Islamic Perspective on Social Media Technology, Addiction, and Human Values

Abstract

This paper discusses the design features deliberately used in social media technologies to cause behavioral addiction, while outlining how this addiction leads to altering, reshaping and redefining of basic human values such as contemplation, well-being, mindfulness and connectedness that bring about social, psychological, cultural and ethical changes in human existence. The paper sheds light on how the altering of the human value system goes against the values and principles of Islamic law by citing Qur’ānic verses, prophetic traditions and teachings of Islamic scholars. Currently, there are no frameworks, laws and/or strategies that view social media addiction from a metaphysical perspective and in terms of human worldview and existence. Hence, as a solution, our paper introduces an ethical framework for designing social media technologies using the objectives of Islamic law that discourage a social media design with indefinite ends and encourage a design methodology with well-defined objectives and consequences.

Panduan Al-Quran dan Hadith terhadap Generasi Z bagi Mengatasi Isu dan Cabaran Media Sosial (Quranic and Hadith Guidance for Generation Z to Overcome Issues and Challenges in Social Media)

“…Walau bagaimanapun, platform media sosial bukan sahaja telah mengubah nilai kemanusiaan dalam hubungan dan persahabatan tetapi juga menjadikan individu lebih terputus hubungan berbanding sebelum ini. 24 Selain itu, membandingkan kehidupan sosial sendiri dengan pengalaman yang kelihatan menarik dan bersemangat yang dipamerkan oleh orang lain di media sosial boleh memburukkan lagi perasaan tidak puas hati, kerana individu mungkin menganggap kehidupan mereka sendiri sebagai membosankan atau tidak memuaskan. Sebagai bukti, kajian daripada Blease mendedahkan individu lebih cenderung mengalami 'Kemurungan Facebook' (hasil menghabiskan terlalu banyak masa di Facebook) apabila mereka mempunyai lebih banyak masa dengan kawan dalam talian dan meluangkan lebih banyak masa dengan membaca kemas kini daripada rakan dalam talian.…”

Creation of the Islamic Self for Sustainability: Strategies for Parents, Education System and Entrepreneurs toward Meeting SDGs

“…Parents need to get into such a psychological and spiritual state and subsequently inspire their children towards the same, as it is needless to mention that preaching without practicing never leads to the desired transformation. Keeping this in view, Muslim parents need to reassess their internal states and their impact on their parenting strategies if they find their children becoming addicted to the stuff, for example, addiction to screen (Zubair & Raquib, 2020) and processed food is a common problem among young children (Schiestl et al, 2021). The goal is to ensure that wholehearted attention is given to the children which gives the message to them that 'you are worthy' through both the verbal and non-verbal cues.…”

An Islamic vision and approach for entrepreneurship: developing through a multi-stage comparative analysis of systems, ideologies and code of ethics

“…To take such a path goes against the core ideals of a Muslim entrepreneur, a path of establishing an organization, which would create and ignore problems for the sake of its profitability. On the contrary, a capitalist owner would want the society to get dependent on such a corporation to ensure a continuous stream of returns (Bakan, 2004;Zubair and Raquib, 2020).…”

“…No such critical evaluation is, perhaps, emerging from academic or scholarly circles in the Muslim world. Some scholars though have critically evaluated the tendency of social media to spread false information (Zubair et al, 2019) and make its users addicted (Zubair and Raquib, 2020), while a critique of technology, in general, is also done by some experts in the Muslim world (Choudhury, 2004(Choudhury, , 2016(Choudhury, , 2020Raquib, 2015).…”