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Press Release Save The Children

New Zealanders are being asked to stand alongside girls in Afghanistan, many of whom are still struggling to access education since the transition of power last August. More than two months on from the Taliban extending its ban on secondary school

New Zealanders are being asked to stand alongside girls in Afghanistan, many of whom are still struggling to access education since the transition of power last August.

More than two months on from the Taliban extending its ban on secondary school girls attending classes, a new online campaign launched by Save the Children New Zealand asks Kiwis to share a message of hope for girls in Afghanistan.

Already, hundreds of Kiwis have signed up through the online portal, sending messages asking girls to stay strong: I want you to remember this, says one. Nothing stays the same, everything changes. Reach for the stars. You are important, your thoughts and feelings are valued.

To a special girl across the world from me, says another. Dont ever give up.

Save the Children Chief Executive Heidi Coetzee says education is a lifeline for all children, especially girls.

Without it they are at increased risk of violence, abuse and exploitation. There are many reasons why girls cannot access education in Afghanistan. Cultural traditions and womens role in society are the biggest challenges. Insecurity, poverty, poor infrastructure, inadequate learning materials and a lack of qualified female teachers are other barriers.

Our messages of hope provides a way to stand in solidarity with the girls in Afghanistan who are struggling to access their basic right to education and to show these girls they are not forgotten.

Ms Coetzee says the messages will be translated and delivered through a virtual platform to girls currently attending Save the Childrens community-based education classes. To ensure children still have access to education during the last 10 months, Save the Children has been running these classes and providing children and teachers with learning and classroom kits. The organisation has also been working with female secondary school graduates to support them to become teachers and to pass the university entrance exam.

It is now more than two months since the Taliban extended its ban on secondary school girls attending school. An analysis by Save the Children, UNICEF and its education cluster partners released last month showed the majority of secondary school girls around 850,000 out of 1.1 million were not attending classes.

Ms Coetzee says Save the Children is calling on the Taliban to allow girls of all ages back to school.

There is no issue that can justify the continuation of a policy that denies girls access to education. All children should have the chance to go to school, to learn and contribute to society.

To send a message of hope, go to: https://bit.ly/SCNZMessagesofHope

Content Sourced from scoop.co.nzOriginal url

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Community Scoop Reach For The Stars, You Are Important: Kiwis Send Messages Of Support To Girls In Afghanistan - Scoop

ByteDance Ltd.'s TikTok app is displayed in the App Store on a smartphone in an arranged photograph taken in Arlington, Virginia.

Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

TikTok is fully aware that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is retooling the Facebook and Instagram apps to be more like its own popular short video service. But TikTok has no interest in mimicking Facebook.

"Facebook is a social platform," Blake Chandlee, TikTok's president of global business solutions, told CNBC in an interview on Thursday. "They've built all their algorithms based on the social graph. That is their core competency. Ours is not."

Chandlee, who spent 12 years at Facebook before joining TikTok in 2019, said his former employer will likely run into trouble if it tries to copy TikTok, and will end up offering an inferior experience to users and brands.

Facebook launched Instagram Reels in 2020 as its first real foray into the short-form video market. Last year, it brought the service over to its core Facebook app.

"We are an entertainment platform," Chandlee said. "The difference is significant. It's a massive difference."

Facebook app chief Tom Alison told The Verge this week he sees TikTok increasingly stealing share from the world's largest social network. Facebook plans to modify its primary feed to look more like TikTok by recommending more content regardless of whether it's shared by friends.

"I think the thing we probably didn't fully embrace or see is how social this format could be," Alison told The Verge.

Facebook's recent performance backs that up. Meta's stock price is down 52% this year, underperforming the Nasdaq, which has dropped 32%. In April, the company said revenue in the second quarter could drop from a year earlier for the first time ever.

Earlier in the year, Zuckerberg acknowledged the increased competitive pressure from TikTok and said, "This is why our focus on Reels is so important over the long term."

TikTok is owned by China's ByteDance, which is privately held.

