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Social media users pass the 4 billion mark as global adoption soars
More than 4 billion people around the world now use social media each month, and an average of nearly 2 million new users are joining them every day.
The world is spending more time on social media too, with the typical user now spending roughly 15 percent of their waking life using social platforms.
However, social media isn't the only aspect of digital that's delivering impressive numbers.
The new Digital 2020 October Global Statshot Report – produced in partnership with Hootsuite – shows that connected tech continues to play an ever more important role in various aspects of people's everyday lives.
Top stories in this quarter's report include:
- Social media adoption has jumped by more than 12 percent in the past 12 months
- The time we spend using connected devices continues to rise
- Instagram continues to enjoy strong growth, but it's not alone
- A clear 'age gap' defines digital use in the workplace
- Marketers may be missing out on some of today's biggest digital opportunities
You'll find the complete October Statshot report in the SlideShare embed below (click here if that's not working for you), but read on below for my in-depth analysis of this quarter's key stories.
Essential headlines
Just before we dig into this quarter's trends in more detail, here are the essential headlines you need to make sense of the global 'state of digital' in October 2020:
- Total world population: 7.81 billion people
- Number of people using mobile phones around the world: 5.20 billion
- Global internet users: 4.66 billion
- Worldwide social media users: 4.14 billion
To put these numbers in perspective, more than two-thirds of the world now uses a mobile phone (67 percent), while almost 60 percent of all the people on Earth now use the internet.
Meanwhile, it was just three months ago that we reported social media penetration had passed the 50 percent mark, but the latest data show that this figure has already jumped to almost 53 percent.
More than 9 in 10 internet users around the world connect via mobile devices, but two-thirds still connect via computers too.
However, when it comes to social media, users clearly prefer mobile devices. Kepios analysis reveals that 99 percent of the world's social media users access via mobile devices, but just 1 in 5 use a laptop or desktop computer.
Now, let's dig into those top stories in more detail.
Social media adoption accelerates
The number of people using social media around the world has grown to 4.14 billion in October 2020, with that figure passing the momentous 4 billion user milestone for the first time this quarter.
Analysis by Kepios shows that more than 450 million people started using social media over the past 12 months, equating to annual growth of more than 12 percent.
That means that an average of more than 14 people started using social media every second since this time last year, which is even higher than the rate we saw last quarter.
Indeed, the latest data show that social media growth is actually accelerating.
More than 180 million more people used social media between July and September compared to the previous three months, equating to an average increase of almost 2 million users per day.
That's roughly double the growth rate that we reported back in January, and represents the largest quarter-on-quarter increase that we've seen since we started producing these reports back in 2011.
Much of this quarter's growth in social media use is the direct result of the new habits that people adopted during COVID-19 lockdowns.
However, despite the extraordinary circumstances, we don't expect overall user figures to fall back again once people return to more 'normal' routines, although we can expect some volatility in the user numbers of individual platforms over the coming months.
In particular, some platforms that enjoyed a surge in use during lockdown may see their monthly active user figures drop down again once people are able to participate in a wider variety of everyday activities.
As we'll see later in this analysis, however, any potential reduction in individual platform audiences may still be some way off.
Screen time increases
As we forecast in our April and July Statshot reports, the amount of time that people spend on the internet has increased significantly during 2020, in part because of the new behaviours that people adopted during coronavirus lockdowns.
The latest data from GlobalWebIndex shows that the typical internet user spent almost 7 hours per day using connected devices between April and June 2020, up by almost a quarter of an hour per day compared to the figures we reported last quarter.
Social media accounts for more than one-third of our connected time, with people now spending an average of almost 2½ hours per day on social platforms.
Added together, this means that the world now spends more than 10 billion hours per day using social media, which equates to more than 1 million years of human existence.
We've also been spending more time watching television, and the world's internet users now watch a combined average of 3½ hours of TV content per day across broadcast stations, cable channels, and internet-powered streaming platforms.
Our TV behaviours are changing though, with streaming services accounting for an increasingly important share of total TV time.
