As part of the Soliya program, I conducted two interviews with friends from similar backgrounds to explore how social media can shape personal and cultural identity. Both of my friends highlighted the effect of social media on a person’s behavior, perceptions, and self-image.

Fady focused on the pressure social media places on people to conform to the best lifestyles and appearances. He pointed out that people often believe that life on social media is an accurate representation of real life for most people, while it is not. According to him, this can lead to dissatisfaction, especially among teenagers who compare their lives to what they see online, leading to multiple conflicts with their parents. He also mentioned that social media creates a misleading hype over multiple products that do not have at least high quality, influencing people’s preferences and consumption patterns. In terms of personal behavior, Fady confesses that he tends to present the best version of himself on social media by taking advantage of the lack of face-to-face interaction, showing only a perfect side of himself to shape how others perceive him.

Similarly, Mohamed agreed with the role of social media in influencing people’s opinions. He discussed how online platforms create a community full of continuous comparison, leading to envy and dissatisfaction. Also, he mentioned another dimension, which is the digital footprint and its effect on multiple people, including him. He explained that online interactions and posts leave a permanent footprint on social media and face continuous judgment, which makes him more cautious about how he behaves online. In other words, he believes that real-life interactions are more forgiving because mistakes can be corrected immediately.

One thing I noticed from both interviews is that social media pushes people to change how they behave normally, but for different reasons. Fady talked about the pressure of social media on him to appear perfect and show an ideal version of himself. While Mohamed talked about his fear of judgment, which led him to be cautious about how he behaves online. Even though their reasons are different, both showed that social media directs people to choose how they will present themselves to people, without showing who they really are. As a result, online platforms lead to a reduction in people’s self-confidence, as they do not accept their own personalities with their good and bad. It directs them to ignore a part of their personality to fit into a virtual and not realistic community.

I believe my role was not only to ask questions, but also to act as a bridge between different perspectives by encouraging open and respectful dialogue. I realized that the questions I asked played a big role in how my friends responded. When I was thinking about the questions, I made sure that they were simple and open-ended questions to avoid limiting their thinking or directing their answers in a specific direction. I ensured the questions would allow my friends to share their ideas freely without limitations. In addition, I asked them to include their personal experiences during the interview to have honest answers based on their own experiences. During the interviews, I tried to create a comfortable space where they could speak freely, and I focused on listening rather than interrupting or judging their opinions and ideas. Multiple interruptions while someone is talking can disturb their thoughts, leading to forgetting what they were saying. Even though interviewees came from similar backgrounds, they have different ideas about social media. One of them focuses on image and comparison, while the other focuses on judgment and permanent footprints. This proves that diversity is not just based on culture and nationality; it also depends on personal experiences, their way of thinking, and how they interpret things differently. One success was that both participants engaged with the questions and shared different personal insights. However, the challenge I notice after finishing the interviews is that my questions were quite general, and I did not explore their ideas more deeply. Also, I think since they are my friends, the discussion felt comfortable; therefore, it was not challenging for them to think more deeply about different perspectives.

