Earlier today, I spoke on Premier Radio News Hour. Some of the story made it onto a blog post, the rest has been captured here:
The press release I was responding to:
BRITS TO SPEND ON AVERAGE MORE THAN 1.9 BILLION MINUTES ON SOCIAL MEDIA ON CHRISTMAS DAY*
This year is set to be a dazzling ‘Digital Christmas’ according to new research by Save the Children which shows a staggering 1.9 billion minutes will be spent online on Christmas Day with more than 8.5 million Brits admitting they would rather spend time on their holy handsets than playing board games this year.
When it comes to wishing friends and family festive joy and merriness, half of the British population (51%) will text people on the day with 11.5 million of us preferring to text winter well-wishes over the more traditional greetings card.
Taking the nation’s addiction to their smart phones one step further, more than 2.5 million Brits think it’s more important that their Christmas dinner with all the trimmings gets likes on social media rather than the taste of the turkey itself and a cool woolly-wearing 3.5 million of us will share a photo of themselves in Christmas Jumpers on social media at some point during the day.
With 40 million Brits planning to wear Christmas Jumpers at some point during the snowy season, and 21 million of these donning their knits on the big day itself, social media is set to be a buzz in the lead up to the holidays with Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day taking centre stage on Friday 16th December.
The best thing about all this online silliness is that is has a serious purpose. By sticking on a daft sweater, signing up and donating £2 to Save the Children (£1 if you’re at school) at christmasjumperday.org, you’ll be saving children’s lives, and helping the charity do whatever it takes to make sure the world’s forgotten children get the chance to have a brighter future.
Helena Wiltshire, Save the Children says: “With 40 million Brits preparing to wear a festive sweater this season and 3.5 million planning on sharing their woolly wardrobe online, we expect to see our social media feeds filled with Christmas Jumper selfies, dogs in knits and family festive portraits. Anything goes for Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day on 16th December, as we are taking silliness very seriously.
“All money raised through the public’s woolly-wearing could also help us bring essentials like healthcare, education, protection and food to the millions of children around the world who are missing out on the most basic support. All this, just by wearing a daft jumper – it’s a very silly way to solve some very serious problems!”
For more information, visit christmasjumperday.org
*Note, my colleagues worked out that this averaged out at around 3 hours 43 minutes per person, and we all noted that it’s much more a question of quality, rather than quantity! If you’re my Facebook friend, you can see more discussion here!
