Computer utilization in ONE African or Mid-Eastern country as compared Essay

Computer utilization in ONE African or Mid-Eastern country as compared with computer utilization in the United States - Essay Example these social differences at the cultural level, the UAE is quickly becoming one of the most progressive users of computers in the world in areas of business, education, and general consumer society. In the United States, it is quite common to find people of varying demographics using the Internet for personal needs, varying from social networking sites, to online shopping, to even education by attending distance learning universities. There is no specific user profile for the Internet in the United States simply because it is quite common for people of all age and educational demographics to have a personal computer in their households. However, in the United Arab Emirates, the Internet user profile is typically a younger and professional male compared to the United States (Shen & Shakir, 2009). Where in the U.S. it is common to find a young male or female visiting social networking sites such as YouTube or Facebook, this goes against the traditional collectivist principles that founded the UAE regarding what is considered acceptable for gender roles. Many Arab youth females cannot show their faces to anyone unless they are in their close family and because of this they often d o not play online games, visit chat rooms, or even send emails (Shen & Shakir). This cultural difference tends to limit the Internet user profile to mostly professional and educated young men. Yahoo! Is becoming the number one Internet website in the UAE, where this is not especially true in the United States. Regular Yahoo! users in the UAE have crossed 1.5 million (ameinfo.com, 2006). In the U.S., it is common to have youths visiting Yahoo! for its Chat, Games and Music options. However, the UAE commonly finds people over the age of 30 on Yahoo! utilizing its more professional services such as Yahoo! News and Finance (ameinfo.com). This is a demographic difference in computer utilization between the UAE and the U.S. where in the West sites like Yahoo! are more for recreation where in the