GlobalWebIndex's latest data reveal that the world's internet users now spend an average of 1½ hours per day watching platforms like Netflix and Disney+, compared to the 2 hours per day that they spend watching broadcast and cable channels.
Social platforms see strong growth
Almost all of the world's top social platforms saw strong audience growth over the past three months.
Instagram added the greatest number of new users between July and September 2020, posting even stronger growth figures than Facebook.
The company's own tools show that Instagram's advertising audience has grown by more than 76 million over the past three months, reaching a total of 1.16 billion people by the start of October 2020.
That equates to quarter-on-quarter growth of more than 7 percent, and extends the impressive 11 percent jump that we reported for the platform in our July report.
For context, Facebook's global advertising audience grew by just 45 million during the same period, although its total advertising audience of 2.14 billion is still almost twice the size of Instagram's.
However, if Instagram can maintain similar momentum over the coming weeks, there's a good chance that the platform will overtake WeChat to host the world's fifth-largest social media audience sometime in 2021.
Tencent reported quarterly growth of just 0.3 percent across the combined audiences of WeChat and Weixin in its latest earnings announcement, which means that Instagram is currently growing around 20 times faster than China's top platform.
But Instagram isn't the only platform enjoying rapid growth.
Snapchat posted the largest relative gains this quarter, with advertisers now able to reach over 9 percent more people via the platform than they could just three months ago.
The addition of 36 million new users between July and September takes Snapchat's global advertising audience to 433 million, which is 20 percent larger than the audience the company's tools were reporting this time last year.
With 16 million new users, India accounted for almost half of Snapchat's global growth this quarter, perhaps as a result of the Indian government's recent TikTok ban.
Snapchat has also seen an interesting shift in the demographics of its global user base over the past few months.
Young women between the ages of 13 and 17 now account for the largest share of the platform's advertising audience, whereas women aged 25 to 34 were the largest demographic this time three months ago.
Twitter's tools also reported impressive audience growth over the three months to October, but the addition of 27 million users doesn't even recover half of the 61 million users that the platform lost during the previous quarter.
The story for TikTok is a little more complicated.
As we noted in our July Statshot Report, the Indian government banned the platform at the end of June, and as a result, more than 200 million users have been wiped from the platform's audience.
However, despite this significant roadbump – and the ongoing uncertainty surrounding its prospects in the United States – TikTok still managed to add more than 80 million new users outside of India between July and September 2020.
The latest 'official' numbers put TikTok's worldwide audience at 689 million, but recent growth trends suggest that this figure may have already passed the 700 million mark.
If you'd like to dig deeper into the demographics of each of these audiences, and find fresh figures for Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and various other platforms, you'll find plenty more platform data in our full report.
Special focus: digital in the workplace
GlobalWebIndex has just released an update to its hugely valuable Work research, and they've generously allowed us to share some highlights from that in this quarter's report.
One of the most important findings in this dataset is that age plays a critical role in determining how people like to communicate in the workplace, whether that's with their colleagues, with partners and suppliers, or with customers and the outside world.
Email remains one of the most widely used channels for communication at work, but even here, age plays a primary role in both adoption and use.
More than 90 percent of respondents below the age of 45 use email each week, but almost 1 in 5 respondents aged between 55 and 64 say that they use email less than once per week.
But this 'age gap' is even more apparent when we look at more recent additions to the communications mix.
Roughly 9 in 10 Gen Z respondents say that they use messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Slack to communicate with their colleagues each week, but barely half of respondents aged 55 to 64 have integrated these platforms into their regular repertoires.
Interestingly, some of the biggest disparities relate to the use of social media.
More than 4 in 5 workers aged 16 to 24 say that they connect with colleagues via social media platforms each week, but that figure drops to less than 1 in 3 amongst Baby Boomers.
Meanwhile, despite accounting for the largest group of social media users when it comes to their personal lives, people aged 25 to 34 are actually less likely to use social media to communicate with their colleagues than people aged 16 to 24.
These findings have critical implications for organisations everywhere, because they highlight important differences in the ways that people of different ages – and at different levels of the organisation – communicate.
Without careful management, these varying preferences could lead to 'siloed' communication, resulting in knowledge gaps and cultural divides across different parts of the organisation.
