It’s easy to create a profile on social media. And with the many platforms available, there will always be another one to move to when your account gets canceled when you violate any terms and conditions in the social media community you’re currently registered with. There are two major reasons why people create a social media account and why they choose that platform.

The first (and usually most common) is because their friends and relatives have one. It is the greatest influencer of which platform one chooses

Second (and most disruptive) is for business purposes – whether it is a legitimate business of engaging people in knowing your business and creating more clients OR one that involves getting paid for disrupting the normal social milieu.

And it’s pretty easy to create a new account.

Facebook for example requires only a few details: Name (we never see the real names of many people), email or mobile number (so here’s the tickler. Because the operative word is OR it’s easy to create an email account AND buy a cheap disposable prepaid card in the Philippines. The law regarding requiring to register ALL prepaid mobile numbers has never been passed. That’s because politicians use social media platforms to benefit from engaging in the business of trolling.), password, date of birth (yeah right, so even a 7 year old can create an account because there’s really no way to verify this (no documents to upload or send for verification and is based on what numbers you place), and gender (which is the least useful of the security information in this platform).

Based on MAU (most active users), the social media platform once dominated by Facebook (now known as Meta) has been spread out depending on the age group of the user.

Of course based on the year launched, FB definitely had a head start. Most of the ‘oldies’ who are used to FB refuse to leave this social platform because there are too many memories to ‘erase’ or vacate.

Choosing a platform will depend on your peer group. The senior citizens and the class D and E are more inclined to be on FB, the Gen X and Z on TikTok and Instagram, the more middle class on Twitter (including the pornstars), the executives and professional working class on LinkedIn, while YouTube encompasses all generations.

Legitimate social platforms like LinkedIn are mostly made up of executives and those with high paying jobs as they navigate the world of business and connecting with elite professionals. It is THE place to be when you want to brag about credentials, achievements, and establish social connections with the other professionals in the world. And while it sits in last place among the ten most popular apps and was one of the first social media apps to be launched, its revenue for 2020 was 4th among the top ten.

TikTok is the revelation. Launched in 2016 by ByteDanceLtd, Zhang Yiming and Toutiao, it has its headquarters in Culver, California. Mr Yiming is the founder of ByteDanceLtd and the news aggregator Toutiao. Barely 6 years old, this company which bills itself as the “leading destination for short-form mobile video” with a company vision to create joy and creativity is the fastest growing app worldwide. Despite the attempt to ban this app in India and the US, this app has been downloaded more than 2 billion times globally. This app belongs to the Gen Z, where more than 1/4 of the users are teenagers and their level and degree of engagement are high. Based on January 2021 data, time per user spent on TikTok exceeded that of Facebook. It’s revenue for a social media platform ranked second in 2020 in spite having only 25% of the user share of Facebook. ByteDanceLtd surpassed Uber in 2018 to become the most valuable start up in the world.

YouTube is the indisputable original video social media platform. It is estimated that more than 80-90% of adults and children use this platform. It has a strong base across all ages and while it covers all genres – gaming, education, DIY instructions, beauty, self-help and improvements, masses and other daily activities – it is the platform to invest in and will remain so as video remains the major driver for content marketing. Founded in 2005 by Jawed Karim, Steve Chen, and Chad Hurley, this social media company earned close to $30B in 2021 alone and has over 2.2B MAUs.

Instagram is a social network where product-based influencers, businesses and coaches thrive. With the social influence base endorsement on this social media platform, people under 35 years old share what are “Instagrammable” moments. Data shows that almost 75% of people 18-24 years old, 67% Gen Z and 57% millennial, use this app daily. With more than 1 billion MAU, its revenue stood at $6.8B, or 5th among the top ten social media apps.

Twitter came into the news with Tesla CEO Elon Musk planning to purchase for $44B this social media company. Note, however, that Twitter in 2021 made only $5B in revenues. Is Twitter worth it all? Tweets require short notes and this became popular during the time of Donald Trump. Twitter is not popular in the Philippines as this is mostly used by entertainers, politicians, tech or marketers. In Twitter, you need to be clever and personable in addition to being informative and helpful. Unlike the other apps available, nudity and pornography is allowed on Twitter. Those who offer ‘personal’ intimate services and online adult shows can provide added value to their services through their “Only Fans” page, which provides full blown sex and live cam shows. Most of the adult services on Twitter extend to the app of Telegram (a Viber-like community).

Finally, is the old reliable Facebook. The younger generation should actually shun from being affiliated with FB as the demographic shift to this 18 year old app has many of the millennial and Gen Z screaming ‘ewww’ to this platform. While it still sits pat on top of the list in terms of MAU for social media apps, it only does so because it has expanded engagement with financial services, eCommerce, retail, gaming, entertainment, media, telecom (messenger app), technology, and consumer products. However, one should be cautious in dealing with these businesses over FB because many of them are either illegitimate or have outrageous claims not commensurate to the product advertised. Services offered are not checked by FB if they are allowed by the government (example is selling and advertising prescription medicines through social media is not allowed by law). There is a small price to pay to bolster your business through their ads (which they will offer to you to boost engagements).

