Sunday, December 27, 2020

Countries that spend the most times on social media

 

These are the countries that spend the most and least time on social media 

Social media mobile phone daily usage Twitter Facebook Instagram time
Some nations spend nearly 4 hours a day on average across social media platforms.
Image: Unsplash/dole777
With the collaboration ofStatista
  • Emerging markets are continuing to spend the most time on social media, with the Philippines averaging 3 hours 50 minutes per day.
  • In Japan, that figure falls to around three-quarters of an hour each day.
  • Social media usage plateaued in Q1 2020 when compared with 2019 and 2018 figures, but later results will show if coronavirus has reversed this trend.

On average global internet users spent 2 hours and 22 minutes on social media per day, though trends differed widely by country. In many of the markets that Global Web Index surveyed, social media use had shrunk or plateaued in Q1 2020 when compared with 2019 and 2018 figures - the 2021 report will reveal if the coronavirus pandemic has reversed this trend.

Emerging markets continue to spend the most time on social networks during a typical day. This could be driven by these markets generally having younger populations, with the 16 to 24-year-old segment driving growth globally. The Philippines spent the most time connected to social networks, devoting almost four hours a day to the digital social sphere. Nigerians typically spent almost three and a three quarters of an hour a day on social media sites, while Indians and Chinese clocked around 2.5 hours and 2 hours, respectively, per day.

Some of the more developed markets have shown signs of plateauing which could be driven by aging populations in these countries. During a typical day in Japan, people spend only three quarters of an hour staying connected on social networks. Germany posts only slightly higher numbers, with users going on social media for one hour and twenty minutes every day, while the UK and the U.S. both spent closer to two hours per day engaging with social media

Time social media consumer usage Phillippines USA UK China
The Philippines use social media 3 hours 50 minutes a day on average.

Department that sells only second hand goods

 

This department store in Berlin sells only recycled and second-hand goods

A woman carries a shopping bag after Thailand government's ban of single-use plastic, at a shopping center in Bangkok, Thailand January 2, 2020. REUTERS/ Soe Zeya Tun - RC2N7E93Z6G4
The store helps to reduce waste and protect the environment.
Image: REUTERS/ Soe Zeya Tun
  • This new Berlin store sells only well-preserved second-hand goods.
  • From furniture to fashions, everything in the store is pre-owned.
  • By selecting only high-quality items, the city hopes to bring an end to throwaway culture.
  • It's part of a city-wide drive to make Berlin a zero-waste city by 2030.

Berlin’s city government has just taken the unusual step of opening a department store. But this is no typical retail outlet – the store sells only high-quality recycled and upcycled items.

It’s all part of the city’s efforts to reduce waste and protect the environment. The pop-up shop will be open on the third floor of the city’s Karstadt Hermannplatz department store, in the hip Kreuzberg district, for the next six months. If the pilot project works, more stores are planned.

Called B-Wa(h)renhaus, the store aims to attract people who might not consider shopping at the city’s many second-hand furniture and clothing shops.

Across the new store’s 650 square meters of selling space, nine vendors offer products ranging from recycled and upcycled furniture and clothing to refurbished electrical appliances and toys. For anyone who fancies a snack, there’s also an outlet selling dumplings that do good – they’re made from “excess but high-quality” ingredients.

circular economy great reset recycled up-cycled make do and mend fixed new sustainability sustainable
Products at the store include recycled furniture and refurbished electrical appliances.
Image: City of Berlin/SenUVK

On the floor above is a meeting space that will be used for a series of events to raise awareness of recycling and reuse, including promoting a scheme to allow shoppers to borrow cargo bikes to take their bargains home.

“Our motto is ‘new can be used’,” says Stefan Tidow, State Secretary for Environment and Climate Protection, who officially opened the store. “We want to make well-preserved used goods more easily accessible to even more people.”

Used shopping

B-Wa(h)renhaus forms part of the city’s Zero Waste policy, endorsed by Berlin’s senate. Tidow’s initial plan is to open four more "department stores of the future", selling good-quality second-hand goods at attractive prices.

In the long run, he wants to see similar stores in each of Berlin’s 12 boroughs to embed “used shopping” as part of the city’s lifestyle and help to end the throwaway culture once and for all.

Berlin wants to be a zero-waste city by 2030. European Commission data shows it already recycles 90% of glass and paper waste and 41% of plastics and metal. Bloomberg reports that the city has cut annual household waste per resident by 11 kilos since 2008.