Reach in context: 'users' versus 'visitors'
Data from our new partners SEMrush offers valuable new insights into the audiences of some of the world's top websites and social platforms.
One of the most interesting take-aways from this data is that platforms like YouTube and Twitter continue to attract significant numbers of visitors who don't log in in order to use each service.
For example, YouTube reports a logged in audience of 2 billion users each month, but the 'unique visits' column in the table below indicates that the platform's total monthly user base is likely to be significantly higher than that.
It's worth noting that there may be some duplication even in these 'unique visits' figures, because there's no practical way to account for people who access each platform via different devices or browsers, unless they log in.
However, these figures echo analysis we've conducted using other datasets, and they reinforce our hypothesis that YouTube's monthly audience is actually closer to 3 billion – or perhaps even higher.
That would mean YouTube's audience is potentially 50 percent larger than its logged-in figures suggest.
But the 'signed in gap' may be even greater for Twitter.
The company's latest advertising audience data suggest that around 350 million people use Twitter while logged in each month.
However, the latest data from SEMrush indicates that nearly three times as many people visit Twitter's website each month.
While that might sound surprising, our hypothesis is that a significant proportion of these 'anonymous' visitors treat Twitter like a news website.
Because most tweets are accessible to people even without them logging in, there's perhaps less incentive for more 'passive' visitors to create a Twitter account, or to sign in even if they have one.
However, this raises important questions about Twitter's role and positioning, both as a company, and within the marketing mix.
Overall, my sense is that the media – and perhaps even investors – continue to underestimate Twitter's value as a communications channel, and we may need to rethink where Twitter fits in our plans in order to appreciate its full potential.
But it's not just Twitter that we may be underestimating.
SEMrush's figures also reinforce a finding that we've highlighted in previous reports: Yahoo! is still one of the web's top properties.
Indeed, the latest data show that Yahoo! still attracts roughly 1 billion unique visits across its .com and .co.jp domains each month, with these visitors engaging in roughly 100 billion 'sessions' each year.
Reach isn't the only factor that marketers should consider when building their plans of course, but with these numbers suggesting that Yahoo! still attracts a larger audience than TikTok, perhaps it's one to add back onto your list – especially if you're hoping to reach older audiences.
Once again though, Yahoo! and Twitter may not be the only things we're underestimating.
Video games: marketing's biggest missed opportunity?
Video games are one of the world's favourite pastimes, but – for some inexplicable reason – they remain one of the most under-appreciated opportunities in marketing.
For context, GlobalWebIndex reports that roughly 7 in 8 internet users around the world play games.
These findings suggest that around 3½ billion people around the world play video games today, with three-quarters of these people playing games on their smartphones.
What's more, gaming's popularity is consistently high across all countries, and across age groups.
More than two-thirds of connected Baby Boomers play video games, with women aged 55 to 64 even more likely to be gamers than their male peers.
And while men slightly outnumber women in other age groups, the latest data clearly burst the stereotype of gaming being a male-dominated activity.
Indeed, video game adoption amongst women only trails men by a couple of percentage points, and these gender ratios are broadly the same as the ones we see in social media use.
However, it is interesting to note that Europe and the USA see lower levels of video game adoption compared to the rest of the world.
Moreover – and perhaps surprisingly – Japan sees the lowest levels of video gaming of any country in GlobalWebIndex's survey, but even here, more than two-thirds of internet users report playing games.
So how can brands take advantage of these opportunities?
Online gaming options may be more fragmented than 'super platforms' like YouTube or Facebook, but various ad platforms already enable marketers to reach and engage huge audiences across a variety of gaming titles at once.
Furthermore, with the sophistication of video games continuing to advance and people spending ever more time watching others play games, marketing opportunities aren't limited to interruptive ads.
So, if you're looking for new opportunities in 2021, I'd strongly encourage you to spend some time exploring what video games have to offer.
Digital ads: still a bargain?
The latest Kenshoo Quarterly Trends Report shows that digital ad spend took another knock in Q2, with both search and social media spend seeing year-on-year declines.
