Saudi users of the social media app Snapchat brought Riyadh to the fore last Friday with an abundance of photographs and videos about what life is like in the Kingdom's capital. Some do-gooders tried to advise the youth to only share images and clips showing the positive side of the city, but they did not listen. After all, who has time to go to the Ministry of Culture and Information or to the travel and tourism offices to look for good pictures about Riyadh?
The youth, it seems, found the perfect opportunity to launch what seemed more like World Gossip Day for the world's audience. Images uploaded on the app were simply amazing. There were pictures of lions who were tame and playing gleefully with young children. There was a video showing oil being drunk like coffee at the breakfast table. Women, who are unable to drive, were filmed using skateboards when visiting malls and there were young camels playfully strolling along streets.
It would seem that football fans have the loudest voice in the city, and that car drifting is noisier than a Formula 1 race. The images showed people in Riyadh attacking plates of the traditional Saudi Kabsa on dining tables. Residents' football skills were also shown with their ability to kick balls from the pitch on to the roofs of nearby buildings.
Residential areas in the capital were, however, shown in bad light. The areas were decorated with pumps, ditches and rubble. The only creatures walking the streets were cats.
Users with positive photographs of the city felt threatened for the very first time and so formed a social-media group called Fashaltouna (You Have Failed Us). Some people upset at the negative light being shed on Riyadh asked other social media users to stop fooling around and to depict a positive image of the city. Those on the other side, however, ridiculed these sincere calls and mocked attempts to present a positive image of the capital. They would comment on images. Some were aimed at foreigners while other laughed at the very idea of giving a better image of the city.
I do not feel the youth in Riyadh have presented a negative image of the city, especially when we take into consideration the platform from which they operate and the nature of their audience. What is important is to present a true and authentic image, not one that residents simply want the entire world to see.
Life everywhere is a mixture of joy and pain. The clips and photos uploaded on Snapchat are telling us that the residents of this city are fond of play and adventure. They drink Arabian coffee all the time, fly small aircrafts and play with lions. They do not hesitate to take risks. They gather when there is Kabsa available and disperse when football is being played. Is there anything wrong in this? Is there anything better than this? Who has the right to determine what is best for us and what is not good? The whole matter is relative.
