News

Social Media Addiction Is Greatly Impacting Arab Youth

A survey has revealed disturbing findings about social media consumption and its mental health impact on young people.

Published

3 years ago

October 12, 2023

Joanna Melki

social media addiction is greatly impacting arab youth

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As of 2023, the Arabic-speaking region has the highest per-capita levels of social media adoption globally, with the average internet user owning 8.4 accounts. Now, findings from the 15th annual ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey have shown that a significant majority of the region’s youth are finding it challenging to disconnect from social media — something that is negatively impacting their mental health.

The survey highlights that the Arab world’s youth spend in excess of 3.5 hours a day on social media. Nearly 75% of users admit to struggling to disconnect from digital platforms, with 61% conceding that their mental health has suffered due to social media addiction.

Social media addiction has meant that a consensus has formed among young Arabs that big tech companies — such as Meta, Google, and X — hold “too much power”. Over 90% of respondents also think these companies are not doing enough to combat disinformation.

Another trend revealed by the survey is that a significant percentage of respondents (13%) aspire to be “social media influencers” rather than taking up careers in typically prestigious fields such as medicine or engineering.

Also Read: The Largest Data Breaches In The Middle East

Despite the increasing time and energy spent on social media platforms, nearly 60% of Arab Youth say traditional social experiences such as “eating out” and “hanging out with friends” are defining elements of their lifestyles. The findings suggest that even in the digital age, in-person social experiences remain important.

The Arab Youth’s growing dependence on social media is concerning and is clearly impacting mental health. As the region battles with high levels of youth unemployment, the findings of the ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey call for a rethink of the role technology plays in the lives of young people and its impact on their future.

News

A Three-Clinic Network Bets Dubai Is Ready For Longevity Medicine

Longevium has enlisted nearly 100 clinicians and created an AI platform in a bid to sell biological-age tracking as a medicine, not a wellness service.

Published

2 days ago

July 13, 2026

Dana Saadeh

a three-clinic network bets dubai is ready for longevity medicine

Dubai has been busily creating the scaffolding for a longevity industry, including a dedicated regulatory authority and a health market deep enough to sustain it. Now the clinics are arriving.

Longevium, a longevity clinic network, has opened three locations across the city: a flagship at Triple Seven Mall on Jumeirah 3, and branches in Jumeirah Lake Towers and Jumeirah Village Circle. Together they house a multidisciplinary team of nearly 100 physicians and specialists offering what the company bills as “a measurable medical system for longevity”.

longevity dubai clinic launch

The pitch is that longevity medicine should look less like a wellness menu and more like continuous clinical care. Each patient’s biological age assessment, laboratory results, body composition, cardiovascular risk factors, metabolic markers, and lifestyle data feed into a single profile, with a proprietary AI platform helping physicians track progress and adjust protocols against the patient’s own biomarkers.

“Healthy aging must be approached clinically through diagnostics, biomarkers, physician supervision, longitudinal tracking, and protocols tailored to the individual,” said Dr. Ksenia Butova, Longevium’s founder and CEO. “Our goal is to help patients understand their health trajectory before disease develops, and then actively change that trajectory”.

The treatment list spans peptide-based protocols, exosome therapies, stem cell approaches, GLP-1 metabolic optimization, hormone balance programs, cardiovascular prevention, and regenerative aesthetics — a model built for the entrepreneurs, executives, and international patients the clinic says want measurable results rather than generic wellness. A signature offering, Longevity Day, compresses biomarker testing, ultrasound and vascular imaging, specialist consultations, IV therapy, and a personalized optimization roadmap into a single three-hour visit.

Also Read: Dubai Certifies The World’s First Purpose-Built Air Taxi Vertiport

“Here, longevity, biotechnology, AI, prevention, and regenerative medicine are converging into a single ecosystem,” said Butova. “This is why Longevium was built in Dubai, and why we believe the UAE can become a global reference point for longevity medicine”.

The emirate established the Dubai Longevity Authority in 2026 to oversee its longevity, wellness, and advanced health sectors, and the Dubai Health Authority reported insured beneficiaries exceeding 4.9 million in 2025, up around 6.5%, with insurance claims reaching approximately 49.6 million, up around 13.5%.