Global spend on online search advertising was down by 9 percent compared to the same period last year, while social media ad spend was down by 13 percent.
However, Kenshoo reports that there were already signs of a recovery in ad spend by the end of Q2.
Moreover, people clicked on a significantly greater number of ads between April and July 2020 than they did in the same period a year before.
The total number of clicks on social media ads in the second quarter of this year was 33 percent higher than Q2 2019 levels, while clicks on search ads increased by 28 percent.
And what's more, the cost of individual ad units actually decreased significantly during the same period.
The average cost to reach 1,000 people (CPM) via social media ads fell by 30 percent between Q2 2019 and Q2 2020, while the average cost-per-click (CPC) on search engines fell by 29 percent.
But these 'bargain prices' may not last.
With many companies now significantly more dependent on ecommerce than they were this time last year, brands should expect higher prices and greater competition as we approach Single's Day and 'BFCM' sales, as well as the all-important holiday season.
But what about next year?
Looking ahead: 5 trends for 2021
This is our last Statshot report for 2020, so let's wrap things up by looking ahead to next year.
What can marketers expect in 2021? Here are some of the trends we're watching:
- Evolving search behaviours: more than two-thirds of the world's internet users already go beyond search engines when they're researching products and services to buy, but we expect voice search, image search, and social search to play an even more important role over the coming months.
- A rebalancing of digital audience demographics: with COVID-19 acting as a catalyst to bring many more older people online, organisations can now use digital to reach a wider variety of audiences than ever before. This represents a clear and immediate opportunity for marketers, especially when it comes to ecommerce. However, this broadening of online audiences may also trigger a new wave of digital innovation, resulting in new platforms, new services, and even new devices.
- Increased globalisation in ecommerce: we've been tracking 'the rise of the East' for some time now, and the latest data suggest that China's ecommerce giants are gaining ever more popularity amongst international shoppers. What's more, with affordable cross-border logistics increasingly within reach even for smaller merchants, we can expect to see shoppers looking for deals and unique products wherever the web takes them. Scale will still be an advantage, but unique offerings and differentiated shopping experiences hold the key to enduring success.
- Useful augmented reality: AR has been bubbling away in the background for a number of years now, but it still feels like it hasn't reached its full potential. However, with mainstream brands like Nike, IKEA, and Estée Lauder increasingly harnessing AR functionality – and with Apple actively touting the AR performance of its new iPhone 12 – perhaps 2021 will be the year AR finally comes of age. Marketers need to go beyond novelty though, and use AR to deliver tangible utility and value. Think 'help', not 'hype'.
- The next disruptive innovation: it's been well over a decade since social media and smartphones drove the last wave of large-scale marketing disruption, and it feels like the 'next big thing' is long overdue. There are a few interesting contenders, from connected 'smart' glasses, to decentralised finance, or perhaps some kind of wearable or smart home device. However, these things have been around in some form for a few years already, and current momentum doesn't point to any of them breaking through to become globally mainstream in 2021. As a result, it's more likely that the real disruptor will be something unexpected.
Don't forget that you can find all of our previous reports in our free DataReportal library, which also includes local reports for more than 230 countries and territories.
That's all for this quarter though; I'll be back with our annual flagship Global Digital report in late January, and our Digital 2021 local country reports starting in mid-February.


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Home » Diet & Food »
This Is The Best Breakfast For Weight Loss
There's a new reason to eat breakfast — and to make it a big one. Eating half your daily calories in the morning might help you lose weight more efficiently, according to new Israeli research published in the journal Obesity.
For the 12-week study, 74 women ate 1,400-calorie daily diets containing identical amounts of protein, carbohydrates, and fat. One group ate 700 calories—including a chocolate bar—at breakfast, 500 calories at lunch, and 200 calories at dinner. The other group ate 200 calories at breakfast, 500 calories at lunch, and 700 calories at dinner.
By the end of the study, the large-breakfast group had lost two and a half times more weight and 4.6 more inches from their waists than the women who ate their largest meals in the evening. But it gets better: The big-breakfast eaters also had lower levels of bad cholesterol and higher levels of good cholesterol—not to mention improved insulin sensitivity. What's more, they also reported feeling less hungry and more satisfied.