Chandlee said history is not on Zuckerberg's side, and compares its current problem to the challenge that Google faced when it was trying to take on Facebook at its own game.

"You remember when Google was creating Google+," Chandlee said. At Facebook, "We had war rooms at the time. It was a big deal. Everyone was worried about it," he said.

But no matter how much money Google poured into its social-networking efforts, it couldn't compete with Facebook, which had become the default place for people to connect with friends and share photos and updates.

"It became clear Google's value was search and Facebook was really good at social," Chandlee said.

"I see the same thing now," he added. "We're really good at what we do. We bring out these cultural trends and this unique experience people have on TikTok. They're just not going to have that on Facebook unless Facebook entirely walks away from its social values, which I just don't think it will do."

Facebook didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Chandlee added that he has deep respect for Zuckerberg and views both Facebook and Google as strong competition. However, he noted that TikTok has an array of competitors across the world, including businesses in e-commerce and live streaming.

Chandlee said he hasn't seen a slowdown in ad spending on TikTok, despite what's being reported by companies such as Snap, which told investors that ad revenue is being hurt by inflation and the threat of recession. Snap's stock has lost almost three-quarters of its value this year.

"I've heard there's going to be a slowdown in the ad market, anywhere from 2% to 6%, but we have not seen it," Chandlee said. "We're not seeing the headwinds that some others are seeing."

WATCH: Snap has a TikTok problem, says Lead Edge Capital's Mitchell Green

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TikTok exec: We're not a social network like Facebook, we're an entertainment platform - CNBC

BeReal, LiveIn, Locket what do these new consumer social apps have in common besides a highly ranked position on the App Stores Top Charts? They engage their users through a combination of push notifications and homescreen widgets, instead of forcing people to spend a long time browsing their app, scrolling feeds or watching creator content.

The popularity of this homescreen-based form of social networking is, in part, tied to Apples move to launch a widgets platform for the iPhone with the release of iOS 14 in 2020. In doing so, it invited a new ecosystem of apps to emerge.

Initially, this began with apps that allowed users to better personalize their homescreens with widgets and custom app icons that matched their backgrounds, sending apps like Widgetsmith, Brass, Color Widgets and others to the top of the App Store. But over time, developers realized that widgets didnt just have to be homescreen decorations they could, in effect, be an active extension of their own platforms. Their widgets could serve as a tool to engage users in the most personal space on a mobile device: the prime real estate that is the phones homescreen.

When Locket first launched in December 2021, this idea was more of a novelty.

Developer and former Apple WWDC student scholarship winner Matt Moss thought it would be clever to use a widget to send photos to his girlfriend as they embarked on a long-distance relationship. But soon, his friends were clamoring for access to the app he had built as a simple side project.

Since then, Locket has expanded from iOS to Android and has now seen a total of 20 million installs to date, according to estimates from app store intelligence firm Sensor Tower. But its popularity has declined a bit as competitors emerged. While Locket was No. 9 in the Social Networking category, as of the time of writing, it was only No. 42 Overall on the U.S. App Store. That rank is largely due to the fact that there are so many other apps now playing in this space and gaining momentum.

For instance, another app called BeReal had originally arrived in December 2019 before iPhones widgets became broadly available. This social app encourages users to capture a photo within two minutes of receiving a push notification using BeReals camera which takes both a front-facing photo and selfie at the same time. The idea is to give users a way to see what their friends are up to in real time. Before this year, BeReal had seen steady, but not groundbreaking, growth, achieving 1.9 million worldwide installs, per Sensor Tower data. The app is backed by $30 million in funding, led by a16z, Accel and New Wave.

Then, in February 2022, BeReal tapped into the idea to leverage the homescreen to capture friends reactions to users posts, with the launch of a feature called WidgetMojis. This addition allowed BeReal to display friends photos in a live-updating widget on the homescreen as they reacted to users BeReal posts, or what BeReal calls RealMojis. By April, the app intelligence firm Apptopia had reported that BeReal had grown its monthly active users 315% year-to-date and that 65% of its lifetime downloads had occurred this year. That figure has since grown to around 86%, Sensor Tower says, as the app now has a total of 13.9 million lifetime installs.

