Monday 18 / November / 2024
Muscat: Barring Facebook, all other social media applications have seen a decrease in the number of users in the second half of 2022 compared to the first half of the same year, according to the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority.
In its semi-annual report entitled “Market Indicators: Telecommunications and Postal Sectors”, which covers the period from July to December 2022, Facebook witnessed an increase of 61 percent in the number of its users compared to the first half of 2022.
Nine social media applications witnessed a decrease in the number of their users in the Sultanate of Oman, and the highest decrease was for electronic games by 55 percent, followed by TikTok by 40 percent, YouTube by 26 percent, WhatsApp and Zoom by 18 percent each.
A number of social media applications witnessed a sharp decline in their use, while others witnessed an increase compared to the various electronic applications in comparison the first and the second half of the year 2022.
The Twitter application ranked sixth in terms of the most applications that witnessed a decrease in the number of its users by 12 percent, followed by Snapchat and Netflix by 10 percent each, while the Instagram application witnessed a slight decrease of 0.01 percent only.
According to a study of more than 40,000 people by the McKinsey Institute of Health, ‘Generation Z’ (Gen-Z) is the most affected by social media applications.
It found that social networks are harmful to the mental health of Gen-Z children around the world, as people of this generation spend more hours on social networks than others, making them more vulnerable to harm.
The study said that people of ‘Generation Z’ tend to talk about their negative feelings on social networks more than other generations.
