedom of Political Speech Online 31 Online Criticism of the Government and the Online Expression of Extreme Ideas 32 B. Regulation and Policing of the Internet 32 Government Regulation of the Internet 32 Surveillance of Online Activities 32 C. The Use of the Internet in the Preservation of National Identity 33 The Role of the Internet in the Preservation of National Identity 33 Expatriate Consumption of News from the Home Country 33VII. Conclusions From the Second Year of the EIP 36

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Table of Figures

Figure 1 Internet Usage by Gender 8Figure 2 Internet Users by Age 9Figure 3 Internet Users’ Education 9Figure 4 Internet Users’ Monthly Household Income (US $) 10Figure 5 Internet Connectivity by Emirate 10Figure 6 Internet Users’ Nationality 10Figure 7 History of Internet Usage 11Figure 8 Frequency and Type of Internet Access 12Figure 9 Type of Internet Connectivity in the Home 12Figure 10 Percentage of Respondents Who Access the Internet 12Figure 11 Reasons for Not Accessing the Internet 13Figure 12 Frequency of Internet Usage 15Figure 13 Frequency of Use of the Internet as a Source of Information 16Figure 14 Knowledge Acquisition via the Internet 16Figure 15 Frequency of Online Media Usage 17Figure 16 Frequency of Ecommerce Activities 18Figure 17 Concern in the UAE Over Ecommerce Security 19Figure 18 The Reliability of Information Online 19Figure 19 The Impact of the Internet Upon Social Relationships in the UAE 21Figure 20 Impact of the Internet on Time Spent with Family by Nationality and Age 22Figure 21 Effect of the Internet on Time Spent With Friends by Nationality and Age 25Figure 22 Effect of the Internet on Time Spent With Friends by Nationality and Age 27Figure 23 Language Most Often Used for Email and Instant Messaging 28Figure 24 Language of Websites Most Often Visited 28Figure 25 Importance of Media as Sources of Information 29Figure 26 Respondents’ Involvement in the Production of Web Content 30Figure 27 Perceptions of Online Governance in the UAE 31Figure 28 Internet Use in the Preservation of National Identity 33Figure 29 Frequency of Expatriate Consumption of News from the Home Country 33Figure 30 Internet Use to Learn of Current Affairs in the UAE 34

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Introduction

Research for the World Internet Project in the United Arab Emirates is being conducted under the auspic-es of the Emirates Internet Project (EIP). The EIP is housed in the Department of Mass Communication, at the American University of Sharjah. The EIP’s lead investigator is Dr. Ilhem Allagui. Dr. Harris Breslow serves as a principal investigator.

This report is based on a quantitative survey of 1000 respondents, aged 16 and older. Research for this re-port was carried out through face-to-face interviews and telephone surveys.

Of the 1000 respondents, 90% of the responses came from individuals residing in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah. These emirates have been oversampled due to the fact that, of the seven emirates that comprise the UAE, these three are the largest, contain the high-est degree of Internet penetration, have the greatest amount of infrastructural development, and are re-sponsible for the lion’s share of the country’s eco-nomic activity.

The authors would like to thank the Office of Re-search, American University of Sharjah, for provid-ing an initial Faculty Research grant with which to carry out analysis of the data for the initial research for EIP I. We would also like to thank Dr. Mark Rush, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, American University of Sharjah, and Dr. Thomas Hochstettler, Provost, American University of Sharjah, for their continued financial assistance and support for the Emirates Internet Project, its ongoing research, and dissemination.

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Executive Summary

The Emirates Internet project (EIP) surveys Inter-net usage by residents of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It describes patterns of Internet access, usage, and attitudes amongst a sample of Internet users that comprise 93% of the survey’s respondents.

The EIP survey consists of a sample of 1000 respon-dents during the months of February, March and April 2010

GenderThere is no gender divide in the United Arab Emirates regarding Internet usage.

● 60% of Internet users in the UAE are male ● 40% of Internet users in the UAE are female

AgeRespondents who use the Internet tend to be of Uni-versity age or older.

● 60% of respondents who report using the Inter-net are between the ages of 19 and 30

● 20% of respondents who report using the Inter-net are between the ages of 31 and 40

● 16% of respondents who report using the Inter-net are above the age of 40

EducationUsers of the Internet in the UAE are very highly edu-cated.

● 24% of Internet users report that they have at-tended or are currently attending a university

● 60% of Internet users report that they have a Baccalaureate degree, or higher

History of AccessThe majority of Internet users in the UAE have a great deal of online experience.

● Less than one in six respondents (14%) reports using the Internet for less than three years.

● Slightly more than one in three respondents (34%) report using the Internet between 5 and 10 years

● Almost half of the respondents (48%) report us-ing the Internet between 10 and 15 years

Non-UsersRespondents who do not access the Internet do not do so for reasons related primarily to knowledge and culture.

● Almost three in ten respondents (28%) state that they have no time to connect to the Internet

● Slightly more than one in four respondents (27%) report that they don’t know how to con-nect to the Internet

● Almost one in five respondents (17%) claim that they have no interest in connecting to the Internet

Frequency of Type of Internet UsageInternet usage in the UAE is primarily to facilitate person-to-person communication.

● More than four in five respondents (84%) check their email at least once per day

● More than two in three respondents (69%) use an Internet messaging service at least once per day

● Almost nine in ten respondents (87%) use an In-ternet messaging service at least once per week

● More than four in five respondents use an In-ternet messaging service at least once per week

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Respondents are adverse to both writing and reading blogs.

● More than four in five respondents (81%) report never having written any form of blog

● Almost half of all respondents (45%) report reading a blog less than once per month or nev-er at all

EcommerceEcommerce is in its infancy in the UAE.

● At least six in ten respondents report making purchases online (63%), booking travel reser-vations online (61%), or investing in stocks and bonds (82%), less than once per month or never at all

● More than half of the respondents (54%) report paying bills online once per month or never at all

● Slightly more than half of respondents (52%) report having researched product information on at least a weekly basis

Ecommerce SecurityConcerns over the security of the Internet with respect to ecommerce are prevalent amongst respondents in the UAE.

● Approximately half of all respondents (48%) report that they are, at the least, very concerned about ecommerce security

● Almost three in four respondents (73%) report that they are at least somewhat concerned about ecommerce security

● Less than one in six respondents (14%) report that they have no concerns regarding ecom-merce security

Reliability of Information Found on the World Wide WebRespondents believe that most of the information found on the World Wide Web is accurate.

● Two in five respondents (42%) believe that

most or all of the information found on the World Wide Web is reliable

● More than four in five respondents (86%) be-lieve that at least half of the information found on the World Wide Web is reliable

● Less than one in six users (14%) believes that little to none of the information found on the web is reliable

Impact of the Internet Upon Social Relationships: Friends and FamilyInternet use in the UAE may be said to have had a moderately negative impact upon family relation-ships.

● One in four respondents (25%) report that they are spending the same amount of time with their family

● Less than one in six respondents (13%) report that they are spending less time with their fam-ily

● Three in five respondents (60%) report spend-ing more time with their family

Internet use in the UAE may be said to have had a moderately positive impact on social relationships outside of the home.

● Almost seven in ten respondents (68%) report spending more time with friends since the ad-vent of their Internet use

● Approximately one five respondents (19%) re-ports spending at least the same amount of time with friends since they began to use the Internet

● Less than one in ten respondents (9%) reports spending less time with friends since they start-ed using the Internet

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Language Used While OnlineRespondents overwhelmingly report that the language they most often use while online is English.

● More than four in five respondents (82%) re-port that the language they most often use on the World Wide Web is English

● One in six respondents (16%) reports that the language they most often use on the World Wide Web is Arabic

● More than three in four respondents (76%) report using English for email and instant messaging

● Approximately one in 16 respondents (6%) re-ports using Arabic for email and instant messag-ing

● Approximately one in six respondents (16%) re-ports using both Arabic and English equally for email and instant messaging

Importance of Media as a Source of InformationThe Internet has clearly supplanted all other mass me-dia as the most important source of Information in the UAE.

