EGYPT: The slightly more frivolous side of the internet

. CAIRO (Egypt Today), July 2008 edition Scene and Heard By Hassan Hassan The internet has churned out pop culture phenomena and famous-for-fifteen-minutes losers by the dozen, a trend that is only going to grow. ....It’s no different in Egypt. Like most trends, we are catching up on this one a little late. A slew of Egyptian blogs have come out that don’t want to show videos of policemen beating up protesters burning American flags. While the internet is a vital tool for freedom of speech, it is also an outlet for mass frivolity. Egyptian bloggers are writing about their feelings as well as their politics. On forsoothsayer.blogspot.com, for example, the female blogger shares everything from her excretory patterns to stories about her boyfriend and the trials and tribulations of living in Egypt, while also being witty and relatively interesting to read. Hold on while I Google how blogs were started the rise of the blog. Most of the time, blogs are online diaries with entries added whenever you want. The phenomenon of putting your life on the internet has picked up fast in this country. Just look at Facebook: The site has over 3 million people in the Egypt network. And that doesn’t include the number of people who are in different networks but still Egyptian. 2007 was the year of Facebook, with everyone talking about it, uploading pictures, adding hundreds of friend and screeching about how they found their best friend from sixth grade. Like most fads, the fuss has died down, but the blogging scene has apparently picked up where Facebook left off. In January 2007 there were around 1,000 blogs in Egypt. That number has now doubled, and the entries are in English, French and even German, as well as Arabic. In 2007 and 2008, bloggers and their sites were put under scrutiny for publishing pictures and videos of various strikes and demonstrations. Ending in messy trials, various arrests and general mayhem in the media, the issue of free speech on the internet has drawn hazy conclusions and erected new boundaries. Political blogging aside, a crop of Egyptians seem intent on using the internet for slightly more frivolous — albeit just as important — personal communication. Sites such as Forsoothsayer usually have at least one taxi story, a drunk story and a look-at-the-sorry-state-of-Egypt. Bloggers like Sandmonkey, Mademoiselle HH and a selection of others all regale us with tales of life in Egypt (often with an overtly political message). The blogs mostly consist of snippets of amusing anecdotes, vented frustrations and stories of basic day-to-day life in Egypt. While they have their merits , is their life really that interesting? Not to every reader, but to this new generation, yes it is. The voice of a generation This is a method of anonymous communication. What each of these blogs says is “yes, you’re not the only one.” It is an immediate reflection upon yourself, whether you are reading or writing the blog — you become part of a group, a clique that exists solely in cyberspace, a place where you can be whoever you want to be. Giving way to torrents of complaints targeted towards an audience that feels the same way you do is cathartic; and if the readers don’t agree then all they have to do is click and the page disappears. It may not warrant much skill, talent or even recognition, but blogging is undeniably the semblance of a voice of a generation, and a voice that everyone is privy to. Entire aspects of people’s personalities (even if they have been embellished somewhat) are available in a condensed page: all their friends, their likes and dislikes, if they are sitting at a computer or not, the people that talk to them most, whether or not they are in a relationship, their pictures — all in a compact package wrapped up for your browsing pleasure. A blog is like a microwave meal of personalities; ten seconds and you’ll know enough about someone to formulate an opinion — even if it is only what they want you to think. What was once the pastime of slightly nerdy boys sitting at their laptops, convinced they have a penchant for writing stories of injustice and a troubled government, is no longer exclusively for the anonymous skinny dude playing Grand Theft Auto, taking breaks to wax lyrical about the plight of the Kifaya movement. Putting yourself on a web page is becoming cool, because as well as being packed to the brim with information and knowledge, the internet is home to more vices than just porn. The internet has created the ultimate water-cooler — a haven for gossip mongers the world over. Gossip sites are increasing in popularity and this is the secret ingredient that made Facebook such a success. The sheer gossip factor of pages of pictures, outings and arguments without actually having to physically be there is irresistible. Providing a service Cairo, a city addicted to rumors, has now got its very own gossip site: scene-heard.blogspot.com. It claims that it is not a gossip site but a public relations utility. That said, aside from some posts about car shows and exhibitions, the site is pretty much all about bitching and gossip. I might add that this is perfectly fine; gossip makes the world go round and has a fitting place in almost each and every society the world over. Scene-heard proudly proclaims on its banner that “only the who’s who of Cairo are scene and heard.” It posts tales of the most “hip and happening parties,” has open votes to decide who has the hottest body, who is the most happening couple, who has the best dress sense and who is the richest self-made millionaire in Egypt. Other activities include segregating people by school, outlining personality traits according to what school they went to and how much money they have and working out the type of job they will most likely get. Recently, the female author of the site (who calls