Over the course of 2022, BeReals popularity has skyrocketed. This year alone BeReal has gained some 12 million installs, the data further indicates. And, as of the time of writing, BeReal was the No. 10 Overall app on the U.S. App Store, beating out traditional social networking and communication apps like Messenger, Snapchat, Telegram, Discord, Twitter and Pinterest. It was also the No. 3 app in the Social Networking category.

For younger users, BeReal also become part of their cultural lexicon and everyday app rotation. On TikTok, the hashtag #bereal has more than 390 million views, while variations on the name bring in thousands or millions more.

But BeReal is now only one of many competing in this space. Another vying for a part of this emerging market is the newer addition, LiveIn, which launched in January 2022 after pivoting from a Clubhouse-like app, Livehouse. This homescreen social networking app comes with its own twist. Instead of just sending selfie photos to friends phones, users can send videos and drawings, as well. Another new feature lets users duet photos and videos taking a cue from the similarly named mashup feature found on TikTok.

The company said in a press release it reached 4 million monthly active users in the first two months after launch. At the time, the hashtags #liveinapp and #livepic had generated more than 40 million TikTok views. Today, #liveinapp has 279.5 million TikTok views and #livepic has 37.6 million.

In addition to the casual photo sharing and updated widgets, these new social apps include a photo archive so users can look back at their memories. This serves not only as a way to incentivize users to launch the apps outside of designated photo-taking times, but also as a way to lock in users and keep them from abandoning the platform.

This sort of photo archive isnt a new concept its inspired by Facebook and Snapchats Memories features, but is designed to achieve the same results with a younger crowd.

In fact, these new social apps have taken many of the core concepts more recently popularized by Snapchat access to real-life friends, private photo sharing, spontaneous and casual photo taking and memories and have built their own differentiated platforms that tap into the smartphones notification system and direct homescreen access via widgets.

These three apps are only a handful of a growing number of apps building for social via the phones homescreen widgets.

Other top downloaded apps include Noteit Widget, which has gained 18.8 million lifetime installs per Sensor Tower data; Loveit: Live Pic & Note Widget (1.4 million installs); Widgetshare (3.1 million installs); Peek (704K installs); WidgetPal (374K installs), SnapWidget (185K installs); Rocket Widget (127K installs); Comet: Live Friends Widget (112K installs); and others.

There are even clones capitalizing on the names of popular brands like the not-so-subtly named app called LivePic, Locket Photo Widgets which has managed to pull in 79,000 installs some of which likely came by way of misdirected App Store searches.

Another one of the many things these apps have in common is that they promote sharing real-life photos that dont involve heavy editing, filters or AR effects features Snapchat and Instagram had become known for. This speaks to a broader shift thats helping fuel this trend: the end of the Instagram aesthetic and the increased desire for authenticity on social media.

We already saw hints of this emerging with the launches of other newcomer social photo apps like Dispo or Poparazzi, both of which focused on uncurated photostreams the latter, where photos were snapped and posted by the users friends, not users themselves. There were also the apps that aimed at photographers abandoned by Instagram like Glass, or Herd Social, which had positioned themselves as being anti-Instagram apps.

This group of photo apps promoted their defiance of Big Tech with its manufactured algorithms, the overabundance of features and the hyper-competitiveness that now sees mainstream social networks chasing TikTok with short videos, not to mention their collective drive to incorporate all sorts of other activity like e-commerce, creator subscriptions, virtual tipping, NFTs and more. When its not trying to be an online mall, Instagram is trying to clone TikTok, for example. Snapchat is hosting creator content and now wants users to shop using AR.

Meanwhile, younger users the key demographic that uses social apps seemed to have actually just wanted simpler apps that focused on what they think social networking should be about: their friends.