● More than three in four respondents (77%) state that the Internet is either an important or very im-portant source of information

● More than three in five respondents (61%), claim that television is either an important or very im-portant source of information

● Almost three in five of respondents (57%) claim that newspapers are either an important or very important source of information

Involvement in the Production of Web ContentAlthough respondents in the UAE are active consum-ers of Internet content, they are not necessarily active producers of Internet content.

● More than half of the respondents (55%) have a social networking page

● Slightly less than one in five respondents (19%) write a weblog

● Less than one in ten respondents (7%) have a website

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I. Brief Facts About the U.A.E.

A. Population

Total Population ● 5,149,114

Age Structure ● 0-14 years: 20.4%

M: 537,925 F: 513,572

● 16-64 years: 78.7% M: 2,968,958 F: 1,080,717

● 65+ years: 0.9% M: 30,446 F: 17,046

Median Age: 30.2 years Male: 32.1 years Female: 24.9 years

Ethnic Composition ● Emirati: 19% ● Other Arab / Iranian: 23% ● South Asian: 50% ● Other Expatriates: 8%1

● Expatriates comprise 81% of the total popula-tion

● Expatriates comprise 85% of the labor force ● Expatriates comprise 74% of the population

aged 15-64

B. Urbanization ● 84% of total population ● Rate of urbanization is 2.3% annual rate of

change (2010-15 estimates)

C. Telecommunications InfrastructureFixed Lines Telephony:

● Fixed Lines services Total Subscribers: (mil-lions) 2011: 1.71*

● Fixed Lines Services Total Subscribers: (mil-lions) 2010: 1.55*

● Fixed Line Penetration (population) 2011: 30.6%*

Broadband Internet: ● Total Subscribers 2011 (millions): 0.85* ● Total Subscribers 2010 (millions): 0.71* ● Broadband penetration 2011 (population):

15.3%* ● Broadband penetration 2010 (population):

10.6%** ● Broadband penetration 2010 (Households):

40%*** ● Broadband penetration 2009 (Households): +

60% ****(75%)

Mobile Services Telephony: ● Mobile lines Total Subscribers 2011 (millions):

11.15* ● Mobile lines Total Subscribers 2010 (millions):

10.68* ● Mobile penetration 2011 (population): 199.3%* ● Mobile penetration 2010 (population): 202.7%* ● 3G Subscribers as a percentage of Total 2009:

28%

D. Economy RankingsGDP (Purchasing Power Parity) 53GDP (Real Growth Rate) 140 GDP / Capita 21GDP / Capita (Purchasing Power Parity) 21

1 Other expatriates are comprised of Westerners and East Asians. * This data are available at http://www.tra.gov.ae/latest_statistics.php** This data is available at http://www.internetworldstats.com/middle.htm#ae*** This data is available at http://www.futuregov.asia/articles/2011/may/19/uae-aims-100-

cent-broadband-connectivity/**** This data is available at : http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidZAW-

YA20091208043115/Household%20penetration%20of%20broadband%20rising%20in%20the%20region

***** All economic ranking is available at the CIA World Fact Book available at: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ae.html#Econ

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II. Research Methodology

Quantitative Survey Research ● N= 1,000 ● Respondents are 16 years and older ● 90% of respondents reside in Abu Dhabi, Dubai,

or Sharjah ● These emirates have been oversampled because

they are the three largest, contain the highest degree of Internet penetration, have the greatest amount of infrastructural development, and are responsible for the lion’s share of the country’s economic activity.

The EIP survey has been conducted by face-to-face interviews with respondents primarily in shopping malls and occasionally via door-to-door household interviews. In the UAE random contact on the street, while not legally prohibited, is generally seen to be inappropriate. As a result, face-to-face interviews are conducted in malls, which comprise the most popular public space in the UAE. Residents of the UAE spend an average of 127 hours per year visiting the country’s shopping malls. This may skew the data: Fully half of the population is of South Asian heritage, and the large majority of this group is comprised of laborers. These individuals are typically very undereducated, have little to no access to digital telephony beyond a basic mobile phone, do not live in households that may have access to a broadband connection (they live in labor housing facilities) and are very rarely to be found in shopping malls.

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III. Internet Usage Profile

A. Who Uses the Internet

Gender

Figure 1 Internet Usage by Gender

As with the results from EIP 2009, the results from EIP 2010 indicate that there is no gender divide in the UAE with respect to Internet Access. Indeed, females report somewhat higher proportional levels of Internet use than do their male counterparts: Al-though female residents account for 32% of the total population of the UAE, and 49% of the population of Emirati nationals, they account for 40% of Internet users in the country.

There are possible explanations for this fact. One ex-planation may lie in the fact that the median age of females in the UAE is 25% below that of the median age for males, and that the median age for females (24.7 years) falls within the age range respondents in the UAE who are most likely to use the Internet.

A second explanation for this result may be due to the unique demographic characteristics of the UAE. The population of the UAE is a little more than 5.1 million of which less than 20% are indigenous Emiratis. More than half of the UAE’s total population, and more than five in eight expatriate residents, is South Asian followed by large proportions of expatriate residents from Africa and Europe. The overwhelming majority

of South Asian males are employed as labourers in construction, maintenance, and the many other jobs that employ workers who have low education and low skill levels, and that almost exclusively employ males. This explains the low proportions of female residents with respect to all residents regardless of nationalities, even though they comprise half of the Emirati population. This may also help to explain the overrepresentation of females amongst Internet users: Education and income play a role in the likelihood of Internet use, and may be doing so amongst the popu-lation of expatriate labourers.

A third explanation may lie in levels of education in the UAE. The UAE ensures equal access to education and employment for Emirati females, and as of 2009 female Emiratis spent an average of one additional year in school compared to males. Female students comprise approximately 35% of the total student pop-ulation at all levels of study. As well; more than one in three (35%) of students attending secondary school are female, and one in three students (33%) attend-ing university in the UAE are female. These are very high rates, considering that the male population in the UAE is more than double that of the female popula-tion. In particular we note that females make up only 27% of the population aged 16-74, yet they constitute 33% of university students.

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Age

Figure 2 Internet Users by Age

Our data suggests the clear display of the somewhat typical distribution of Internet usage with respect to age: The older one is, the less likely one is to access the Internet. Three in five respondents (60%) who reported accessing the Internet are between 19 and 30 years of age. Four in five respondents (80%) who reported accessing the Internet are between the ages of 19 and 40. Approximately one in six respondents (16%) who reported accessing the Internet is above the age of 40.

Young people who can, and who can afford to, access the Internet in public venues such as Internet cafes and coffee shops that offer Internet access via WiFi (80.11b/g/n wireless standard). It should be noted that Internet cafes in the UAE charge exorbitant rates for both computer use and Internet access. As well, and unlike many places in the West, most of the cof-fee shops in the UAE do not offer free WiFi access. The two mobile providers, Eitsalat and Du, directly provide WiFi access in coffee shops, and both charge relatively expensive fees for this access.

As well, the majority of respondents between the ages of 18-25 are enrolled in some type of educational in-stitution. As such they are able to take advantage of free Internet access when they are on campus.

Education

The results found in EIP II with respect to the rela-tionship between education and Internet access reflect the results found in EIP I.

Figure 3 Internet Users’ Education

Approximately one percent of Internet users report having completed primary school education, or less.Four percent of Internet users report having complet-ed middle or secondary school, or report that they are attending secondary school.More than one in ten Internet users (11%) reports having graduated a high school or vocational school.Almost one in four Internet users (24%) reports at-tending or having attended a college or university.Three in five Internet users (60%) report having a col-lege/university degree (Baccalaureate) or higher.

These results reflect two facts. First; note that more than four in five respondents (84%) reporting Internet usage have, at minimum, some university education. All colleges and universities in the UAE have access to the Internet, and one can postulate that with ac-cess to a higher education facility comes the ability to access the Internet. Moreover, Internet access via an educational facility may be used as a substitute for Internet access at either Internet cafes, or cafes that provide WiFi access via Etisalat or Du, whose relatively high rates may create a barrier to entry for those without access at an educational institution.