Why Big Breakfasts Boost Weight Loss
Previous research suggests that your metabolism works most efficiently early in the day, so your body is less likely to store food as fat when you eat it in the morning, says lead study author Dr Daniela Jakubowicz, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.
But that doesn't mean that starting your day with a 700-calorie Cronut will automatically help you lose weight. Instead, shoot for a large, balanced meal that's high in protein—like eggs, yogurt, or lean meat—to fend off hunger. And if you feel the urge, go ahead and end your meal with something sweet; Jakubowicz says this can decrease carb cravings later in the day. You'll also want to make sure to make your lunch smaller and eat the fewest number of calories at dinner to really see weight-loss results.
Need some AM inspiration? Try one of these super-filling breakfasts.
Quinoa, Spinach And Egg Bake Recipe
Banana & Coconut Bread Recipe
Egg Korma With Chickpeas & Spinach
Source: Read Full Article

subset: commoncrawl


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WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer construction workers will be needed. Don't expect as many interior designers or advertising copywriters, either. Retailers will get by with leaner staffs.
The economy is strengthening. But millions of jobs lost in the recession could be gone for good.
And unlike in past recessions, jobs in the beleaguered manufacturing sector aren't the only ones likely lost forever. What sets the Great Recession apart is the variety of jobs that may not return.
That helps explain why economists think it will take at least five years for the economy to regain the 8.2 million jobs wiped out by the recession — longer than in any other recovery since World War II.
It means that even as the economy strengthens, more Americans could face years out of work. Already, the percentage of the labor force unemployed for six months or longer is 4.3 percent. That's the highest rate on records dating to 1948.
Behind the trend are the cutbacks businesses made in the recession to make up for a loss of customers. To sustain earnings, they became more productive: They found ways to produce the same level of goods or services with fewer workers. Automation, global competition and technological efficiencies helped solidify the trend.
Diminished home equity and investment accounts have made shoppers more cautious, too. And their frugality could endure well into the recovery. That's why fewer retail workers, among others, will likely be needed.
Among those whose former jobs may be gone for good are:
— Julie Weber of Milwaukee, who designed office cubicles for nearly seven years. She lost her job about a year ago. Since then, she's been able to find only part-time work outside her field. Interior design was hammered by the real estate downturn. "My hope for getting back into the industry is not very high," says Weber, 29.
— Erik Proulx, 38, a former advertising copywriter in Boston, who finds more companies are turning to social media and viral marketing and are less drawn to agencies that focus on traditional TV and print ad campaigns. Proulx was laid off in October 2008 — the third time an employer had cut his position or had closed. He no longer wants to rejoin the industry. Proulx has started a blog to help other unemployed ad professionals network.
— Louis DiFilippo, 30, who decided to study information technology after losing his job managing a gourmet food store in Washington, D.C. After six months of unemployment, he embraced a career with more stability. He now works on computer network security for the Navy. "I'm much happier now," he said.
More than one-third of chief financial officers at 620 big companies surveyed in March by Duke University and CFO magazine said they didn't expect to restore their payrolls to pre-recession levels for at least three years. Nearly all cited higher productivity and tepid consumer spending.
"Companies have just figured out, 'We didn't want to fire people ... but now that they're gone, we've realized that we can get by without them,'" said John Graham, a Duke finance professor who directed the survey.
Productivity grew at an annual rate of 6.3 percent in the year ending in March, the Labor Department said this month. It was the largest increase in 48 years, though most economists think that pace isn't sustainable.
In the long run, more productive workers raise standards of living: Companies can pay more without inflating prices. But in the short run, high productivity delays hiring.
U.S. employers did add 290,000 jobs in April. The unemployment rate rose to 9.9 percent, though, because 805,000 people without jobs poured into the labor force to seek work.
Three industries, in particular, where many jobs may not be coming back are retailing, manufacturing and advertising.
