PH among most TikTok-crazed countries in the world

education or training.

Missed opportunities to climb socio-econ ladder

The study also found that illiteracy has led to lost earnings and limited employability and lost business productivity around the world.

Surprisingly, it also showed that the effects and costs of illiteracy apply equally in both developed and developing nations.

People struggling to read and write can also miss out on “wealth creation” opportunities due to the comprehension skills required of individuals applying for a loan or investments in various financial instruments.

“Typically, a family in a developed country will purchase a home using a mortgage and work many years to pay off the house. Many such ‘home owners’ do not understand the bank loans they take out although they sign legally-binding documents to get them,” the report stated.

People struggling with literacy will also struggle to establish a “personal financial plan” or evaluate financial investments to provide themselves with a retirement income, among other means of generating income.

Pandemic worsened illiteracy

While the Philippines’ Department of Education has long detected several frustrated readers in schools, prompting the creation of several local and national reading programs through the years, the pandemic’s disruptions to education have also deepened

PAGE 10

by Cristina Eloisa BaClig Inquirer.net

MANILA — Amid the controversies and criticisms surrounding the partly Chinese-owned app TikTok, the platform’s audience shares continue to skyrocket in the Philippines, among the top countries where people seeking instant fame have been gobbling up the technology like crazy.

TikTok, a short-form video hosting service app, is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, which also owns the app’s Chinese counterpart, Douyin.

From its initial release in 2016, the app’s global popularity massively grew, with over 2 billion mobile downloads worldwide as of October 2020 and an estimated 1 billion global monthly active users based on data as of September 2021.

Despite TikTok’s global success—which placed 6th in DataReportal’s ranking of the world’s most “active” social media platforms— the app now faces a slew of controversies due to concerns from online data privacy to “potential national security threat.”

In a five-hour-long congressional hearing last

PAGE 10