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Second; this data tends to reflect the fact that approx-imately half the population in the country does not have the means to have regular access to the Internet. Internet use will thus skew towards respondents who have the financial means—and these respondents are, typically, also well educated.

Household Income

These results corroborate our assertion (immediately above) regarding the fact that Internet use in the UAE is skewed towards individuals who are educated. In-deed, there is a correlation between income and edu-cation with respect to Internet usage. More than one in five respondents (21%) who reports using the Internet also reports an annual income of at least $US 80,000. Approximately two in five respondents (39%) report an income of at least $US 50,000.

Figure 4 Internet Users’ Monthly Household Income (US $)

Location of Residence

Figure 5: Internet Connectivity by Emirate

● 54% of Internet users reside in Dubai ● 29% of Internet users reside in Sharjah ● 13% of Internet users reside in Abu Dhabi ● 4% of Internet users reside in one of the other

Emirates

As discussed, above, we have purposely oversampled Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah owing to their sta-tus as the three Emirates with the largest populations, highest rates of urbanization, most extensive tele-communications infrastructure, and the greatest share of the country’s economic activity. We plan to fully roll out our survey to the remainder of the Emirates in future iterations of EIP.

Internet Users’ Nationality

● Approximately one in eight Internet users (13%) is an Emirati

● Arab expatriates comprise approximately two in five (42%) Internet users

● Expatriate residents from all Asian countries combined comprise slightly more than one in four (28%) Internet users

● Approximately one in eight (13%) Internet us-ers are from a Western country.

Figure 6: Internet Users’ Nationality

The survey results reflect several things. First; the re-sults reflect our intentional oversampling of the three largest Emirates in general, and Dubai in particular.

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These Emirates have the largest expatriate populations, both in absolute terms and as a percentage of the total population of each Emirate. This may be the reason behind the underreporting of Emiratis as Internet users.

Our results also reflect the fact that a large percentage of the South Asian population does not have access to the Internet as a result of income, education, or other factors. Fully half of the resident population of the UAE is South Asian, and greater than half of the resi-dent population (perhaps as much as three in five resi-dents) of the UAE is either South Asian or East Asian. And yet only one in four Internet users are from any Asian country. We can infer from our results a clear correlation between income, education, and access to the Internet. Clearly the idea of universal access to the Internet has yet to gain traction in the UAE.

B. Internet Access

History of Internet Use

Figure 7 History of Internet Usage

● Slightly more than one in three respondents (34%) report using the Internet for between five and ten years

● More than four in five respondents (81%) report using the Internet between five and fifteen years

Given that widespread Internet access dates to 1995, and that approximately two-thirds (65%) of respon-dents date the start of their access from 1995-1999, we believe that this result reflects the usage history of the North American and Western European expatri-ates living in the UAE.

Frequency of Internet AccessA large majority of Internet users in the UAE report accessing the Internet for ten hours per week, or less, regardless of either location or type of access.

● Two in three respondents (67%) who access the Internet from a wired PC in the home report do-ing so for ten hours per week, or less. More than four in five (85%) respondents who access the Internet from a wired PC in the home report do-ing so for 20 hours per week or less.

● Two in three respondents (67%) who access the Internet from a wired PC at work report doing so for ten hours per week or less. Slightly less than four in five respondents (79%) who access the Internet from a wired PC at work report do-ing so for 20 hours per week or less.

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● Slightly more than seven in ten respondents (72%) who access the Internet from a wired PC at school report doing so for ten hours per week, or less. Slightly more than three in four respon-dents (76%) who access the Internet from a wired PC at school report doing so for 20 hours per week, or less.

● Slightly more than three in four respondents (76%) who access the Internet from a wired PC from anywhere other than home, school, or work report doing so for ten hours per week, or less. Slightly more than four in five respondents (81%) who access the Internet from a wired PC from anywhere other than home, school, or work report doing so for 20 hours per week, or less.

● Slightly more than seven in ten respondents (72%) who access the Internet from a cell phone report doing so for ten hours per week, or less. More than four in five respondents (86%) who access the Internet from a cell phone report do-ing so for 20 hours per week, or less.

Figure 8: Frequency and Type of Internet Access

Internet Connectivity in the Home

Figure 9: Type of Internet Connectivity in the Home

Broadband Internet access in the UAE has achieved a high degree of market penetration.More than three in four respondents (78%) report having broadband Internet access in their homes.Just more than one in ten respondents (12%) report using a dial up service at home in order to access the Internet.One in twenty respondents (5%) reports using mobile broadband service in order to access the Internet in the home.

Non-Users

Almost one in ten users (9%) reports that they do not access the Internet.

Figure 10: Percentage of Respondents Who Access the Internet

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Of the reasons stated to explain the lack of Internet ac-cess the three most interesting are “don’t know how” (27%), “no interest” (17%), and “no access” (13%). Our figures for all three of these responses are within the margin of error in comparison to those obtained in EIP I, in 2009.

Figure 11: Reasons for Not Accessing the Internet

As with EIP 2009, the response “no interest” (17%) ranks third amongst answers given by respondents, and is clearly the most interesting. It must be under-stood that many residents of the UAE, and the greater GCC for that matter, lead what people in the West might understand as parochial and/or cloistered lives that center on God, family, clan and/or tribe and work. For these people the Internet is a technology that is seen to add nothing to the quality of their lives; devo-tion to God occurs in the mosque, devotion to family occurs in the home, devotion to clan/tribe and one’s work life occur within the immediate community.

Furthermore, “traditional” Arab lives in the GCC are organized around, and lived within, layers of privacy: This principle has, in the past, guided the design of houses, the organization of cities and villages, and one’s conduct in the public sphere. This is unlike the West, where for almost half a millennium life has been organized around the principles of publicity and the public sphere. In this respect the Internet may be viewed and understood as something “extraneous” and inappropriately public; and the knowledge found on the net unnecessary or inappropriate to the respon-

dents’ conduct of their lives. We postulate that this is the reason behind the high percentage of respondents who report that they do not access the Internet be-cause they have no interest in doing so.

Because the median age of the UAE is comparatively low, and the monthly incomes reported by respon-dents comparatively high, one might infer from these facts that the technological knowledge required for basic Internet access (logging onto the Internet and launching a browser, for instance) would be more widespread than our responses indicate. The persis-tence in the frequency of the response, “don’t know how”, 25% in EIP I, 27% in EIP II, is thus very in-teresting.

This response may be understood in three ways. One way of understanding this is in light of the number of respondents who report that they have no interest in accessing the Internet. In this respect, the large num-ber of respondents reporting that they do not have the requisite knowledge with which to access the Internet may be serving as a substitution for stating a cultural predisposition leading to a lack of interest in access-ing the Internet.

A second explanation for the frequency of this re-sponse lies in the discrepancies found in primary and secondary education in the UAE. Emirati nationals and expatriates alike enroll their children in prima-ry and secondary schools of varying infrastructural quality. The existence of training in basic computer skills, and access to the Internet may thus be playing a role in respondents having the requisite knowledge with which to access the Internet.

Lastly, given the predominance of expatriate residents from less-developed countries, it may also be postu-lated that the high frequency of this response is due to the fact that a significant proportion of residents in the UAE have not had, and do not have, either the opportunity or means to have, the requisite training

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in basic computer and Internet skills. This correlates with our discussion of the nationality of respondents who report accessing the Internet, above.

The third most popular response, “no access” (13%), although lower than in EIP I (18%), can be seen as evidence that the UAE’s Internet infrastructure build-out, while perhaps proceeding apace, has yet to be completed. This may also reflect the continuing costs associated with 3G cellular connectivity and the lim-ited throughput speeds that 3G cellular connectivity offers users. This statistic is in line with, and serves to demonstrate the effects of the very low—although region-leading—broadband penetration rate of 14%. This statistic may also corroborate our assertions, above, regarding the predominance of Western expa-triates’ use of the Internet in the UAE.