Its funny that its come to this. The social graph was once the holy grail of consumer social platforms to know who someone was connected to in real life was perceived as valuable data. For one thing, it meant you could lock users into a walled garden they wouldnt want to leave because their friends were all there, too. And making this social graph inaccessible to competitors meant every new network had to start from scratch. But these days, mainstream social networks are more heavily focused on connecting users with creators after all, thats where the money is. Users can subscribe to, shop from and virtually tip content creators. Monetizing true friendships is much more difficult.

But Big Techs greed left a gap in the market where they began to underserve those in search of real-world connections. This impact isnt just visible within the homescreen social app trend.

Its also helped drive users to the almost too numerous to count friend-finding and friend discovery apps, like Yubo, LMK, Wink, Hoop, Wizz, Vibe, Fam, Itsme, Lobby, Hippo, LiveMe, Swiping and others many of which had built on top of Snapchats APIs until the company tightened its developer policy over child safety concerns.

The trend is similarly impacting dating, leading to Matchs biggest-ever acquisition of Hyperconnect for $1.73 billion, which had been building social discovery apps that werent designed specifically for romantic connections. And Bumble today is beefing up its BFF feature as younger people are shifting their interest to friend-finding apps.

But this shift in social isnt without concerns. Though mainstream social apps are now being held accountable regarding their user protections, newer social apps are flying under the radar. Parents havent heard of these new apps and dont know to monitor or restrict them as a result. The same goes for lawmakers and regulators, too, who have their eyes affixed solely on tech giants. And as reports have shown, the apps privacy protections and policies, in some cases, are fairly weak. This is particularly concerning given that many are marketed toward and used by tweens and younger teens, who may inadvertently post to global, public feeds instead of to friends, post inappropriate content or become the victims of cyberbullying.

But the apps freewheeling nature isnt the only reason why homescreen social networking is having a moment. Beyond those mentioned above, there are many other factors at play here including the apps clever use of TikTok to drive downloads, influencer marketing and college ambassador programs to spread the word about new apps more organically. Theres also the continuous background noise related to social networkings ill effects that Gen Z is aware of, even if only mariginally. Data scandals, high-profile leaks and whistleblowing, Congressional hearings, regulatory inquiries and the resulting media coverage have helped fuel consumer demand for apps that werent created by todays dominant players.

The markets readiness for this type of networking is demonstrated by how well these homescreen social apps are currently doing. Theyre dominating the Social Networking charts and are staking their position in the Overall Top Charts. While, longer-term, they could end up being another flash in the pan the way location-based social networking apps were in the 2010s, theres a sense that some Gen Z users no longer consider these apps experimental.

And while TikTok is certainly a viable threat in terms of capturing the valuable and profitable connection between users and creators, users social graphs are still up for grabs. In fact, many among Gen Z dont want to share their real-world relationships with TikTok, theyve said in videos posted to the platform. They appreciate that TikTok is a network thats about creativity and individualized interests, not their real-world connections.

TikTok has realized this too, and understands the risk it poses for its own business. It even got so pushy about acquiring users address books that it destroyed its own Discover page in favor of a Friends page in hopes of capturing that data.

If the trend continues, it could impact other mainstream social networks, which have largely ignored this new avenue to gain users and havent adopted the live pics from friends widget format, either.

With the social graph filtering to smaller, simpler homescreen social networking apps, there also now comes the potential to build a different kind of social network that could be monetized in new ways beyond ads. These apps could roll out premium features, a subscription service, direct payment and more. But that future is still in question, as it remains to be seen whether homescreen social networking apps have long-term staying power among the historically fickle younger crowd who have adopted them.

Continued here:
The next big social platform is the smartphones homescreen - TechCrunch

Social media detox is a phrase weve heard way too many times and have probably tried too. Taking the detox approach isnt just a trendy wellness trend, according to a recent study. It states that taking a break from social media has been scientifically shown to improve our health and alleviate the despair and anxiety that many of us have learned to live with in the post-2020 era.

A study published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking consisted of findings which were based on an examination of the social media habits of 154 individuals, aged 18 to 72, who said they spent an average of eight hours each week on social media. They were separated into two groups: those who took a week off from social media and those who did not. The researchers assessed their mental health prior to the division.