The Facebook company is now known as Meta Platforms Inc. They are the same owners of Instagram.

In recent years, Facebook has been the target of complaints and law suits by creating the political divide and being a disruptor for data privacy. From legitimate personal posts to bullying and shaming on social media, it has become the antithesis for disruption in the global community. Instead of fulfilling its mission on “giving the people power to community and bring the world closer together” (https://about.facebook.com/company-info/) and their “commitment to keeping people safe and making a positive impact”, it has been weaponized by trolling activities (read in part 2 of this two part blog) in recent elections both in the US and in other countries.

It recently announced that it will soon be providing more details how advertisers target people with political advertisements. (https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/facebook-to-provide-more-details-about-political-advertising/6590490.html)

Meta said it will start releasing details in July about the demographics and interests of people targeted with ads running on its Facebook and Instagram networks. 

The announcement said Meta will provide researchers with new details about the interest groups advertisers chose to target.

The new details could provide information about how politicians might choose to spread misleading or controversial political messages among different groups.

The information will be available in Meta’s ad library. The library is a public record that already shows how much companies, politicians and campaigns spend on each ad run on Meta’s social media services. Currently, anyone can see how much ad money has been spent. The library also shows the ages, gender and states or countries an ad is shown in.

The new, detailed information will be available across 242 countries when a social issue, political or election ad is run, Meta said.

As social media continues to evolve and the universe…or meta verse…continues to become part of our technology and mobile devices, catching up with disinformation will be a challenge not only to adults but to the younger generation as well, whose use of social media has been the source and bane of disruptive behavior in the past decade.

Disinformation is something not even the AI bots of all social media platforms can catch up with.

[Next week, will be part 2 of this two part blog.]

The Health Agency announces 199 new cases with no added deaths today.

While we maintain the 1.2% 7-day positivity rate, it is the NCR that is seeing a slight bump up in both the Rt and the number of cases as it reports 97 or close to 50% of the total cases today.

Those that reported double digits in Mega Manila were: City of Manila 22 and Makati 10. It was Muntinlupa was seeing a bump up in cases with 6 reported overnight. Only one LGU had zero covid – Pateros. Notice that while most LGUs in NCR were single digits, quite a number are seeing a mild bump up of cases.

Outside of NCR, only the province of Rizal reported double digits with 10 cases.

The Health Agency announces 209 new cases with no added deaths today. NCR owned more than 41% of the daily cases with 3 LGUs reporting double digits. They were: Quezon City 20, Makati 11, and the City of Manila 10. Malabon, Navotas and San Juan reported zero covid, while the other LGUs in Mega Manila report single digits.

Outside of NCR, Cavite and Laguna reported double digits with 18 and 10, respectively. Davao City was the only HUC (high urbanized city) that saw a bump up in numbers for the day with 7 added cases.

The 7-day positivity rate stands at 1.2%.

The Health Agency announces 199 new cases with no added deaths today. The NCR accounted for 31% of today’s numbers, with Quezon City as the lone LGU in NCR reporting double digits (11 cases) today. While the rest of the LGUs in Mega Manila had single digits, only two had zero covid. These were: Malabon and Pateros.

Outside of NCR, only the province of Rizal had double digits with 11 cases. However, the following provinces/HUCs (highly urbanized cities) saw more cases today than usual: Laguna 9, Negros Occidental 9, Cebu 9 (7 province, 2 city), Baguio City 9, Bacolod City 8, General Santos City 6, Isabela 5 and Zamboanga City 5.

The reproduction rate as of May 19 for the Philippines is up at 1.20 (+/-0.05) from a previous 1.02.

The Health Agency announces 176 new cases with no added deaths today, May 25. The NCR accounted for 66 of the total cases (37.5%). Two LGUs in NCR had double digits – Quezon City with 14 and Parañaque with 10. Other LGUs in Mega Manila had single digit with 4 reporting zero covid. Those 4 were: Pateros, Malabon, San Juan and Marikina.

Outside of NCR, only one HUC (highly urbanized city) reported double digits – Puerto Princesa with 11 cases.

The Health Agency announces 149 new cases (which isn’t exactly low considering that we had 191 cases yesterday and the positivity rate is up at 1.3%). There are no added deaths to today’s report.

The NCR, which remains the epicenter of the COVID19 pandemic owned 55 of the cases. Only the City of Manila had double digits with 11. Two LGUs in Mega Manila reported zero covid. They were: Valenzuela and Navotas.

Outside of NCR, the provinces with double digits were Cavite with 11 and Bulacan with 10 cases.