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Consistent with the results obtained in EIP I, the results in EIP II continue to show that Internet use in the UAE is primarily for peer-to-peer (P2P) communication; ei-ther for institutional, commercial, or interpersonal rea-sons. More than two in five Internet users (46%) check their email more than once per day, and more than four in five users (84%) check their email at least once per day. More than half of Internet users (54%) send an attachment with their email at least once per day, and four in five users (80%) report doing so at least once per week. Greater than two in three users (69%) use some form of Internet messaging service to chat online at least once per day, while almost nine in ten respon-dents (87%) report doing so at least once per week.The results in EIP II also continue to demonstrate that, despite the extremely high percentage of expatriate residents, VoIP telephony in the UAE may only be on the verge of emerging from its infancy in comparison

to other forms of P2P communication: Although more than two in five respondents (44%) make use of the Internet for VoIP telephony at least once per week an equal proportion of respondents (42%) report having never used the Internet to make a VoIP call, or having done so less than once per month,. Although Internet messaging is extremely popular, the use of chatrooms is not: three in five Internet users (59%) report visiting chatrooms at most on a monthly basis, while two in five do so at least once per week, and only one in five (22%) report visiting chatrooms at least once per day. Given the low median age of the overall population, one would expect these results to be higher.

Our results also corroborate our discussion in EIP I, and above, concerning the nature and importance of privacy in the Arab world. The most popular forms of Internet usage are those that tend to reinforce and main-

IV. What Internet Users in the UAE Do When They Are Online

Frequency of Internet Usage Figure 12 Frequency of Internet Usage

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tain personal relationships, while those that encourage more “public” forms of behavior (for example, chat-rooms) are far less popular. This may also explain the aversion towards blogging: More than four in five re-spondents (81%) report never having written any form of blog, while more than two in five respondents (45%) report reading a blog less than once per month or never at all.

The Internet as a Source of Information

Figure 13: Frequency of Use of the Internet as a Source of Infor-

mation

Our results continue to show that the concept of the Internet as the fount of a variety of information is still in its infancy in the UAE. Twice as many respondents (51%) report having used the Internet for a job search less than once per month or never at all than do those who report having done so at least once per week (24%). A significantly larger proportion of respondents (45%) report having read a blog less than once per month or never at all than those who report doing so at least once per week (34%). An equal percentage of respondents (40%) report either using the Internet in order to search for humorous content less than once per month or never at all, or having done so at least once per week. Despite the presence of both the re-gion’s largest and most important air travel hub (Dubai International Airport), and the extremely high income levels reported by the survey’s respondents, more than two in five respondents (43%) report using the Inter-net to search for travel information less than once per month or never at all.

In contrast to these results, more than seven in ten re-spondents (73%) report using the Internet at least once per week to search for news, while approximately half of respondents (49%) report doing so at least once per day. More than two in five respondents (44%) report using the Internet to search for information related to their health at least once per week, some 50% greater than those who report having done so less than once per month or never at all (30%).

Knowledge Acquisition via the Internet

Figure 14: Knowledge Acquisition via the Internet

Although its status as a source of information is in some question, and is contingent upon the type of information being researched, the Internet has estab-lished itself as a source of knowledge acquisition and a pedagogic supplement in the UAE. Two in three re-spondents (66%) report using the Internet for finding or checking facts at least once per week, and two in three respondents (65%) report using the Internet to look up vocabulary definitions at least once per week. Half of all respondents (52%) report using the Internet to find information for schoolwork at least once per week.Where the Internet has not gained purchase in the UAE is as a pedagogic environment. Almost two in three re-spondents (64%) report having used the Internet for distance learning or job training less than once per month or never at all.

The use of the World Wide Web is almost as popular as P2P communication. More than nine in ten respondents (93.4%) report accessing the Internet for the purpose of

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surfing the web, while almost two in three respondents (65%) report doing so at least once per day. Not sur-prisingly for a culture where gambling is prohibited by faith, more than two in three respondents (68%) report that they have never used the web for the purposes of online gambling. An equal percentage (just over half) of all respondents reports accessing the Internet for ei-ther the purposes of downloading and playing videos or music (62% and 61%, respectively).Of keen interest to these authors is the fact that the use of the World Wide Web in order to visit religious or spiritual web sites has yet to catch on in the UAE. More than two in five respondents (44%) report visit-ing religious or spiritual sites less than once per month or never at all. Almost two in three respondents (65%) report visiting religious or spiritual sites on a monthly basis or less. Less than one in three respondents (30%) report visiting religious or spiritual web sites on at least a weekly basis.

Online Media Usage

An examination of online media usage corroborates our assertion, above, that the use of the Internet in the UAE as a source of information is still in its infancy. One in three respondents (33%) reports reading an on-line newspaper on a daily basis, and less than one in four respondents (24%) reports listening to a radio sta-tion online on at least a weekly basis. More than two in five respondents (45%) report having read a blog on less than a monthly basis or never at all, regardless of content. More than half of all respondents report either downloading and listening to music on a daily basis (55%), or report downloading and watching video con-tent on a daily basis (56%).

EIP 2010 results for online media usage generally fall within the margin of error when compared with those of EIP 2009. Where they differ significantly, however, is with regards to the downloading of either music or video content. Only one in five respondents (20%) to EIP 2009 reported either downloading or listening

to music online on at least a weekly basis. A similar percentage (21%) reported downloading or watching online video content on at least a weekly basis. These figures are less than 40% of those reported in EIP 2010.

Figure 15: Frequency of Online Media Usage

There are several potential explanations for this large discrepancy. The first explanation concerns the contin-ued growth of smartphone ownership, as well as the introduction of media tablets, such as the iPad. Recall that approximately one in five respondents makes use of a mobile broadband connection: Both major tele-communications firms, Etisalat and Du, have aggres-sively marketed mobile broadband services that offer relatively generous data packages. The marketing of these packages has increased in intensity, and their terms—including the sale of a smartphone and/or me-dia tablet at a deeply discounted price—have grown more generous, since the introduction of iPhone4 and the first generation iPad during Q2 2010, along with their Android-based competitors. It could very well be that the introduction of sophisticated mobile-based tools for media consumption are driving the download-ing and streaming of media content in much the same

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way that the introduction of inexpensive and easily-ad-opted broadband technologies in other countries previ-ously did so. We predict that the percentage of respon-dents reporting at least weekly online music and video content use, along with downloading, will continue to climb alongside the aggressive marketing of mobile broadband packages and the smartphones and media tablets that are included with, and sold alongside, these packages.

A second explanation concerns the sample: While we have continued to oversample Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah, the proportion of respondents from Dubai has increased. Dubai is the most “Western” of the seven Emirates. It contains the largest number of Western ex-patriates, the most sophisticated telecommunications apparatus, and Emiratis and other Arabs in general who live in Dubai tend to be more “modern” in out-look, and are more likely to make use of Western pat-terns Internet content consumption than Emiratis and other Arabs in the other six Emirates.

Ecommerce

Figure 10 Frequency of Ecommerce Activities

Ecommerce has made gains in the UAE since EIP I, but continues to remain in its infancy. At least half of the respondents report paying bills (54%), or using on-line banking services (52%) less than once per month or never at all. Additionally, more than three in five respondents report booking travel reservations online (61%), or making online purchases (63%) less than once per month or never at all.There are at least two infrastructural factors that con-tinue to contribute to the low levels of ecommerce ac-tivity in the UAE. The first reason has to do with the

fact that there are very few commercial outlets within the UAE that have either a sophisticated web presence or IT infrastructure that enables ecommerce activities. As a result, online purchases must be made from out-lets overseas, resulting in long delivery times, customs inspections, and frequent additional customs charges upon arrival. This may, in part, be due to the fact that there is a lack of a robust ecommerce security infra-structure in the UAE that surely contributes to the lack of ecommerce activities within the country. The lack of ecommerce security in the country contributes to a lack of trust in online purchases from vendors within the country on the part of consumers, and discourages ven-dors from making the necessary infrastructural invest-ments to their online presence. This will be discussed in detail, below.

