Why I didn’t agree with Snap Chat’s Mecca Live
Like many other twenty something’s living in an industrialized country with a connection to Internet and enough money to buy a smart phone I have Snap chat. I use it commonly like I use other social media apps. Although I have my own critique of how interconnected our worlds have become, I mostly send snaps of me bored studying to my girl friends. Snap chat offers something a little different than most other social media outlets though. There is no archiving stuff (at least not in the way Facebook or Instagram does) Meaning it is not about how many likes or comments someone gets. This format is supposed to let you share more simultaneously and authentically.
Snap chat did something a little different when they started showcasing global stories on people dashes. You not only got snaps and snap-stories from friends you added but you also got global stories collection of snaps from people all around the world at huge fashion or sports events. At first I thought this was an interesting way of seeing people from around the world. However we still largely remain unaware of how snaps get picked up and edited for the global snap stories. Issues of authenticity and representation should be doubly underlined when it comes to formats that claim transparency. Almost no format provides transparency and total communication between the producer and the consumer. One of the most dangerous things about social media is this illusion that there is a no middleman. I think most of us do remember when Facebook publicly accepted they conducted psychological research on their users by manipulating what content they saw and how frequently.
If we focus more specifically on this incident with Snap chat though, I want to point out three things that seemed most troubling.
1. How We Worship Public vs. Private
The story went live on Night of Power from Mecca, the most sacred place on one of the most sacred nights in the year. What is wrong with this? Many people snapped from not just around the mosque, but from inside the mosque. People were snapping from tawaf! (circling the Kaba) Some were snapping millions praying instead of being in the prayer with them. While liberal Western rhetoric to which I owe most of my education, dictates a disclaimer, right about now, that everyone is free to choose when or if to pray, what I am writing is less about what individuals choose to do and more about how we as an ummah view those choices. Someone could chose to snap their friend from Umra or doing tawaf, I personally would not do this and if one of my friends did it I would tell them my thoughts on it. The fact however is that on a global snap story these snaps were seen by exponentially more people then personal communications are. This means they belong to public discourse and that is why not only do I have a right to comment on them but I think I have a responsibility.
Many Muslim friends said they enjoyed seeing scenes from the Kaba and I agree. I like tuning into Saudi Channels that broadcast live from the Harem. However that is done by professionals; and mostly done for other Muslims, while the snap story I argue was mainly for non-Muslims. This is backed by two things. One is that people snapping had outsiders in mind as viewers so they explained things they would not need to explain to other Muslims. Two is that the nature of these global snaps was to show case cultures to other people around the world. This in and of itself is a huge other area of debate. How should cultures be showcased (if they should be showcased at all)? On top of that you have the question of is Islam a culture? When religions become symbolized by certain things, you create a verbal and visual language of that religion and you can use and abuse those symbolisms by throwing around buzz words, sound bites and imagery.
Lastly on this point I want to draw your attention to the need for privacy in our lives. We all need intimate experiences to remain private in order to keep their level of intimacy and importance. This is a profoundly difficult endeavor for the people currently living on this planet. Even people who themselves don’t use the Internet for self-representation are in danger of being poked by cameras doing excursions for documentaries. Just today I watched a piece by Al Jazeera English on YouTube on Bedouin life in Petra Jordan. This need for intimate experiences is of at most importance when it comes spiritual life. We need to learn ourselves and then teach our younger siblings and children how to be alone with God.
2. Muslims, Media and Misrepresentation
Another important element of this conversation has to be contemporary Muslims’ relationship with media globally. There is much talk about misrepresentation of Muslims on media and there is even more talk from people who think Muslims subscribe to a barbaric pre-historic brutal ideology. Or even worse for the West, foreign! What I will suggest as the solution to this is autonomous media outlets run by Muslims. Giving presentations at someone else’s dinner party will not lead us to be fully understood. Let us give our own dinner parties and invite guests and then we can set the menu, the sitting arrangement and the agenda.
3. Priorities
Before I end I want to mention as a final point that ultimately what all of this comes down to is one’s priories. Ultimately we need to reorient our lives to have God in the center. As Muslims we submit to God and say that we worship Allah. What that means is to prioritize Allah’s opinion.
