In this article, I will content myself with citing a study conducted by an Egyptian researcher on Facebook, which I received by e-mail a few days ago from one of the readers interested in electronic social communication. I admired the researcher's description of the world of Facebook. He said that among today's generation, this world represents one of the major prominent continents on the electronic web. He criticized the prevailing belief in some of the world's third countries that investigating internet societies is a kind of scientific luxury. The study is criticized because it did not attempt to present observations on the culture of the inhabitants of the internet world, especially when the youths head towards the world of politics and economics and discover how complicated they are. Thus, their romantic feelings are frustrated because although they are enthusiastic, they live in a superficial world. The study - conducted by Islam Hijazi, a researcher at the Political Science Department in Cairo University, and issued by the International Centre for Future and Strategic Study in Cairo (an independent non-profit organization) – notes that the youths of Facebook in Egypt have succeeded in bringing a new and unfamiliar generation from the civil society organizations in the Egyptian reality, and that this generation will become able to do what it wants, and introduce the changes it aspires for in the near future. While calls saying that Facebook is a platform for the Mossad to recruit Arab youths against their governments and homelands and to ruin their morals are prevalent, this study comes to say that Facebook is a new way to impose democracy in terms of the virtual self that cannot be controlled, through meeting in a space that cannot be besieged and convening meetings amongst all countries, cultures, and identities over a number of joint issues and interests. By exchanging ideas and thoughts, they live in an atmosphere of digital democracy, where they develop a democratic ideology inside their non-democratic countries. This would represent the cornerstone for a huge number of young people who are willing to take to the street and stage demonstrations or invade the public opinion through the web pages and e-mail messages. The number of Facebook users is on the rise, in the sense that the pressures put on the “laggard” governments will increase too. The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, has recently announced that there are 250 million Facebook users, adding that this number is not only impressive, but also a sign of the personal bonds established among the users. The study points out that the virtual reality in the internet world in Egypt has become a phenomenon that everyone senses, but is not often aware of its complications. The study tries to lay down once and for all the questions raised about the prevailing culture in the internet world. The researcher believes that the activists of the virtual world are able to break the equations of money and influence that govern the real world, because this world belongs to a whole generation that created a new world, one that is parallel to the real world. I believe that the importance of the study lies in it being one of the first studies addressing the virtual culture of people living in a world which to them is real and an alternative to the real world. In this world, no one knows much about them, although they now represent a real threat that should be dealt with in a realistic and wise manner by the states and governments. This is because in the end, these people are a large portion of the new generation, especially after they have established virtual networks which they are trying to take to the street, or trigger from afar, although [these states and governments] cannot reach them because after all, they are virtual creatures. The governments should believe in the capacities of the Facebook youth, whose weapons are a computer keyboard, a digital camera, web pages, and open online forums. In spite of that, they manage to break the influence of money and power and traditional means of power, and to bypass security and intelligence censorship. I stopped at the responsible expressions posted by Saudi Minister of Culture and Information Abed al-Aziz Khoja on his personal Facebook profile: “Freedom has no ceiling with which we collide, but a margin for us to progress, and a trust we hold.” It seems that the poet and diplomat Khoja is getting closer to the youths by acknowledging their capacities and sharing his expression with them: “The new generation has broken the elite media and established a youth media instead.” I can assure that the new generation in the Arab societies will succeed in changing some customs and traditions, and will force many governments to change their policies, decisions and priorities after the youth succeeded in waging electronic pressuring campaigns, especially in the countries that do not take into account the aspirations and knowledge of this generation and continue to overlook until today that the new generation perfects a fast-spreading electronic language and deals with it with much confidence. They also exchange views with ideas through wide spaces and compare the “non-democratic” laws that prevail in their countries to those prevailing in advanced and democratic states. Certainly, Arab governments should stop dealing arrogantly with these youths, disdaining them, or attempting to detain them, as long as they move from their social reality with responsible freedom. Today's generation rapidly succeeds in creating a culture, even though a virtual one. However, this culture has become influential through its ability to arrange priorities and issues and exchange concerns and solutions.