herself S&H) has even discussed threesomes, a guy’s guide to getting some and almost every important summer wedding. This author is intent on calling herself a PR utility. Although the most she has done is recommend a few songs and talk about events you would have known about anyway, this is not what makes the site interesting. One of its more opinionated posts attracted attention for saying the wrong thing about the April 6 strikes, in a post entitled, “Don’t be scene and heard tomorrow.” The post encouraged people to stay home — not all people though, just the upper class. It read: “We highly RECOMMEND [sic] staying off the streets since last time [a general strike] happened during Sadat’s time, the upper class became the target. So to the who’s who of Cairo, for one day, try not to be scene and heard.” With over 100 comments posted within the next few days, the writer was called everything from an elitist pig to someone telling it like it is. The comments made it onto other blogs and even started online arguments on how she should feel for the plight of the people and how ashamed S&H should be of her behavior. All it did was increase Scene-heard’s popularity. Each post on the site is an attempt at tongue-in-cheek humor, but ends up somewhat ridiculous. Topics supposed to be juicy are just ‘so what?’ Whoever writes the site can’t really spell and uses absolutely no grammar, which is fine. It isn’t out for a Pulitzer Prize. This is, after all, a gossip site, a place where syntax and commas don’t really have a home anyway. The strange thing about its apparent popularity is that the site is not that controversial. It talks about a few parties and things that are popping up in Egypt that strike the author’s fancy. At best, Scene-heard is a playful insight into the mindset of the Egyptian upper crust. At worst, it is the writing of a bored, pretentious and spoiled little girl vying for our attention on the internet. The author does get it though. Since its inception in March this year, the site has received close to 22,000 hits (at press time), and each post has at least ten reader comments. The author is constantly causing some kind of argument, with heated comments provoking contributors to attack each other. Anonymous #1 will tell Anonymous #6 they are classless, can’t spell and find more important things to do with their life. A simpering Anonymous #15 will then come in and tell them to chill and throw in an insult of her own. Fascinating stuff. There are also full-fledged wars between sites. The claws come out in cyberspace, apparently, and in a comment-fueled post entitled “S&H starts new war,” our anonymous female writer hashes it out with another celebrated blogger, Sandmonkey. The ensuing madness of over 70 comments in less than three days sees both sides trying to prove who is better, smarter, wittier and just plain right. Most of the time this sort of mindless argument just involves picking a side and going with it; sometimes however, someone really smart comes in and actually proves a point. Uncensored Opinion What Scene-heard has done is allow a glimpse (skewed, accurate or otherwise; the internet should rarely be trusted) into the life of Cairo’s rich and beautiful. While there has yet to be a particularly juicy entry, the comments do get nasty, the responses are nastier still and each one of them aims directly below the belt, or at least attempts to. All this is incredibly funny on a boring afternoon in the office. It gives people an outlet to vent about the stupid day-to-day things, even if S&H does get a little pretentious at times. You just have to look at the titles of her posts: “Sahel-izing,” “Tattoos and piercings” (more acceptable) and my personal favorite “Metro sexuality: the New Black,” which took a fashion phrase and turned it into a debate on racism. Some of the commentators are incredibly riled up; you can almost see them typing furiously, trying to think of the perfect thing to say to the ‘popular’ girl. These comments are the reason the site is interesting, not what our gossip guru deems as newsworthy (which is usually nothing more then a new ad, the opening of a restaurant or her occasional ‘controversial’ post). The controversial entries usually consist of the blogger’s opinion and nothing more, but they manage to drive people into a frenzy about everything from homosexuality, racism, marriage and divorce, poverty and sexual harassment — all with little knowledge or research but still giving a rather accurate perception of the different types of people in society. Protected by anonymity, the comments are a great representation of what younger people are thinking — without censorship. It really is a strange insight to the voices of very different people, even if they can’t write and thus spew out some of the most insipid arguments ever. It is also strange that visitors to the site will call each other posers, losers and various expletives, then put a smiling emoticon next to the word, just to make sure they didn’t offend you. The comments are what make the site what it is. What S&H has done is create a playground that you can log into and play, consequence-free. Gossip isn’t supposed to be ground-breaking. It isn’t supposed to be smart. It isn’t supposed to enlighten or educate. You talk about something, laugh about it, think what you would do if it happened to you and then get on with your day. It also represents the mindset of a generation. What a certain generation considers socially scandalous is just as important as what they think of government. Young people’s thoughts on relationships, drinking alcohol, tattoos and piercings are indicative of the direction the country is taking, if only among the supposed high class. Egypt Today is current affairs magazine in Egypt and the Middle East and the oldest English-language publication of its kind in the nation. © 2004-2007 IBA-media