His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, attended at Al Bateen Majlis on Wednesday evening a lecture titled "How to restore face-to-face conversation in the era of social networking platforms," delivered by Professor Sherry Turkle, of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Professor Turkle reviewed her extensive experience of over 30 years on the impact of digital devices and social media, warning of what she described as the "negative impact" of social networking applications.

She cautioned that the excessive exposure of children and adolescents to the social media networking puts them in direct confrontation with attempts by groups with extremist ideas to attract them. Professor Turkle noted that terrorists adopt policies aimed at targeting these children and young people through chat rooms, group games and other technological means, away from the eyes of parents.

Professor Turkle warned that the excessive use of social communication programmes creates a profound impact on individuals psychologically by increasing the sense of loneliness.

She also warned of the impact of the rapid developments witnessed by the services of social communication applications at the family and community levels. She called for the establishment of family relations based on dialogue among family members, in addition to spreading the culture of direct dialogue at the work and educational institutions.

Professor Turkle demonstrated an experiment conducted by a school in which students were forced to stay at a summer camp for five days without electronic devices. She noted that the children began to know directly real feelings of others as direct dialogues grew among significantly. Conversation face to face is the most human thing we do, and we can restore it at workplace, home and school, she said.

Among others present were Dr. Amal Abdullah Al Qubaisi, Speaker of the Federal National Council; H.H. Sheikh Nahyan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation; H.H. Lt. General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior; H.H. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs; H.H. Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chief of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince's Court; H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation; H.H. Sheikh Khalid bin Zayed Al Nahyan Chairman of the Board of Zayed Higher Organisation for Humanitarian Care & Special ; Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development, Ayman Safadi, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Affairs of Jordan.