Throughout the Connect Program, I developed several crucial conversation skills, especially in active listening and engaging in discussions with people with different perspectives. Before the Soliya program, I was very nervous to talk with people virtually. I did not like the idea of talking to people I had never met virtually, and I was afraid of their judgments. I also had fears about engaging in discussions where everyone has different ideas and beliefs; I had a fear of saying my opinions. However, after the first session, I felt comfortable about sharing my opinions and speaking up. I noticed that all the participants had the same fears and feelings as mine; therefore, I stopped my fear and started participating in different discussions. I learnt the importance of listening to everyone carefully and responding to their words, because that gives them a sense of acceptance and a sense that their opinions are valuable. Having various background can cause a misunderstanding; therefore, it is crucial to listen carefully to the one who is talking. Also, I learnt about the issues that different nationalities around the world face, like wars, mental health issues, or increasing prices; this information makes me aware of what is happening around the world. In addition, I learnt how to respectfully disagree with someone. At first, I was afraid to disagree with someone because of my fear of being judged. Nevertheless, now, I have learnt that it is normal to disagree with someone because it is normal to have different perspectives based on our personal experiences. To be honest, I noticed that after every session, everyone, including me, became more comfortable talking about sensitive topics, like current wars, and everyone became less judgmental. I noticed that everyone became more open over time, and I think that happened because we were all respecting each other and respecting our different opinions. This sense of respect puts a specific set of hidden rules that we cannot cross while discussing any topic. One of the topics that I enjoyed and learnt a lot from was our discussion about “Adulthood”. I am now turning 21, but I still do not consider myself a full adult; therefore, I was enjoying listening to my peers’ opinions about how everyone defines the word “Adulthood”. Some of them said that being an adult is about experiencing challenging situations that turn you into an adult. And others said that it is about having a job, getting married, or depending completely on yourself. In the end, I concluded that adulthood is not about age; it is about responsibilities (i.e., whether you have responsibilities in your job, in your marital life, or any other life responsibilities) and how you deal with your challenges. Adulthood is about figuring out what you must do in your life, what your next step is, and when you must make certain decisions on your own. This discussion was insightful for me because I am transitioning to adult life. In addition, we talked about our fears of being adults, and that gave me a sense that I am not alone in having fears. Sharing our fears and sharing advice was relaxing for me, and it gave me energy to keep doing my best. Overall, this experience changed the way I approach conversations and made me more open to understanding perspectives that are different from my own.

On the Tahrir intercultural day, I had my first real intercultural experience. Before starting the day, I was very nervous about talking to new people who were also from different nationalities. I had fears about being unable to participate in the discussions, and I was pressured, but this experience was one of the most joyful experiences. First, we were a little nervous, so we started icebreaking by introducing ourselves and sharing fun facts. After that, we opened multiple discussions about different topics. One of the things I enjoyed a lot was how curious we all are about our different backgrounds and communities. For example, we shared some idioms that are similar between Arabic and English. Also, we asked each other about the idioms that we do not understand in each other’s languages. Furthermore, I enjoyed sharing jokes in our languages and seeing if others would understand them or not. To be honest, at first, I thought we would be too different because we lived in different countries, but I found multiple similarities between us. The fact that those American students lived in Egypt for a couple of months or years led to multiple similarities between us. For example, we had the same favorite Egyptian singers and the same favorite food, which was surprising for me. Also, one of the things that surprised me a lot was the ability of the American students to know the Arabic grammar and its rules in detail. They were better than most of us who are native Arabic speakers, and I felt ashamed. I realized that we (i.e., the Egyptians) focused a lot on learning English and forgot to learn our own language properly. I noticed that our standard Arabic became very weak, and we need to study it again to avoid losing our identity. Language acts as a mirror and shapes who we are, where we belong, and how we connect with others; therefore, losing it means losing our identity.

One of the valuable online sessions that I attended was the “Ethical AI Use by Faculty and Students” session. Through the session, I learned about different types of oppression and how AI might increase oppression. I learned that AI can be a helpful tool for either students or teachers; however, it can also strengthen different forms of oppression, ideological, institutional, interpersonal, or even internalized, because it is trained on historical data that includes discrimination. This made me realize that using AI in education can lead to real ethical responsibilities. During the scenario discussion, I enjoyed analyzing the scenario with my peers and giving different suggestions and solutions. All of us had different opinions, which allowed us to think more deeply about each solution to choose the most effective one. My peers and I had different opinions about the type of oppression that was in the scenario; therefore, we quickly searched for the differences between them, which allowed us to understand the oppression types more deeply. I found our scenario about the syllabus very real and challenging. For example, using AI to create a syllabus can be helpful for the professor, but the unethical use of it can also affect the quality of learning and the trust of his students, who respect him. This scenario made me realize that over-relying on AI can reduce student/teacher connection or disadvantage students because other students from different classes have a well-organized syllabus. Overall, I learnt that AI can be used as a learning supporter; however, we cannot replace our thoughts, judgment, and knowledge with AI. To use it, both students and teachers must be aware of its impact and the bad consequences.