Full Fat's Weekly Digital Bulletin - 17/03

Happy St Patrick's Day! ☘️

If you're planning on heading for a delicious Guinness (we'll hear nothing from the naysayers thank you), be sure to get up to date on all the digital goss flying around online this week.

Bringing you the freshest insights, app developments, and trends sweeping social media platforms across the country, so you can level up your strategy and ensure you’re always ahead of the curve.

This week we see more country-wide TikTok bans, security breaches and declining mental health due to social media usage. BUT it’s not all doom and gloom!! TikTok celebrated International Women's day, Michelle Yeoh made history and sustainability influencers are spreading the word. Read on for more…

Food for thought:

1.  Smartphones and social media are destroying children’s mental health. - Tell us something we don’t know. It seems that smartphones are even worse for children’s mental health than we originally thought. The Financial Times has found that depression, anxiety and other mental health problems have soared in the last ten years, especially in young girls. Fingers crossed we see a positive response to this from social channels. 
2. Influencers have the greatest impact on consumer sustainability choices, Unilever finds - Move over Attenborough, influencers now have the biggest impact in our environmentally friendly choices. 75% of surveyed consumers said they are more likely to adopt sustainable practices after seeing it on social and a further 86% said they found the platforms to be a helpful place for sustainability information.
3. Michelle Yeoh becomes first Asian to win best actress Oscar - History was made on Sunday. Everything Everywhere All At Once dominated the Oscars, including a win for Michelle Yeoh, the first Asian to win best actress. In her emotional speech, she dedicated the award to "all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities". We’re not crying, you are!

Extra, extra! Read all about it:

1. This Week in Apps: TikTok-style feeds come to Spotify and Reddit - TikTok’s taking over again in this week's digi dive. The addictive algorithm is being picked up by more social platforms. Reddit’s rebrand now separates text content and video content, titled ‘read’ and ‘watch’. Spotify is also quick to update its app after Tiktok takes over its music discovery USP. Plenty more changes to come.
2. Denmark’s Public Broadcaster Bans TikTok from Work Devices in Latest Restriction of the App - Another TikTok ban is being enforced this week. With rising concerns around the video-sharing app, Denmark has banned the platform from work devices. This follows a security review by Denmark’s Centre for Cyber Security. Who will be next on the TikTok ban?
3. WhatsApp Faces Potential Ban in the UK Due to New Regulations Around Encryption - more bans across socials this week. This time with Meta-owned Whatsapp. With the update of the UK’s online safety bill, the fully encrypted app is unable to comply with the new moderation processes proposed. Removing end-to-end encryption is not an option, according to Whatsapp’s chief… 

Have you seen this yet?:

1. TikTok Provides New Insights into Top Performing Ad Copy via ‘Keyword Insights’ - Tiktok is making it even easier for marketers to target their audiences. A ‘keywords insights’ tool has been added, where phrases are listed to increase targeted ads and views. Alongside stand-out visuals, it's now even easier for your TikTok campaign to thrive. 
2. TikTok Highlights Female Creators and Brands for International Women’s Day Tiktok celebrates female creators for International Women’s Day. Among other activities, the platform saw users contributing song covers to celebrate their favourite female artists. Creators have joined together under the #WomenWhoWill tag, showcasing women-owned businesses, female creators and a live stream of ‘girl's room’ podcasts. The future (of TikTok) is female! 
3. Twitter’s Planning to Extend Long-Form Tweets to 10k Character - Twitter is again extending its 140 characters. This time it’ll be a whopping 10k. Who knew the short and snappy ‘what's on your mind?’ would evolve into a thoughts and feelings essay? (Not us, that’s for sure - another day, another drama for this platform). 

For any suggestions on what you’d like to see included in next week’s bulletin, or to talk all things digital, just drop us a line. Have a great weekend!