Households separate their trash into five colour-coded bins for recycling and rubbish that cannot be recycled is burned in a waste-to-energy plant. The city’s recycling service says food waste used to produce biogas has to date replaced 2.5 million litres of diesel.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY

What is a circular economy?


In their report on the circular economy, the World Economic Forum and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation call for international cooperation to reduce demand for raw materials by reusing and repurposing existing products to extend their productive lives.

“It can become the new normal to buy used goods,” Tidow says. “Used things have a future – those who give used things a second life avoid waste, save raw materials and protect the environment and the climate.”

Ways to help fight racism

 

4 ways to be an ally in the fight against racism

Citizens of Detroit protest against racial inequality.
From petitions to politics, white people and non-black people of colour can help to end systemic racial injustice.
Image: Reuters/Emily Elconin

• Police brutality is just a surface manifestation of deeper systemic racism.

• This ingrained racism affects black Americans on the job market, in workplaces, at the polling booth, in urban environments and more.

• White people and non-black people of colour must undertake conscious action and education to combat the problem.

The killing of George Floyd in police custody resulted in massive protests across more than 140 US cities and 20 countries around the world. These protests have been focused on police brutality, but also led on issues of structural and systemic racism that exist in most countries today.

As these long-standing global issues have come to the forefront of today’s discussions, so have questions on how to be an ally in the movement against anti-black racism. The road to allyship may require unlearning the teachings that you once thought true; this ongoing journey means educating oneself on the topics at hand and taking initiative. Here are resources, and some historical context, for white people and non-black people of colour who wish to be an ally.

1. Understand that systemic racism goes beyond police brutality

An early example of police brutality against unarmed African-Americans in modern times was the 1991 beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles. A grainy video of his assault was replayed for days on national news networks. Nearly 30 years later, the killing of George Floyd was shared across television news and social media networks. The digital age has played a pivotal role in capturing unjust aggression by police, and amplified the message for millions through sharing, retweeting and trending hashtags. The death of George Floyd magnified the conversation around systemic racism, but understanding the core of the issue goes beyond police brutality.

Systemic racism exists within the banking, education industries and even within business. It is ingrained in nearly every aspect of how people move through societies, and it disproportionately affects black people. African-Americans are underrepresented in leadership roles across business industries, have a difficult time accessing quality housing, are over-represented in the criminal justice system, and their experiences in healthcare stand in stark contrast to those of white and non-black citizens.

In the United States, unemployment has been exacerbated by the coronavirus, but has hit black Americans especially severely. Even when employed, a black worker earns just 62% of the amount a white worker is paid.

Systematic racism impacts African-Americans on the job market
Systematic racism affects African-American jobs and income.

Variations of racism and injustice range from very clear discriminatory actions to the most surreptitious policies. Historical examples in the US include poll taxes and literacy tests, which required citizens to pay for their right to vote and excluded people who couldn't read. This tactic marginalized people from low-income communities.

Segregation in cities across America may have been outlawed, but it nevertheless remains in existence in practice. Just look at Chicago’s north-south divide, Detroit’s 8 Mile Road and extensive gentrification in major cities such as Oakland and San Francisco. Income differences between white and black people are so prevalent, it leads to less lending options for black Americans to buy a home or own a business, education inequalities for children and harder to find job opportunities. The cycle of systemic racism comes in many forms, making it even more difficult to break.

2. Speak up against racism in the workplace and support black colleagues

Unfortunately, black professionals are still underrepresented in the workforce despite gains in undergraduate degrees. (For example, in 2018, 31% of black people in the US attained a university degree or higher compared to just 16% in 1992.) This lack of visibility is particularly stark in senior leadership roles, where just 3.3% of roles are currently filled by black employees. If your organisation is lacking in diversity, there are several ways to tackle the issue with your colleagues and keep an organisation accountable:

• Encourage resource groups for your black, indigenous and people-of-colour employees (BIPOC) to connect on experiences and find ways to address racism.

• If your organisation doesn’t have a diversity and inclusion team, start working on ways to develop one. Companies that build on diversity and inclusion have a greater chance of outperforming and attracting top talent.

• Apply mentorship opportunities for BIPOC employees to ensure they have equal opportunities and access to promotion.

Beyond advancement barriers, black employees often face discrimination from their co-workers. In fact, a recent Glassdoor survey found that three out of five workers in the US had seen or experienced discrimination at work. While this can be overt, it often takes the form of micro-aggressions, and may not be covered in cultural sensitivity trainings. Speaking up about race issues is often the first step allies can take against systemic racism in the workplace.