The second reason is far more basic in nature: The UAE does not currently employ a system of street ad-dresses; instead residents make use of a PO Box. As a result, all home deliveries made via courier are quite laborious and time consuming in nature. The deliv-ery agent must call the house, arrange a delivery time period—which is typically half a day to a full day in length—and then call the house prior to the delivery for directions to the house. This not only discourages ecommerce purchases on the part of consumers, it also discourages implementing ecommerce-ordering sys-tems on the part of vendors.

Although actual ecommerce activities have yet to be-come popular in the UAE, product research has gained a foothold in the country. More than half of respon-dents (52%) report having researched online infor-mation concerning a product at least once per week. This figure corresponds to the percentage of respon-dents (53%) who reported having done so at least once per week in EIP I. We believe that this reinforces our thoughts concerning the limiting role played by infra-structural factors with respect to ecommerce activities.

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Ecommerce Security

Figure 17: Concern in the UAE Over Ecommerce Security

Concerns over the security of the Internet with re-spect to ecommerce continue to be prevalent amongst respondents in the UAE. Approximately half of all respondents (48%) report that they are, at the least, very concerned about the security of the Internet with respect to the ecommerce activities discussed, above. Almost three in four respondents (73%) report that they are at least somewhat concerned about ecom-merce security. Less than one in six respondents (14%) report that they have no concerns regarding ecommerce security.

These concerns continue to have an effect on the level of ecommerce activity in the UAE. Given the levels of wealth reported by respondents and their propen-sity to consume, and given the limited levels of avail-ability of products that are ideally suited to ecom-merce (books, CDs, DVDs), one would assume that ecommerce would have taken off in the UAE, con-cerns over the web presence of local vendors aside. It should also be noted that the UAE has been the subject of several widespread banking network hacks in the past three years, and that this may be affecting the level of response regarding concern over ecom-merce security.

The Reliability of Information Found Online

Figure 18: The Reliability of Information Online

Our results in EIP II concerning the reliability of the information found online diverge in interesting ways when compared to our results from EIP I. Very similar proportions of respondents (3% in EIP I, 4% in EIP II) either report that none of the information found online is reliable, or that about half the infor-mation found online is reliable (39% EIP I, 43% in EIP II). Interestingly, less than one in six respondents (14%) to EIP II reports that all of the information found online is reliable, while almost three times as many respondents (39%) did so in EIP I. Approxi-mately two in five respondents (42%) continue to be-lieve that most or all of the information found on the World Wide Web is reliable. More than four in five respondents (85%) believe that at least half of the in-formation found on the World Wide Web is reliable. This corroborates our findings and discussion, above, concerning product information searches and the use of the Internet as a source of news.

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Impact of the Internet Upon Social Relationships: Friends and Family

Figure 13 Impact of the Internet Upon Social Relationships: Fam-

ily and Friends

Our results in EIP II concerning the effect of Inter-net usage upon time spent with friends and family di-verge from our results in EIP I. In EIP I slightly more than two in five respondents (43%) reported that time spent with their families was unaffected by their In-ternet usage, while in EIP II one in four respondents (25%) reports that time spent with their family is un-affected by their Internet usage. In EIP I two in five respondents (40%) reported that they spend less time with their family as a result of their Internet usage,

while in EIP II slightly less than one in six respon-dents (13%) report spending less time with their fam-ily as a result of their Internet usage. In EIP I only one in ten respondents (10%) reported spending more time with his or her family since they began using the Internet, while in EIP II three in five respondents (60%) report spending more time with their family since they began using the Internet.Our findings in EIP II confirm our findings in EIP I concerning the effect of the Internet upon time spent with friends. Indeed, we see an even more pro-nounced effect of the Internet upon time spent with friends in EIP II then we did in EIP I: In EIP I al-most one in four respondents (23%) reported spend-ing more time with friends since the advent of his or her Internet use. In EIP II almost seven in ten respon-dents (68%) report spending more time with friends since they began using the Internet. The numeric dis-crepancy in the percentage of respondents reporting spending more time with friends since they began to use the Internet can be accounted for by the decline in the percentage of respondents reporting that their time with friends has remained unchanged since they went online. In EIP I almost three in five respondents (58%) reported that they spent the same amount of time with friends since they began to use the Internet, while in EIP II slightly less than one in five (19%) respondents reports that their time spent with friends is unaffected by their Internet usage. The percentage of respondents who report that they spend less time with their friends since they began to use the Internet remains roughly unchanged: In EIP I slightly more than one in ten respondents (13%) reported that they spent less time with friends since they began to access the Internet, while in EIP II slightly less than one in ten respondents (9%) reports spending less time with friends since they began to go online.

V. The Social Impact of the Internet in the UAE

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As was discovered in EIP I, the picture changes when we break out the results according to age and nation-ality. This reveals a discernable pattern in the data in terms of a correlation between Internet usage, age, and its effect on the time that respondents spend with their family, regardless of nationality, particularly with respect to Emirati respondents and respondents who are Arabs of other national origins. The data shows that the younger one is, the more likely that Internet use is to have a deleterious affect upon the time that one spends with one’s family.

More than one in three respondents (35%) who are Arabs of other national origins and under the age of 18 report that they spend less time with their families

since they began to use the Internet. Approximately one in five Emirati respondents (19%) and respon-dents who are Arabs of other national origins (19%) between the ages of 18 and 25 report that they spend less time with their families since they began to use the Internet. Almost three in ten Asian respondents between the ages of 18 and 25 report that they spend less time with their family since they began to access the Internet.

One in five Emirati respondents (20%) between the ages of 26 and 32 reports that they spend less time with their families since they began to use the Inter-net. One in ten respondents (10%) who are Arabs of other national origins between the ages of 26 and 32

Impact of the Internet on Time Spent with Family by Nationality and by Age

Figure 20: Impact of the Internet on Time Spent with Family by Nationality and Age

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reports that they spend less time with their families since they began to use the Internet. Slightly more than one in ten Asian respondents (11%) between the ages of 26 and 32 report that they spend less time with their family since they began to access the Internet.

Slightly more than one in five Emirati respondents (22%) between the ages of 33 and 40 report that they spend less time with their families since they began to use the Internet, while slightly less than one in five respondents (19%) who are Arabs of other national origins between the ages of 33 and 40 report that they spend less time with their families since they began to use the Internet. Slightly more than one in ten Asian respondents (11%) between the ages of 26 and 32 re-port that they spend less time with their family since they began to access the Internet.

In contrast to this, no Emirati respondent above the age of 40 reported that they spend less time with their family since they began to use the Internet. Virtually no Arab respondents (1%) of other national origins between the ages of 41 and 50 reported spending less time with their families since they began to use the Internet, although almost one in four Arab respon-dents (23%) of other national origins above the age of 50 reported spending less time with their families since they began to use the Internet.

The effect of the Internet upon the time spent with one’s family is much less discernable amongst Asians and Western respondents. Only 1 in 25 Western re-spondents (4%) between the ages of 18 and 25 reports that they spend less time with their family since they began to use the Internet. No respondent of Western origin between the ages of 26 and 40 reports spending less time with their family since they began to use the Internet, while almost one in ten respondents (7%) of Western origin between the ages of 41 and 50, and slightly more than one in ten respondents (11%) of Western origin above the age of 50 report spending less time with their family since they began to use

the Internet. Although no Asian respondents between the ages of 33 and 40 report spending less time with their family since they began to use the Internet, and only one in ten Asian respondents between the ages of 41 and 50 (10%) report spending less time with their family since they began to use the Internet, almost one in five Asian respondents (17%) over the age of 50 reports spending less time with their family since they began to use the Internet.