For the week of May 16-22, 2022, there were 1,214 new cases or almost 10% MORE cases than the week of May 9-15 (where 1,118 cases were reported). Of the 1,214 cases for the past week, 14 of them were tagged as severe and critical at the time of diagnosis and only 6 deaths were added (3 that occurred on May 9-22).

Healthcare utilization for non-ICU beds and ICU beds were lower (17.4% vs. 17.5% the previous week for non-ICU beds and 15.4% vs 15.6% this week vs the previous week for ICU beds). However, the cases of severe and critical admissions are up at 718 (12.9% of total COVID-19 admissions) this past week compared to the week of May 9-15, which stood at 588 (10.6% of total COVID-19 admissions).

Full vaccination coverage is at 76.71% which is a tad higher than the 76.29% in the previous week as more than 377,000 more individuals completed the two doses to be considered fully vaccinated. The A2 coverage is up at 77.22% compared to a previous 77.12% as more than 240,000 individuals availed of the first booster shot.

The Health Agency announces 191 new cases today (same as yesterday) with 0 added deaths. Unlike, however, the previous weeks where the announcement on a Monday would reflect a lower positivity rate, today the positivity rate is up at 1.3% (out of only 13,811 individuals tested).

The NCR owned 70 of today’s cases. Two LGUs have double digits – Manila with 16 and Quezon City with 12. While the other LGUs in Mega Manila continue to report single digits, five of them have more than 5 cases while three report zero covid. Those with zero covid were: Marikina, Navotas and Pateros.

Outside of NCR, the provinces that had double digit numbers were: Cavite 20 and Batangas 14.

The Health Agency announces 191 new cases with 0 added deaths today. NCR owned 55 of the total cases with only Quezon City reporting double digits – 10. Five LGUs announced zero covid. They were: Valenzuela, Marikina, Malabon, San Juan and Pateros.

Outside of NCR the following provinces report double digits: Cavite 13 and Bulacan 10.

THE WEEK IN REVIEW

This week saw a slight uptick in cases in the Philippines as the reproduction number now fluctuates around 1.0. Two things happened this week in the country. At the beginning of the week the Health Agency announces that community transmission for subvariant BA.2.12.1 is confirmed. On Saturday, May 21, the Health Agency also announces the presence of BA.4 from an OFW who arrived from the Middle East early May.

Based on the effective reproduction rate, Taiwan still has Rt >2 and will continue to see increasing cases the upcoming week. Brunei sees an uptick in their cases and in their Rt as well. The Philippines and Indonesia also have a reproduction rate indicating plateauing of cases for now.

The Philippines ends with a 7-day average of 150 new daily cases as of May 20, still the lowest among the East Asian nations. Note, however, that testing has also decreased significantly in the country, as those that test positive on rapid antigen testing (RAT) do not under RT-PCR any longer due to cost issues.

Taiwan continued the upward trajectory, while all other countries a seeing a significant downtrend in cases, with Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines plateauing (or slightly up) from the previous week.

On a per capita basis, Taiwan has ore than 3500 cases per million population, while Brunei is now in second with more than 600 cases per million. Indonesia has less than 1 case per million population.

Yes we’re seeing increasing cases. As noted in the increase in reproduction number (Rt) over the past days, where the Rt is >1.0 (+/- 0.05), the 7-day positivity rate remains at 1.1%. But testing has remained relatively low in the country, with those testing positive with rapid antigen, not testing anymore with RT-PCR.

The Health Agency announces 246 new cases today with 0 added deaths. The NCR accounted for half of today’s numbers. Five LGUs in NCR led the haul with double digits. They were: Quezon City 23, City of Manila 22, Parañaque 14, Taguig 12, and Pasay City 10. Three LGUs in NCR had zero covid. These were: Marikina, Navotas and Pateros.

Outside of NCR, the province of Cavite contributed 15 cases, Isabela 11, South Cotabato and Albay 6 apiece.

With the DoH reporting the presence of BA.2.12.1 as community transmission (which is 25% higher in transmissibility) and BA.4 from an OFW from the Middle East who arrived in the country last May 4, 2022, we remind the public to maintain minimum public health standards and plan your trips.

More importantly, for those that should get boosters already, please avail of them sooner than later. You will regret forgoing this for another time.

The Health Agency announces 215 new cases and 3 added deaths on May 20. The National Capital Region owned 90 of these cases. The LGU in Mega Manila that led the haul was Quezon City with 27 cases, followed by the City of Manila with 13. Three LGUs in NCR reported zero covid. They were: Navotas, San Juan and Pateros.

Outside of NCR, only the province of Cavite saw double digits with 12 cases. However, note that in some areas, while the numbers remain at single digit, the cases are up from zero. Example is Leyte that saw 6 cases today.

The reproduction rate is at 1.02 (+/- 0.05) as of May 17, 2022. Which means that the numbers will most likely be on a slight upward trend or plateau at 200 mark in the coming days.