As a non-black colleague, it's important to show your allyship and condone unjust actions against black people. However, there are better ways to support your black colleagues, starting off by just listening. By being there and hearing their experiences, you are already showing your support. As a company, it's vital to ensure safe places exist where employees feel able to speak about what is happening.

Another way to be an ally is by educating yourself to better understand your black colleagues' perspective. There are several books to help you learn about white privilege and how to start noticing systemic racism, while the National Museum of African American History and Culture has released an online programme that will help you learn about race through different exercises and videos.

3. Target racism in education

From experiencing a disproportionate number of suspensions to amassing more student debt, black students face more barriers than their white peers in education. It starts in school. More than 60 years ago, segregation between white and black children ended with the US Supreme Court case of Brown v Board of Education. But many schools remain segregated and unequal, due to the economic and social inequalities faced by African-American communities. Schools predominantly attended by people of colour are almost always underfunded. Though many previous laws in the Jim Crow era have been banned, conversations about segregation in today’s schools and education system are mostly non-existent.

Ensuring equitable education for black students requires action at all levels. To engage in addressing racism in education, there are many ways to learn and get involved:

• Very few books for children involve non-white main characters. As summer holidays begin, here are some books featuring black and people of colour characters for children.

• A podcast episode looking at Brown v Board of Education’s decision and the importance of having black teachers in schools.

• Schott Foundation for Public Education is a US-based resource offering information on racial injustice in the education system with a call of action to get involved in your communities.

• Code Switch listed podcasts, films and books about systemic racism, including inequality in schools, and how to have better, thoughtful conversations.

4. Petitions and political engagement

Today’s anti-black racism stems from systemic racism that has gone unaddressed for decades. These racist systems are far-reaching, and many will require sustained public efforts to fix them.

Protests, petitions and calls for action in the past few weeks have already changed business policies and governance in cities, states and countries around the world. The National Football League (NFL) previously mentioned they would charge fines to teams if players were to kneel during the national anthem, but since the George Floyd protests erupted, they have changed their stance and embraced the Black Lives Matter movement.

After the killing of an unarmed black woman in her home, the city of Louisville, Kentucky enacted the Breonna Taylor Law to ban no-knock warrants. These reforms are not restricted to the US either: Berlin became the first German state to pass a law barring public authorities, like the police, from stopping people based on race, gender or sexual orientation.

Political action from governments and other decision-makers will require continuous encouragement. That's why reaching out to your local and national political leaders can be another way to be an ally. Petitions are another way to show your support for anti-racism in your community. Change.org is a good place to start, if looking for national or international petitions. Since many regions and countries experience racism differently, it is also good to seek out local resources for the policies that may have the most impact in your community.

Alicia Garza, one of the founders of Black Lives Matter, was honoured by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2020. The organisation she started has grown to include many local Black Lives Matter chapters around the world; finding one in your local area can give you insight in how best to get involved with your local organizers.

Social media also can be a great place to find out which policy changes activists in your area are petitioning for. Below are a few top accounts organizing against anti-black racism and police brutality that are good places to start:

• NAACP

There are many different ways for allies to get involved in the fight against racial injustice. The most effective thing an ally can do is get involved, stay involved, and continue educating others on the movement against anti-black racism.

Resources

Toward a Racially Just Workplace – Harvard Business Review

Resources for non-black POC

Saturday, December 26, 2020

Breaking News

LATEST SPORTS NEWS ⚽😥 FIFA Cancels Under17 And Under20 World Cups In 2021 Due To COVID-19 Pandemic. ......

FIFA has canceled the Under-17 and Under-20 World Cups scheduled for next year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The news comes after the postponement of the Olympic Games and other global sporting tournaments. In a statement released, FIFA said the 2021 edition of both tournaments will be cancelled, and the next edition will be held in 2023, with Indonesia still hosting the U20s and Peru the U17s. “The COVID-19 pandemic continues to present challenges for the hosting of international sporting events and to have a restrictive effect on international travel. FIFA has therefore regularly consulted the relevant stakeholders, including the host member associations as well as the confederations involved in both tournaments originally scheduled to take place in 2021,” the football governing body said in a statement. “In doing so, it became clear that the global situation has failed to normalise to a sufficient level to address the challenges associated with hosting both tournaments, including the feasibility of the relevant qualification pathways,” it added. GUYS, WHAT DO YOU THINK? 

Youngest player in Premier league history

15-Year-Old Nigerian Ethan Nwaneri Becomes Youngest Premier League Player In History  ...........  Fifteen-year-old England-born Nigerian, E...