Media life among Gen Zeds

Abstract

The ‘Gen Zeds’ of the title are female Emirati students in their early 20s at Zayed University who oscillate between the traditional Islamic culture of their families and the high technology world they experience through the media. This article looks at when, where and how these students use media and what they are looking for when they use it. The research found that these women live a highly-mediated existence, spending more than 9.9 hours on average a day with the media - more time than they do sleeping. They spend as much time on the internet as they do in the combined activities of reading magazines, newspapers and books. They spend twice as much time on the internet as they do watching television. They use different media during different parts of the day and for different reasons. The internet and the telephone were the two most preferred media. The article concludes by looking at what these women’s highly mediated lives might mean for their future.