Retailers have lost 1.2 million, or 7.5 percent, of jobs that existed before the recession, according to Labor Department data. Circuit City and Linens & Things have collapsed. Starbucks closed nearly 800 U.S. stores. Robert Yerex, an economist at Kronos, a work force management company, estimates 20 percent of those jobs are never coming back.
Manufacturing has shed 2.1 million jobs, or 16 percent of its total, since the recession began. Goodyear Tire & Rubber and Boeing Co. laid off a combined 15,700 people during the recession. General Motors eliminated 65,000 through buyouts and layoffs. And as Americans buy fewer cars and homes, more than 1 million jobs in the auto, steel, furniture and other manufacturing industries won't return, according to estimates by Moody's Analytics.
Advertising and PR agencies have lost 65,000 jobs, or about 14 percent of the pre-recession total. Moody's Analytics estimates those industries will lose even more within five years.
In addition, a consolidated airline industry has shed layers of jobs that won't likely return. Delta Air Lines earlier this year spread out departure times for flights from its Cincinnati hub, rather than bunching them at peak travel times. That way, it could operate from one concourse rather than two, said Kent Landers, a spokesman. The change allowed a Delta subsidiary, Regional Elite Airline Services, to cut more than 700 baggage handling and other ground services jobs.
More than half the 15.3 million people out of work in April said they regard their layoff as permanent, the Labor Department said. That's the highest proportion on records dating to 1967. In previous recessions, workers often endured only temporary layoffs: Their employers would recall them once business picked up.
Caterpillar Inc. has resumed hiring after laying off 19,000 full-time workers during the recession, thanks to rising demand for its construction and mining equipment. But most of the new jobs will be overseas. Of the 9,000 hires CEO Jim Owens said Caterpillar plans to make this year, only 3,000 will be in the U.S.
Many economists say eventually, companies won't be able to squeeze any more work out of their employees. That would force employers to step up hiring.
But Janet Yellen, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, cautions that this won't happen anytime soon. She believes corporate America remains in the early stages of a drive for greater efficiencies.
"We may be in store for ... high productivity growth for some time," she said in a speech this year. "If so, the rate of job creation will be frustratingly slow."


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'Alter Egos'
by Minna Leunig
original artwork
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New research program aims to make better "sense" of the world
Applications of this research range from soil sensors which allow for increased understanding of global climate change to futuristic sensory skins which can monitor the integrity of an object.
Pictured above: Achilleas Anastasopoulos, Mahta Moghaddam, Sandeep S. Pradhan, Demos
Teneketzis (PI)
Imagine dozens or even hundreds of miniature sensors informing us about climate conditions, water quality, bodily health, structural safety, and air pollution, and also tracking movement, monitoring plant operations, and even detecting forest fires. This is our future, and in some cases is happening now, but how can we make these tiny sensors work together in perfect harmony?
A new 5-year $2.5M research program funded by the National Science Foundation, called "Controlled Sensing, and Distributed Signal Processing and Decision Making in Networked Systems," aims to address fundamental issues that arise in networked systems so that they can operate with maximum efficiency. This is especially critical as the individual sensing devices continue to be scaled down to millimeter size and even smaller.
Networked systems are comprised of a family of interconnected sensor nodes that sense data about the environment, communicate with each other, and communicate with "decision centers."
With applications that include soil sensors to increase our understanding of global climate change, millimeter-scale networked sensors to monitor air and water quality, structural integrity, and perform surveillance, as well as futuristic "sensory skins" to monitor the properties of the item itself or its surroundings, improving the communication within these networked systems is a high priority, yet involves significant challenges.
Individual sensor nodes must communicate with each other as well as with more central decision centers, and this activity involves sensing, signal processing, communication, and decision making functions. At the same time, there are often extreme limits on energy, data storage, and computational capabilities within each node.
"We will be using basic ideas from stochastic optimization, distributed computation, and probability theory to develop novel methodologies that address the underlying challenges," stated Prof. Demos Teneketzis, PI for the project. Teneketzis is an expert in stochastic control, especially as it is applied to multi-agent decision and control, wireless communication systems, and information theory.
