The Syrians and the “Block”

That was in March 2011, shortly before the outbreak of the revolution, in a conversation with a well-known Syrian activist about a dispute that broke out between her and another well-known activist over organizing a public protest activity in Damascus. Facebook, so she rested her head by making her a "block"!

I was new to Facebook at the time and did not know what a block was, so I asked her: “Do you mean to delete? She replied in the negative and explained to me what the block leads to in completely blocking all the activities of the person exposed to it from the person who "blanked" him! This process surprised me and did not fully understand it. “If you search for the “Mbulk” page, you will not find it? She said, “More than that, even his comments on other pages will not be visible to you!” The block, in short, is to completely remove the target person from the blue world that appears in front of the “block hitter” and of course in both directions, the bullied person will never see you in turn on Facebook!

What a terrible invention! You are able, with a single click of the left mouse button, to remove a person from your world! Which literally kills him morally! And if someone curses you, you won't see them either. He may be a friend of yours on Facebook, or he may be a friend of yours in the real world as well, and for some reason you may not know he has blocked you from his world. You remember him, for an occasion, you realize that you have not seen him for a long time on Facebook, so you search for his page and do not find it! You conclude that it is likely that he blocked you with that famous “block”, like the unlucky wife who received the divorce papers from her husband, without introduction and by mail, after a long time away from her. Fortunately, the block does not have the uncomfortable legal consequences of divorce in absentia.

This procedure may have some benefits and be used for compelling necessities, such as exposure to threats, disturbances, or others, but the prevalence of its use for unjustified reasons leads one to think about the meaning of this prevalence and the deterioration of relations between people, especially in a political reality that involves many The causes of discord and disharmony are like the case of the Syrians in the last eleven years.

It is difficult to monitor all the blocking operations carried out by Syrians against Syrians during these years, as a kind of probe of dissonance between them, but personal impressions are enough to get an idea of ​​them that may not be far from reality. Within the limits of my impressions, I have known dozens of blocks between Syrians, most of them for political-ideological reasons, and some of them because of the decline of the language of communication in the heated discussions that take place on Facebook pages. This is not to mention the thousands of instances of deletion from a friend's list or deleting a specific comment on a person's page.

These phenomena should not be underestimated on the grounds that they occur in a virtual world. Behind these virtual pages are real people who belong to certain social reasons and express more general sensitivities and tendencies than their own persons.

In fact, a ban or a block may seem to be a solution to a problem more than a problem, if it comes to sharp arguments and disgraceful polemics that leave traces that cannot be easily repaired. So “relax the head” to close the door if opening it would lead to a storm that would destroy all the contents of the house. However, this “solution” is in fact another option that may be no less bad than polemics, if we look at the matter from a social, not individual, perspective. The multiplication of “blocks” among Syrians will result in the rise of many walls between them so that the word “Syrians” has no meaning. Rather, individuals or groups wished for them to be contiguous in the place or in the Syrian identity, and they solved the problem by erecting solid walls between them.

This state of mutual isolation prevents the Syrians not only from having any dialogue with each other, but also from completely cutting off their news from each other. And the “prohibited other” turns with time into a stranger about whom we do not know anything, so we increase our hatred, ignorance and fear of him, especially if we hear some of his actions or his words through intermediaries who do not care about the accuracy of the transmission, but rather they have their goals of distorted transmission. In other words, the expansion of the use of the block leads to the impossibility of meeting the Syrians, I mean the impossibility of their formation in a society. Society is an arena of interaction, exchange and familiarity, that is, everything that is the opposite of applause.

There is a deep gulf that actually occurred between loyalists and opponents of the Assad regime, in real life before the virtual world. It is rare for real or virtual friendships between individuals from the two sides, although here and there activists follow the news of the other side for purposes related to the conflict between them, in search of additional reasons for hostility. , not in pursuit of understanding the other or finding potential points of convergence that can be built upon to save the future after the past has destroyed all bridges.

You will also find that conflicts along the Arab-Kurdish divide have created a rift on the Facebook pages, and if it does not turn into a comprehensive situation, the overlap between the two components continues through individuals and currents on both sides, some of which constitute bridges for dialogue, and some of them exacerbate differences. Likewise, the Islamic-secular division, in which the virtual world is witnessing renewed rounds of sharp debates between its two sides, did not lead to a comprehensive block between them. The two mentioned divisions are on the opposing side of the regime, and this is the reason why high walls were not erected to isolate the two sides of each from the two opposite sides. The interactions here, no matter how dominated by centrifugal factors, may constitute a prelude to a new Syria. As for the deep gulf between the loyalists and the opposition, it needs a miracle to bridge it.