KUWAIT: Kuwaiti female activist Sheikha Intisar
Salem Al-Ali Al-Sabah is sounding the alarm
bell: smart phones and gadgets’ users in Kuwait
are being dragged into the prevailing and
expanding global wave, ‘phubbing,’ a newly created
term that refers to persons who have
turned drastically aloof from society and have
chosen to be engrossed in the devices’ usage.
Sheikha Intisar’s rhetorical warning is being
coupled with action. Her anti-phubbing campaign
is demonstrated at Kuwait’s top landmark
mall, the Avenues, called ‘Al-Nowair campaign,’
scheduled to proceed till December 28th.
Since emergence of the smart phones in
2005, peoples throughout the world have
become much more connected, however, some
people who depend heavily on these devices
have lost face-to-face conversation and communication
skills, Sheikha Intisar said in a statement,
underlining some motives that have
nudged her to launch “Al-Nowair campaign,”
aimed at discouraging smart phone users from
snubbing their friends, associates and loved
ones.
“Now the problem has become widely
spread; being preoccupied with our phones,
ignoring people around us,” said Sheikha Intisar,
the mastermind of the campaign, explaining
that in English, the term phubbing has been
created to imply snubbing, which may be
viewed as tantamount to rudeness.
“The phones has become the most important
thing in many peoples’ lives. It should be
on the eating table, being carried while mingling
with friends, at work, at social gatherings
and even during car driving,” she said, affirming
how the smart devices have become predominant
in peoples’ lives, affecting daily behaviors
and undermining the warmth of direct contacts