Prof. Teneketzis intends to demonstrate the methodologies developed in the project in related research that involves smart environmental sensor webs, which estimate soil moisture using in situ sensors. The data derived from the sensors will be evaluated against satellite-derived measurements of the same soil samples. There are currently three sites with the sensors already in place or planned for installation: Michigan (Matthaei Botanical Gardens in Ann Arbor), Oklahoma, and California. The soil moisture project is led by Prof. Mahta Moghaddam, and includes Teneketzis as co-PI.
In addition to the applications already named, the research findings of this project are expected to be useful to NSF's National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) program, to NASA's earth science program, including Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission, and to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) monitoring program.
Other Michigan investigators on the project are Profs. Achilleas Anastasopoulos, Mahta Moghaddam, and Sandeep S. Pradhan. Co-PI on the project is Prof. Venugopal Veeravalli of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Veeravalli is Director of the Illinois Center for Wireless Systems (ICWS). He will be working with Profs. Tamer Basar and Angelia Nedic at UIUC.


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Johann Christian Bach was the eleventh and youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and his second wife Anna Magdalena. He received his first lessons in keyboard playing and composition from his father. Having been born into a long line of musicians, he was obviously destined to become one too, but he didn't like the hard life of his father as a church musician. The legacy Johann Christian inherited from his father was typical for the humble life of the great Thomas cantor: three pianos, a few linen shirts and a small amount of money (thirty-eight Taler). This strengthened Johann Christian's ambition to become a successful wordly musician rather than a relatively poor church and court composer.
It was thus very fortunate that his half-brother Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714-1788), who was already one of the most famous keyboard virtuosos and a renowned music teacher, could take him on for lessons. In Berlin, Johann Christian not only took music lessons with Carl Philipp, but was also exposed to Italian opera, a new music genre that was actively promoted by king Frederick the Great. Fascinated by opera, Johann Christian went to Italy in 1754 to study the subject in detail.
The years spent in Italy were very important for his artistic development. He studied with Padre Martini in Bologna, and later with Giovanni Battista Sammartini, worked as an organist in the Milano Cathedral, and converted from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism. Word of his successes spread quickly, and when it reached London, he was offered the position as official composer at the Kings Theater. He accepted this offer and so in 1762 relocated to England, where he later became the music master of Queen Charlotte Sophia, wife of KIng George III. The early 1770's saw the highlight of his career as a opera composer. So great was his reputation in London, that he became known as the 'English Bach' or the 'London Bach'. But when he became suddenly ill, his popularity quickly waned and eventually he died lonely and forgotten.
The huge influence of Johann Christian on the young Mozart is well known. The two met for the first time in April 1764 in London, and immediately took to each other. Johann Christian became a close friend of the family Mozart, and Wolfgang studied the works of Johann Christian and rearranged them for his own use. Mozart's affection for the Bach son shows in his many letters to his father Leopold. For example he wrote, as he met Johann Christian again in Paris: Mr. Bach from London is already here since fourteen days. [...] You can easily imagine his joy, and my joy, as we saw each other again. [...] I love him (as you well know) with all my heart - I highly respect him.
Johann Christian composed, beside many operas and works for the concert hall, keyboard music of a predominantly light character. Despite much of this keyboard music being intended for social purposes, these pieces should not be regarded as second-rate. The virtues of Johann Christian's keyboard works were aptly summed up by Leopold Mozart in a letter to his son: The small thing is great, when it is written in a naturally fluent and light style and when it is efficiently put in a composition. To compose in this way is more difficult than to write all the artificial and incomprehensible harmonic progressions and hardly performable melodies. [...] This distinguishes the master from the bungler in detail.
Johann Christian left two suites of sonatas (Op.5 and Op.17, each containing 6 sonatas), composed for keyboard solo. Although both suites bear the title For the Harpsichord or Piano Forte, we know that he greatly preferred the pianoforte to the harpsichord. The first sonatas of each suite are so easy that even a beginner could play them. But the other sonatas, especially those from Op. 17, need a pianist with an advanced technique. The suite Op.5 was published in 1768, but the young Mozart had already played the Sonatas Op. 5 from manuscript and in 1765 arranged three of them (Nos. 2, 3, and 4) into his piano concerto KV 107. Karl Geiringer, in his book Die Musikerfamilie Bach, regards the Sonata in C minor Op.5 No.6 as one of the most eminent works by Johann Christian, and also higly praises the noble Andante second movement from the sonata in B flat Major Op.17 No.6.
