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SEVEN Announces Plans for Second Entertainment Complex in Riyadh

An actor poses with a replica of a vintage cinema camera as visitors enter a screening, at the King Abdullah Financial District Theater, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in April 2018. (AP)
An actor poses with a replica of a vintage cinema camera as visitors enter a screening, at the King Abdullah Financial District Theater, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in April 2018. (AP)
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SEVEN Announces Plans for Second Entertainment Complex in Riyadh

An actor poses with a replica of a vintage cinema camera as visitors enter a screening, at the King Abdullah Financial District Theater, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in April 2018. (AP)
An actor poses with a replica of a vintage cinema camera as visitors enter a screening, at the King Abdullah Financial District Theater, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in April 2018. (AP)

A second mega entertainment hub in Saudi capital Riyadh has been revealed by the Saudi Entertainment Ventures Company (SEVEN) – a fully owned subsidiary of Saudi’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).

The company announced the location of its first entertainment destinations in December.

The new project's location in Al-Rabwa neighborhood was chosen due to the population density in the region, its need for modern leisure destinations and for ease of access since it is located close to the Salah Al-Din station of the Riyadh metro project.

The complex will be spread across 135,000 square meters. It will include a variety of carefully selected recreational facilities along with restaurants and cafes, open spaces for events, sports and live shows, as well as cinema halls, to become the top destinations for residents, visitors, and tourists.

Chairman of SEVEN, Abdullah bin Nasser Al-Dawoud said his company's projects will be the largest entertainment destination expanded under a geographical plan covering all of the Kingdom’s regions, to offer diverse entertainment options with a modern design and a unique character.

The planned comprehensive entertainment complex allows all the family members to enjoy their time and provide services for all categories in line with the Kingdom's aim to improve the lifestyle of Saudis and residents. The visitor will be able to spend hours in an inclusive all-day entertainment trip.

The Saudi Entertainment Ventures Company works on providing a new investment capital to support the growth of entertainment sector and the diversification of the Saudi economy on the short and long terms.

PIF announced SEVEN's establishment as an investment arm aimed at supporting, developing, and boosting the entertainment sector infrastructure and building partnerships with private and public parties.

SEVEN works to enhance the entertainment sector and build an integrated sustainable system in the Kingdom by focusing on four sectors starting with the opening of the first cinema in April 2018 in partnership with AMC, the largest cinema operator in the world; then, the second sector of recreational complexes with the first complex announced in December 2018 in Riyadh and the second in March 2019. Its strategy also covers the sector of amusement parks and family entertainment centers.

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'Social Studies' TV Series Takes Intimate Dive into Teens' Smartphone Life

This is the first generation born into a world with widespread social media. LOIC VENANCE / AFP/File
This is the first generation born into a world with widespread social media. LOIC VENANCE / AFP/File
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'Social Studies' TV Series Takes Intimate Dive into Teens' Smartphone Life

This is the first generation born into a world with widespread social media. LOIC VENANCE / AFP/File
This is the first generation born into a world with widespread social media. LOIC VENANCE / AFP/File

Sifting through the smartphones of dozens of US teens who agreed to share their social media content over the course of a year, filmmaker Lauren Greenfield came to a somber observation.
The kids are "very, very conscious of the mostly negative effects" these platforms are having on them -- and yet they just can't quit.
Greenfield's documentary series "Social Studies," premiering on Disney's FX and Hulu on Friday, arrives at a time of proliferating warnings about the dangers of social networks, particularly on young minds.
The show offers a frightening but moving immersion into the online lives of Gen Z youths, AFP said.
Across five roughly hour-long episodes, viewers get a crash course in just how much more difficult those thorny adolescent years have become in a world governed by algorithms.
In particular, the challenges faced by young people between ages 16 and 20 center on the permanent social pressure induced by platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
For example, we meet Sydney, who earns social media "likes" through increasingly revealing outfits; Jonathan, a diligent student who misses out on his top university picks and is immediately confronted with triumphant "stories" of those who were admitted; and Cooper, disturbed by accounts that glorify anorexia.
"I think social media makes a lot of teens feel like shit, but they don't know how to get off it," says Cooper, in the series.
'Like me more'
This is the first generation born into a world with widespread social media.
Via its subjects' personal smartphone accounts, the show offers a rare glimpse into the ways in which that hyper-connected reality has distorted the process of growing up.
We see how young people modify their body shapes with the swipe of a finger before posting photos, the panic that grips a high school due to fake rumors of a shooting.
"It's hard to tell what's been put into your mind, and what you actually like," says one anonymous girl, in a group discussion filmed for the docuseries.
These discussion circles between adolescents punctuate "Social Studies," and reveal the contradictions between the many young people's online personas, and their underlying anxieties.
Speaking candidly in a group, they complain about harassment, the lack of regulation on social media platforms, and the impossible beauty standards hammered home by their smartphones.
"If I see people with a six pack, I'm like: 'I want that.' Because maybe people would like me more," admits an anonymous Latino boy.
'Lost your social life'
The series is not entirely downbeat.
But the overall sense is a generation disoriented by the great digital whirlwind.
There are no psychologists or computer scientists in the series.
"The experts are the kids," Greenfield told a press conference this summer. "It was actually an opportunity to not go in with any preconceptions."
While "Social Studies" does not offer any judgment, its evidence would appear to support many of the recent health warnings surrounding hyper-online young people.
The US surgeon general, the country's top doctor, recently called for warning labels on social media platforms, which he said were incubating a mental health crisis.
And banning smartphones in schools appears to be a rare area of bipartisan consensus in a politically polarized nation.
Republican-led Florida has implemented a ban, and the Democratic governor of California signed a new law curbing phone use in schools on Monday.
"Collective action is the only way," said Greenfield.
Teenagers "all say 'if you're the only one that goes off (social media), you lost your social life.'"