There are several patterns amongst the data that bear discussion. As with EIP I, there appears to be a point of demarcation concerning the effect of the Internet upon one’s propensity to spend time with one’s fam-ily. In EIP I this point was clearly demarcated at the age of 33, while in EIP II this point of demarcation lies somewhere between the ages of 30 and 40. We continue to posit several reasons for this trend.

The first is the fact that, in 1995, respondents now aged 33 or older were at least 18 years of age, and had already gone through their primary socialization, and thus had already formed their core habits, tastes and patterns of social interaction. We focus on this year because 1995 is typically seen as the moment when Internet usage approaches a tipping point, becoming both technologically viable and economically feasi-ble. This is the point in time when affordable broad-band Internet access first becomes widely available in the west. Similarly, 1995 also marks the advent of the first commercially available web browser—Netscape. While it is true that email proved to be the first “killer app” of the online era—particularly for those in the corporate world—it was the introduction of the World Wide Web that drew people’s attention to the Internet as a leisure activity i.e., an activity that would have consequences for how one spent one’s time, as well as for the formation of patterns of social behavior. This point of demarcation becomes even more evident when one considers that many of the Internet services that young people spend their time engaged in—P2P messaging, social networking sites,

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blogging, streaming audio and video, online gaming of all forms, etc.—literally do not come online until much later in the lives of people aged 33 and older, and thus increasingly further from the moment when the patterns social behavior had been formed.

We are not trying to imply that people aged 33 and older do not make use of the aforementioned features and services of the Internet. We do want to claim, and the data is clear on this point, that respondents aged 33 and older do not make use of the Internet as extensively as younger respondents. The Internet does not serve as a substitute for family interaction amongst respondents who are 33 and older as it does for younger respondents, although it is substituting for other activities heretofore more commonly found amongst respondents aged 33 and older.

It is also possible that the Internet may be serving to enable respondents in the UAE who are over the age of 32 to spend more time with their families as a re-sult of the efficiencies that it enables when working. Internet usage may be serving to offset the increased work responsibilities—and thus the extra amount of time either working or at work—that respondents over the age of 33 often find themselves assuming as they occupy increasingly important positions in their chosen careers. Given our earlier observations con-cerning the relationship between levels of education and Internet access in the UAE it is not inaccurate to draw a correlation between age and work-related responsibilities; admittedly an inherently corporate model, but one that suits the data that our research has produced.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the data sug-gests that we may also be witnessing the sociocul-tural rearticulation of concepts such as “space” and “presence” with respect to Internet usage. Here we refer to the lack of discernible results concerning Western respondents of any age, and the diminution of time spent with family since the advent of their

Internet use. Given their very high levels of educa-tion, income, and Internet savvy, we hypothesize that Western respondents (of all ages) may in fact view their time spent online with distant members of the family as time spent with their family. Should this be the case—and we will test for it in future iterations of EIP—then we may very well be witnessing a reart-iculation of the interpersonal use of concepts such as “space” and “presence”. Heretofore articulated to a sense of corporality and materiality, these concepts may be undergoing a rearticulation within the current techno-cultural conjuncture, such that they are articu-lated to, and signify, a dematerialization of space, and a disembodiment of presence.

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Impact of the Internet on Time Spent with Friends: By Nationality and Age

Figure 21: Effect of the Internet on Time Spent With Friends by

Nationality and Age

In contrast with EIP II’s somewhat mixed results con-cerning the impact of the Internet on time spent with family, a closer examination of the effect of Internet usage on time spent with friends based on breaking out the survey’s general results by both nationality and age reveals that, on the whole, a majority of re-spondents of all nationalities and of all ages reports spending either somewhat more or greatly more time with their friends since first becoming connected to the Internet. There are, however, some exceptions to this general observation. For example, two in three Asian respondents under the age of 18 (67%) report that they spend less time with their friends whereas every Emirati and Western respondent, and two in

three Arab respondents (67%) of other national ori-gins in this age group report that they spend more time with his or her friends since they began to use the Internet.

The survey’s results clearly demonstrate that time spent with friends is far less likely to diminish as a result of Internet usage than time spent with one’s family, regardless of age or nationality. For example; although one in three Asian respondents (33%) under the age of 18 reports that they spend less time with friends since they began to use the Internet, two in three Asian respondents under the age of 18 report that time spent with friends remains unchanged since they began to use the Internet. Large majorities of Emirati respondents (60%), Arab respondents of oth-er national origins (74%), Asian respondents (69%) and Western respondents (57%) between the ages of 18-25 report that time spent with friends has ei-ther somewhat or greatly increased since they began to use the Internet. At least seven in ten Emirati re-spondents (70%), Arab respondents of other national origins (75%), Western respondents (74%) and more than half of Asian respondents (54%) between the ages of 25-32 report that time spent with friends has either somewhat or greatly increased since they be-gan using the Internet. At least half of all Emirati re-spondents (56%), Arab respondents of other national origins (53%), Asian respondents (55%) and Western respondents (50%) between the ages of 33-40 report that time spent with friends has either somewhat or greatly increased since they began using the Internet.

We continue to believe that what the data depicts is an emerging pattern of change with respect to family relationships that is articulated to Internet use. Fam-ily life is particularly important in the Arab world, both culturally and religiously. Amongst Arab cul-tures this is no truer than it is in the GCC countries that, despite their obviously successful efforts at the modernization of their infrastructures and economies, live within what may be described as the most “tra-

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ditional” cultures in the Arab world; cultures that emphasize the sanctity and centrality of the family in everyday life. This may be best seen, for instance, in the prevalence of the construction of family com-pounds amongst those who can afford this; the gath-ering of family members on Fridays, which are often entirely reserved for family activities; and the decid-edly strong influence of the family upon life decisions such as marriage and the pursuit of careers.The fact that large majorities of Emirati and Arab re-spondents of other nationalities under the age of 50 report that the time they spend with their friends has either somewhat or greatly increased since they be-gan to use the Internet continues to be, in our opinion, indicative of a generational shift in patterns of cul-tural behavior in the UAE. To be sure, the Internet is not the sole cause of this shift, and one can point to a variety of cultural facts that may be driving this pro-cess, not the least of which would be the overwhelm-ing predominance of Western mass media across the country and the omnipresent consumerism found amongst the majority of residents in the UAE, regard-less of age or national origin. We do want to argue, however, that what we are seeing is an effect of the rearticulation of relationships amongst the relatively determinant forces within the structure of a complex cultural conjuncture. With this caveat, however, we note that the Internet’s relationship to a shift in what has been a deeply ingrained cultural behavior should be seen as a bellwether indicator of a shift towards Western culture forms, practices and, inevitably, val-ues, on the part of Emiratis and Arabs of other nation-alities under the age of 33. This will be made more evident, below.

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Our insights in EIP I that the most popular forms of Internet usage in the UAE are those that tend to rein-force and maintain personal relationships, while those that encourage more “public” forms of behavior (for example, chat rooms) are far less popular, continue to be corroborated, in EIP II. While the percentage of respondents reporting that the amount of time de-voted to interpersonal relationships with friends and family since respondents’ adoption of the Internet has decisively increased, the impact of the Internet upon other spheres of relationships has been somewhat more muted.

Aside from interpersonal relationships, the only sphere of activity where a majority of respondents report an increase in quality continues to be in their professional lives. Slightly more than half the respon-dents (51%) report that the Internet has either some-what or greatly increased their contact with people in their profession, while approximately three in ten respondents (29%) state that the amount of contact

that they have with people in their profession remains unchanged, and slightly more than one in ten respon-dents (13%) report that their contact with people in their profession has either somewhat or greatly de-creased since they began to use the Internet. We continue to postulate that the advent of email and attachments (along with company intranets), which have become crucial to the operation of any mod-ern commercial enterprise, are the reasons behind the percentage of respondents reporting increase in their contact with others in their profession. At the same time, however, we also note that these very same technologies may also be responsible for some respondents reporting a decrease in their contact with others in their profession.

