SAUDI GAZETTE JEDDAH — Some young Saudi women have benefited from social media by creating their own pages to serve different purposes. Among them are those who have created accounts on Instagram not to show off their talents or sell products but to provide psychological and social consultation services. These pages are similar to the special columns in magazines where women and girls used to write about their problems in the past and got answers from the so-called agony aunts. These social media accounts receive stories from the public that discuss special issues such as divorce, engagement, child raising, family problems. The account owners filter these stories and put them on pages to get reactions from the public who can offer their advice and talk about their experiences. As these profiles get popular they start to display advertisements in return for a fee. Hanan is the owner of an account under the title "Hannan Stories", which has some 300,000 followers. She said she gets an average of 20 queries a day, filters them and gives advice to the writers. She also gives them a chance to read other people's comments on the issue. Hanan, a 25-year-old housewife, is currently receiving queries from Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt and Morocco, in addition to Saudi Arabia. The primary goal of her account, said Hanan, is to discuss women's issues and share experiences. As more people started following her account, she posted some advertisements and received SR200 in return. Hanan said she only placed advertisements for products that she has tried. She said the competition is increasing between such accounts but, according to Hanan, it is a fruitful competition where distinguished accounts will always stand out. Bedo is the owner of another account that serves the same purpose. She says the account has been active for 3 years and has 189,000 followers now. Bedo said she came up with the idea of creating this account after her sister went into trouble. She wrote down her sister's experience and posted it on Instagram. The story became so popular that many people reacted to it. Soon she started receiving requests for advice from other women who faced similar situations. She started publishing these stories regularly on her account. Bedo is a 29-year-old mother of three. She has a bachelor's degree but does not have a regular job. She now uses her account primarily to utilize her free time. Fawziya Ashmakh, a psychiatrist, said, "Social media is a platform for communication and exchange of ideas. Although the advantages and influence of social media cannot be ignored, what is worrying is views that are not accurate could complicate matters instead of solving them." She added that there is a need to increase public awareness about such practices so they would stop sharing their problems on social media and instead look for information at the right place.
