UAE set to be region's capital of Facebook world

While the number of Facebook users has declined in the US and UK, in the UAE it has increased by more than half a million during the last six months.

 However, the majority of the participants in a survey carried out byEmirates 24|7 said they would like to quit using Facebook. The results of the survey indicated that more people want to quit using Facebook than any other social networking site. At least 45 per cent of the participants said they would totally stop using the popular website. The next in line on the quit list is Google+ at 13 per cent, Twitter (12 per cent) and the business and professional social network Linkedin at 9 per cent. According to latest available reports Facebook lost about 1.4 million users during 2012 alone. However, the trend is mainly applicable to Facebook users in the United States. In the UAE on the other hand the number has been growing steadily and increased by half a million new users during the last six months alone. According to statistics available at Socialbakers (http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/united-arab-emirates) the total number of FB users in United Arab Emirates is reaching 3,407,580 and grew by more than 442,860 in the last 6 months. It also indicates a growing penetration of 68.49 per cent compared to the 58.16 per cent of internet users within the country. Majority of the users in the UAE are men, outnumbering female users by more than double. There are 68 per cent male users and 32 per cent female users in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). “The largest age group is currently 25-34 with total of 16,120,40 users, followed by the users in the age of 18-24,”says the info on Socialbakers. Facebook users more envious and frustrated Meanwhile, a recent study (http://www.tu-darmstadt.de/vorbeischauen/aktuell/ni_63808.en.jsp)  has revealed that Facebook users become more envious and frustrated. “Envy, the leading cause of frustration among Facebook users and may be the result of users intentionally seeking attention on the social networking site,” the report based on a survey with nearly 600 Facebook users by Information Systems scientists at the TU Darmstadt and the Humboldt-Universität in Berlin. According to them the nature of Facebook and the impersonal connections shared between its users may be to blame for users’ frustration and subsequent envy. Jealousy, the report said may be the leading social cause of the frustration surrounding Facebook usage. The researchers identified that envying their “Facebook friends” is the major reason for this result. “Paradoxically, envy can frequently lead to users embellishing their Facebook profiles, which, in turn, provokes envy among other users”, a phenomenon that the researchers have termed “envy spiral.” What’s more, it is not just the active users who are struggling. In fact, those who do not engage in any active, interpersonal communications on social networks and primarily utilize them as sources of information, e.g. reading friends’ postings, checking news feeds, or browsing through photos, are particularly subject to these painful experiences,” the report adds. Emirates 24/7