Fewer than half of all respondents report that their time spent with others people who share the same hobbies and recreational activities, who share the same religion, or who share the same political inter-ests, has increased since they began to use the Inter-

Impact of the Internet on Time Spent with People Who Share the Same Interests, Hobbies, Profession or Religion

Figure 22: Effect of the Internet on Time Spent With People Who Share Interests, Hobbies, Professions, or Religious Beliefs

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net. Slightly more than two in five respondents (43%) report that their time with others who share the same hobbies and recreational activities has increased since they began to access the Internet. Only three in ten in-dividuals (30%) report that their time spent with oth-ers who share the same religion has increased since they began to use the Internet. Slightly more than one in four (28%) individuals report that their time spent with others who share their political interests has in-creased since they began going online.

We want to stress that this does not mean that time spent with others who share the same hobbies and recreational activities, the same religion or the same political interests has simply gone unchanged since the respondents to this survey began to access the In-ternet. One in six respondents (16%) reports that their time spent with others who share the same hobbies or recreational activities has either somewhat or greatly increased since they began to access the Internet. Very slightly more than one in five respondents (21%) re-ports that their time spent with others who share the same religion has either somewhat or greatly declined since they went online. Approximately one in four respondents (24%) reports that their time spent with others who share the same political interests has ei-ther somewhat or greatly declined since they began going online.

Language Used Most Often When Using the In-ternet

Figure 23: Language Most Often Used for Email and Instant

Messaging

As in EIP I, respondents overwhelmingly report that the language they most often use while accessing the Internet is English. Approximately three in four re-spondents (76%) report that the language that they most often use when composing email or instant mes-sages is English. Approximately one in sixteen re-spondents (7%) reports that the language they most often use when composing email or instant messages is Arabic, while very slightly less than one six respon-dents (16%) reports that they use both English and Arabic equally.

Figure 24: Language of Websites Most Often Visited

Respondents report an even greater predominance of the English language when they are queried as to the language of the websites that they most often visit. More than four in five respondents (82%) report that the language of the websites that they most often visit is English. Very slightly less than one in six respon-dents (16%) reports that they language of the web-sites that they most often visit is Arabic. One in fifty respondents reports that the language of the websites that they most often visit is a language other than English or Arabic.Given the lack of Internet penetration in the Arab world this result may not be too surprising. The great-er the Internet penetration within a given linguistic milieu, the more likely the presence of World Wide Web content in that milieu’s dominant language, and thus the likelihood that one will use that particular language while surfing the web.

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However, this means neither that we should not take heed of the potential sociocultural effects, nor that we should see these results as some “natural” state of af-fairs. Rather, we see continue to view the predomi-nance of the English language amongst users of the World Wide Web in the UAE to be a function of the following factors:

●● The●predominance●of●English●language●cultural●content● in●the●UAE—satellite television, mov-ies, music, video games, etc.—and its articula-tion to content found on the web. In this respect these cultural products function as drivers that send consumers of the content to ancillary sites on the web

●● The●importance●of●Western●expatriates●as●con-sumers● to● the●UAE’s● consumer● economy—the majority of who come from the English speak-ing world—and thus the prevalence of English content on local websites.

●● The● sheer● amount● of● web● content● in● English:●Again, we point to the relationship between Internet penetration rates and the language of content found on the web.

●● The●popularity●of●ESL●language●instruction●in●primary●and●secondary●educational●institutions●in●the●UAE.

●● English● as● the● Lingua● Franca● of● the● UAE:●The UAE may very well contain a polyglot of spoken languages, but the one common thread amongst the majority of residents of this coun-try who have both the means and the capabil-ity to access the Internet is the ability to speak English, which exists as a de facto lingua franca in the UAE.

Importance of Media Sources of Information

Figure 25: Importance of Media as Sources of Information

The results of EIP II continue to indicate that the In-ternet has clearly supplanted all other mass media as the most important source of information in the UAE. More than three in four respondents (77%) re-port that the Internet is either an important or very important source of information. This is significantly greater (26%) than the percentage of respondents who rank television as either important or very im-portant (61%), the second highest rated medium in terms of importance. This is also almost 50% greater than the percentage of respondents (57%) who rank newspapers as either an important or very important source of information. We also note that almost equal percentages of respondents rank radio either impor-tant or very important on the one hand (36%), or not important or not important at all (31%), on the other.

We continue to postulate the following reasons for this result:

● The predominance of expatriates in the UAE: The fact that more than four in five residents (81%) of the UAE are from other countries means that a large percentage of the population turns to the Internet in order to receive news of their home directly from their home.

● A lack of local media sources in the native lan-guages spoken by expatriates: This further in-tensifies the importance of the Internet, as the Internet becomes the key source of information

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in one’s native tongue. This may also account for the continuing degree of importance (59%) that respondents place upon interpersonal com-munication.

● The dearth of investigative print and/or elec-tronic media in the UAE: Individuals seeking investigate reports on a variety of political and economic issues may be using the web because they see this as the most accurate and in-depth source of such information. Taken with the lack of local media sources, these two factors may also account for the continuing degree of im-portance that almost three in five respondents (59%) place upon interpersonal communica-tion.

Involvement in the Production of Web Content

Figure 26: Respondents’ Involvement in the Production of Web

Content

The results of EIP II concerning the production of Web content are very similar to those found in EIP I. While a greater of percentage of respondents in EIP II (55%) report having a social networking page than in EIP I (23%), we continue to find that, although re-spondents in the UAE are active consumers of Inter-net content, they are not necessarily active producers of Internet content. Less than one half of respondents (45%) make use of a web gallery. Although almost three in five respondents (59%) report having visited a blog, less than one in five respondents (19%) re-ports having published a blog. Similarly, less than one in ten respondents (7%) has published a website.

We do note, however, that three in four respondents (75%) report having made use of a video-uploading site, such as YouTube. This is far greater than the per-centage of respondents who reported doing so in EIP I (34%). This may seem to be a counterintuitive re-sult, given the smaller proportion of respondents who make use of either a web gallery or a social network-ing page. This may also be indicative, however, of the presence of two extensive 3G cellular networks in the country and the prevalent usage of cellular phones in the creation of video content and its subsequent up-loading to the web. Indeed, our earlier discussion of the explosion of smartphone ownership is clearly ger-mane, here.

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Freedom of Political Speech Online

Three in ten respondents (30%) report that they either agree or strongly agree with the statement, “In general I feel comfortable saying whatever I think about poli-tics.” Very similar proportions of respondents (31%) report that they either disagree or strongly disagree with this statement. One in four respondents (25%) report that they either agree or strongly agree with the

statement, “On the Internet, it is safe to say whatever you think about politics,” while almost two in five respondents (38%) report that they either disagree or strongly disagree with this statement.

The most interesting results regarding these state-ments may very well be the percentage of respon-

VI. The Internet and the Public Sphere in the UAE

A. The Internet and Perceptions of GovernanceFigure 27: Perceptions of Online Governance in the UAE

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dents who either refuse to respond to either state-ment, claim that they don’t know how to respond, or respond as neutral to the statement. Almost two in five respondents (38%) either refuse to respond to the statement, “In general I feel comfortable saying what-ever I think about politics,” or claim that they don’t know how to respond to the statement, or report that they are neutral regarding this statement. The same proportion of respondents (38%) either refuse to re-spond to the statement, “On the Internet, it is safe to say whatever you think about politics,” or claim that they don’t know how to respond to the statement, or report that they are neutral regarding this statement.

Online Criticism of the Government and the On-line Expression of Extreme Ideas

Two in five respondents (40%) report that they either agree or strongly agree with the statement, “People should feel free to criticize their government on the Internet.” Almost three in ten respondents (29%) re-port that they either disagree or strongly disagree with this statement. Almost two in five respondents (38%) report that they either agree or strongly agree with the statement, “It is okay for people to express their ideas on the Internet, even if they are extreme,” while almost three in ten respondents (28%) either disagree or strongly disagree with this statement.