Participants who did not use social media reported significant improvements in anxiety, depression, and overall mental health following the experiment. The group that continued to use social media as usual, on the other hand, did not gain the same benefits.

Jeffrey Lambert, first author of the study, and lecturer in health and exercise psychology at the University of Bath, said, Many of our participants reported positive effects from being off social media with improved mood and less anxiety overall. This suggests that even just a small break can have an impact.

Despite the benefits of social media, the tailored reality we see on our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit feeds, among others, has a severe impact on our mental health. An article on LOfficiel Psychology reads, Sure, its a great place to socialise and keep connected, but it can also create a false perception of reality. After all, youre only seeing the highlights of other peoples lives.

Explaining how social media can cause anxiety and why taking a break from it can be beneficial, it added, Social media is a way for people to prove how successful, pretty, likeable, or confident they are, and sometimes that creates competition in terms of how many likes, views, or comments they get. This situation can lead to constant posting, checking and worrying. Taking a step back from that routine can give [people] the time to relax and break this toxic cycle.

Undoubtedly, it is essential to take a break from social media- to recognise how much time we spend on it while wishing we had a bit more time to dedicate to our hobbies, finish work so we can log off calmly or finally finish decluttering our homes. In fact, some of the study participants revealed that taking a seven-day break from social media allowed them to free up around nine hours every week.

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Take a week-long break from social media to reduce anxiety and depression, study says - The Indian Express

TikTok users are currently sharing videos about the viral Human Feeling Quiz as the trend takes over the Internet. Videos and posts after taking the quiz are amassing millions of views making other people curious. Find out what the Human Feeling quiz is and how to take it.

Every day different types of trends go viral on TikTok and users continue to hop on them. The latest one is about a personality quiz that tells the user which human feeling they are. The feelings range from Humility, Despondency, and others.

The results are based on your responses to the questions that the quiz asks. Upon generating the result, you can share them on TikTok, Instagram, or any other social media platform to let your friends and followers know what human feeling you relate to.

The Human Feeling Quiz is a personality test and the latest viral trend on TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms. Social networking site users are usually obsessed with quizzes or personality tests that allow them to explore themselves.

This particular quiz asks you a series of questions to determine what human feeling you are and tells you the result with a brief explanation.

It asks you 10 questions with each having four options to choose from. Some examples of the questions are available below:

After answering these questions, youll see the result which will be a human feeling based on your responses. It could be sincere love, humility, despondency, or any other. Users take this quiz to figure out which specific human feeling relates to them.

Taking the Human Feeling Quiz is very simple as its hosted on uquiz.com, which is a site where anyone can create their own quiz and make it public for others to play. If you want to take this personality test, follow these steps:

Thats it. This is how you take the viral Human Feeling quiz to share the results on TikTok, Instagram, and other social networking sites.

After taking the Human Feeling quiz, you can share your results on TikTok, Instagram, or any other social networking platform. If you are a TikTok user, just take the screenshot of the quiz result and use it in your TikTok video.

Whereas, Instagram users can share the results as Reels or Stories. You can also include your reaction to the result to make the video even more interesting. You can even pin the result to your profile on Instagram if you find it worth letting everyone know.

This way, people will know what human feeling you are and youll also join the viral trend. Your posts will have the probability of garnering thousands of views, likes, and comments.

A lot of TikTok users wonder if the Human Feeling quiz is accurate as sometimes the results are fine while the other times they are just absurd. This happens because the quiz generates results based on the set of questions you answer.

The questions and their answers are taken from standard personality tests which are also available on the web. These tests are created keeping modern psychology in mind and aim to figure out an individuals core personality. However, they arent accurate always.

A persons personality is usually a mix of different types of traits, elements, and experiences. Thus, the limited series of questions is never enough to predict someones accurate personality. The quiz still generates detailed results and its fun to play.

Thats why more and more people are currently participating in this trend. Have you joined it yet? If not, take the quiz and tell us what human feeling are you?

Go here to read the rest:
Viral Human Feeling Quiz: What is it and How to Take it? - TheTealMango