-- Hye-Jin Lee (more on the author...)
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Bach, Johann Christian (1735-1782)
- Published:
- Jan 5, 2016
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Alces alces
Paranoid or what?
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The griffon vulture was carrying a GPS transmitter bearing the name of Tel Aviv University, prompting rumours it was part of a Zionist plot.
Israeli wildlife officials dismissed the claims as ludicrous and expressed concern about the bird's fate.
Last month, Egyptian officials implied the Israeli spy agency Mossad was to blame for shark attacks off its coast.
The vulture, which can have a wing span of up to 265cm (8ft 8in), was caught after it landed in the desert city of Hyaal a few days ago.
When locals discovered the GPS transmitter, they suspected the worst and handed it over to the security forces, said Israel's Ma'ariv newspaper.
Conspiracy theories quickly began circulating in Saudi newspapers and on websites that the bird was involved in espionage.
Israeli officials told Ma'ariv they were "stunned" by the allegations and concerned that the bird could meet a horrible punishment in the notoriously severe Saudi justice system.
Israeli Park and Nature Authority
"The device does nothing more than receive and store basic data about the bird's whereabouts, and about his altitude and speed," a bird specialist at Israel's Park and Nature Authority told the newspaper.
The data would be used to improve understanding of the endangered species' behaviour.
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The vulture is the latest animal to be accused of being an unwitting Mossad operative.
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He said it was "not out of the question" that Mossad had put the killer shark in the area.
The Israeli foreign ministry dismissed that allegation, saying the governor "must have seen Jaws one time too many, and confuses fact and fiction".


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Another oldie. Sorry. But I want you to donate to food banks, before thanksgiving. (non USAians, I just want you to be good people.) This verse, from a year and a half ago, examined motives. At the time, people were concerned that the reason that people donated to food banks was somehow more important than the fact that they do so. I disagree. If you can, please do donate. If you get some sort of reward, or tax break, or special dispensation from the pope, so much the better. If we can make it easy to be good, shouldn't we? (the penultimate line comments on the notion, expressed by some but not all humanists, that human nature can be trusted to lead to good behavior. I disagree, which is one reason I am not a humanist.)
If we only take donations
With the purest motivations
And our shelves remain half-empty, it's the hungry folks who lose.
If the sponsors can afford it,
There's good reason to reward it!
And the altruists can turn their prizes down, if they so choose.
Do not make it any harder
Than it is, to stock a larder,
With a view of human nature based on freely-chosen good!
I don't care if it looks greedy,
If it helps the poor and needy–
The alternative is hunger, till we give "because we should".
If a prize or recognition
Brings donations to fruition–
"I'll increase my odds of winning if I donate lots of tins!"–
You can say that it looks selfish;
I'm not humanist, I'm shellfish!
When we pay for good behavior, sometimes everybody wins!


text: Some people suddenly find religion, but for 16-year-old Kusanagi Godou, it's that REALLY old time religion that's found him! As the result of defeating the God of War in mortal combat, Godou's stuck with the unwanted position of Campione!, or God Slayer, whose duty is to fight Heretical Gods whenever they try to muscle in on the local turf. Not only is this likely to make Godou roadkill on the Highway to Heaven, it's also a job that comes with a lot of other problems. Like how to deal with the fact that his "enhanced status" is attracting a bevy of overly-worshippy female followers. After all, they're just there to aid him in his demi-godly duties, right? So why is it that their leader, the demonically manipulative sword-mistress Erica Blandelli, seems to have such a devilish interest in encouraging some VERY unorthodox activities? Get ready for immortal affairs, heavenly harems and lots of dueling deities taking pious in the face as the ultimate smash, bash and thrash of the Titans rocks both Heaven and Earth. (Source: Sentai Filmworks)