Again, the most interesting responses regarding these statements may very well be the percentage of re-spondents who either refuse to respond to either state-ment, claim that they don’t know how to respond, or respond as neutral to the statement. Almost one in three respondents (31%) either refuse to respond to the statement, “People should feel free to criticize their government on the Internet,” or claim that they don’t know how to respond to the statement, or report that they are neutral regarding this statement. Slightly more than one in three respondents (35%) either re-fuse to respond to the statement, “It is okay for people

to express their ideas on the Internet, even if they are extreme,” or claim that they don’t know how to re-spond to the statement, or report that they are neutral regarding this statement.

B. Regulation and Policing of the Internet

Government Regulation of The Internet

Slightly less than one in three respondents (29%) reports that they either agree or strongly agree with the statement, “The government should regulate the Internet more than it does now.” Almost two in five respondents (38%) report that they either disagree or strongly disagree with this statement.

As with the previous questions the most interesting responses regarding this statement may very well be the percentage of respondents who either refuse to respond to it, claim that they don’t know how to re-spond, or respond as neutral to the statement. One in three respondents (33%) either refuse to respond to the statement, “The government should regulate the Internet more than it does now,” or claim that they don’t know how to respond to the statement, or report that they are neutral regarding this statement.

Surveillance of Online Activities

Slightly more than three in ten respondents (31%) report that they either agree or strongly agree with the statement, “I am worried about the government checking what I do online.” Almost two in five re-spondents (38%) report that they disagree or strongly disagree with this statement. Similarly, slightly more than three in ten respondents (31%) report that they either agree or strongly agree with the statement, “I am worried about companies checking what I do on-line,” while almost two in five respondents (38%) report that they either disagree or strongly disagree with this statement.

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The pattern concerning tactics of refusal to respond to these statements that we witnessed in other questions concerning the public sphere continue, here. Three in ten respondents (31%) either refuse to respond to the statement, “I am worried about the government checking what I do online,” or claim that they don’t know how to respond to either statement, or report that they are neutral regarding either statement. The same percentage of respondents also either refused to respond to the statement, “I am worried about com-panies checking what I do online,” or claim that they don’t know how to respond to either statement, or re-port that they are neutral regarding either statement.

C. The Use of the Internet in the Preservation of National Identity

The Role of the Internet in the Preservation of Na-tional Identity

Figure 28: Internet Use in the Preservation of National Identity

Our results show that the Internet is playing a mixed role in the production and preservation of national identity. Although significant percentages of respon-dents report that they either agreed or strongly agreed with the statements, “The Internet helps me in pre-serving my national heritage/culture,” (37%), and “The Internet helps me in learning about my home

country,” (41%), an even greater proportion of re-spondents were neutral in their response to the role that the Internet plays in either preserving one’s na-tional heritage and culture (40%), or learning about one’s home country (46%). Indeed, the only state-ment that a majority of respondents (64%) either agreed or strongly agreed with was, “The Internet helps me to stay in touch with friends/family in my home country.”

One explanation for these results lies in the popular-ity of the Internet in the UAE for the purposes of P2P communication. The proliferation, availability, and very low cost of instant messaging software, VoIP te-lephony and, of course email—on desktops, laptops and smartphones whether through an Ethernet, WiFi, or 3G network—has virtually ensured that expatriates who have both the financial resources and the requi-site software and equipment can stay in touch with family, friends and loved ones, wherever they are in the world.

Expatriate Consumption of News from the Home Country

Figure 29: Frequency of Expatriate Consumption of News from

the Home County

One likely reason for the limited role that the Internet is playing in the preservation of expatriates’ national heritage and culture in the UAE may lie in the limited frequency of access of online news about expatriates’ home countries. Although more than two in five re-

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spondents (45%) report reading news from their home countries online on at least a daily basis, an equal pro-portion of respondents (45%) report that they do so somewhat infrequently, on between a monthly and weekly basis. One in ten respondents (10%) reports that they never read news about their home country on the Internet.

Figure 30: Internet Use to Learn of Current Affairs in the UAE

The bimodal pattern of distribution, noted above, concerning the use of the Internet on the part of ex-patriates to learn about their home countries’ current affairs, heritage, and culture, persists when examin-ing respondents’ use of the Internet to stay abreast of current affairs in the UAE. Although more than two in five respondents report that they either agree or strongly agree with the statements, “The Internet helps me to stay up to date with UAE news,” (42%) and “The Internet helps me to learn about events in the Emirate where I stay,” (42%), a slightly larger percentage of respondents reports that they are neu-tral to either statement (43% and 45%, respectively).

It would appear, then, that although the Internet ranks as the most important source of information amongst all mass media, its utility as an information source is, at best, modest. One reason behind these results may lie in the expatriate experience in the UAE, which differs from that found in the West. In the Western model expatriate arrivals to a country are expected to become full, permanent members of a society. In this model the news media function inclusively by

grounding newly arrived members of a society with the common concerns, issues, events and politics that inform the political behaviour found in that society, and thus integrating them into a community. In the UAE, however, expatriate residents of the country are not expected to stay permanently. Rather, the model is based on a transitory existence: No matter who long they live in the UAE, there is the expectation that expatriate residents will, eventually, go home.

This would appear to affect expatriate residents’ ten-dency to look for news about both the UAE, as well as their home. Neither here nor there, expatriate resi-dents find themselves living an ungrounded existence; perpetually moving within and between cultures and polities, grounded by none. Indeed, we have argued that this renders countries In this respect expatriate residents of the UAE may find themselves, literally, lacking the grounding to function as full members of either the UAE or their home countries; socially, cul-turally, and politically. Rather than being grounded within a community, expatriate residents of the UAE exist within a series of social circuits across which they perpetually move.

Here we find ourselves somewhat in conflict with the conclusions that Appadurai draws. Appadurai argues that the flow of individuals across the globe is accom-panied by the flow of material goods, finances, and in-formation. Expatriate subjects, argues Appadurai, are able to engage with their home polities from abroad precisely because of the flow of information that the Internet enables, both to the expatriate subject’s new environs as news from the home country, and from the expatriate subject’s new environs as political ac-tion whose effect is experienced back home. What is essential for this type of behaviour, however, is a cer-tain stability that grounds the subject, and enables the subject to act in the manner described by Appadurai. Without this grounding however, the expatriate sub-ject may be unable to act as such.

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Although some of our results vary with respect to those of EIP I, we believe that, in general, EIP II broadly confirms the results and insights derived from EIP I.

Open access to the Internet in the UAE does not exist. Although the UAE sports a high degree of broadband penetration, and it is certainly true that anyone in the UAE may make use of the Internet, the ability to ac-cess the Internet in the UAE is highly determined by location, education, income, and expertise.

Those in the UAE who access the Internet do so primarily for P2P communication and browsing the web, where they inform and entertain themselves, and research information about products and services that they intend to purchase or use. The Internet as a participatory medium, one where people create con-tent as well as consume it, is still in its infancy in the UAE: The creation of websites or blogs, for example, is undertaken by small minorities of individuals in the UAE. Although consumer research on the web is a well-established activity, ecommerce in the UAE is still in its infancy, and concerns about ecommerce se-curity remain very high.

We continue to see an effect of Internet usage upon the heretofore-traditional social patterns of Emira-ti and other Arab youth, with respect to family and friends. Although not the sole factor, Internet usage is clearly articulated to a complex conjuncture within which the central role of the family is diminishing in importance as the propensity for social interaction with those outside of the family grows.

The digital public sphere in the UAE may also be said to be in its earliest stages of development. Large pro-portions of respondents to EIP II were clearly uncom-fortable expressing any opinion—positive or nega-tive—concerning questions of online governance, surveillance and regulation of the Internet in the UAE. This discomfort may also be articulating itself to the use, or lack thereof, of the Internet as a source of hard news of either the Emirate that respondents reside in, or the respondents’ home countries.

VII. Conclusions From the Second Year of the EIP

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For further information please contact the EIP’s lead investigator:Dr. Ilhem AllaguiDepartment of Mass Communication,American University of Sharjah,P.O. Box 26666Sharjah,United Arab EmiratesO: +971 6 515 2763E: iallagui@aus.edu