I was sitting with my American friend when a 10 year old girl joined us. We didn’t know her before but she asked to join our company till her parents come. She was a lovely girl and being in the club there was no reason to decline her request. I just wondered if she would bear with us. To my surprise she was so friendly and talkative. No age barrier seemed to stop her from discussing a lot of issues with us. She was a fluent speaker with noticeable confidence. She kept on telling us about her life, school, dreams and friends. Her English was perfect and her accent was purely American. She even uttered few slang comments and jokes. The next logical question was from which state she was. The little cheerful girl gave us a big smile and with much content she admitted proudly that she has never traveled to the US.

I could not resist my surprise. This girl was born in Egypt and her mother tongue- supposedly- is Arabic. She studied in a local not an international school. I naively asked her about her Arabic and she shrugged her shoulders saying that she didn’t care about it unless it was time for exams. She just passed the tests and that was it!

Socrates’ phrase struck my mind: “Speak so that I may see you.” When this girl spoke, she revealed a completely de rooted generation. I am not against learning a foreign language, but I am a bilingual myself. However, the internet succeeded in influencing the upcoming generation. They intertwined with a culture that is completely different from their roots. They developed a sense of belonging to a faraway place. They read, speak and cherish all the icons of “the others”.

This unplanned encounter with a vivid example of the effect and influence of social media, the internet, the bloggers and influencers on the growing youngsters left me with a heavy heart. I am with bridging the gaps between cultures and nations but it seems that our own children have gone too far. The other side are neither affected by us nor speaking one word of our language. The one sided race to reach the finish line is unfair and threatening. Erasing one’s identity will end up in a distorted generation that is torn between two entities. Setting a balance is crucial for a healthy fruit of strong roots and miscellaneous nutrients!