Did you know that you are contributing to the increasing carbon emissions in the environment by scrolling through your social media for long hours? And have you ever wondered about your personal carbon footprint? A UK-based website helps you figure this out, and here’s how you can calculate your digital carbon footprint.
Calculate Your Digital Carbon Footprint
The UK-based comparison website, Compare the Market, has introduced a new calculator that lets you calculate your carbon footprint from social media apps. This way, you would be able to see how much carbon dioxide you emit as you scroll through your social media apps like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest, Reddit, and more.
When you visit the Compare the Market website, you will see the top social media platforms that have the most carbon footprint at the top. As per the website, the top three platforms that have the most carbon footprint include TikTok (2.63g CO2 Eq per minute), Reddit (2.48g CO2 EQ per minute), and Pinterest (1.3g CO2 Eq per minute).
As you scroll down a bit, you will see a section that lets you calculate your per-day and annual digital carbon footprint. Here, you just have to put in the approximate time (in mins) you spend on social media platforms each day and hit the “Calculate” button.
Upon initiation, the website will provide you with your personal digital carbon footprint report. It will include the per-day and annual carbon footprint (in CO2g equivalent) for each of the platforms that you use and a cumulative number to depict your total carbon footprint in a day and in a year.
Coming to the methodology of the calculation, the Compare the Market website says that it takes the average carbon emissions for each of the platforms from Greenspector that were measured on a Galaxy S7 device. Following this, it multiplies the average carbon emissions of the platforms by your approximate usage period to calculate your daily carbon footprint. To attain the annual carbon footprint, it multiplies your daily carbon emissions by 365, as simple as that.
If you also want to calculate your social media carbon footprint, head to the Compare the Market website and get an idea of how much you are contributing to the degrading environment. Let us know your score and your thoughts in the comments below.
