56,900 social media posts from the UAE this week told people to #StayHome

One-fifth of the Arabic #StayHome hashtags in the last week originated from the UAE

A picture shows Dubai's Burj Khalifa lit up with a message "Stay Home" urging residents to comply with the preventive measures amid the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, on March 24, 2020. / AFP / Giuseppe CACACE
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Social media is a busy place nowadays, as those practising self isolation or working from home seek to stay connected by other means.

As such, many thoughts regarding the coronavirus are being flung around every hour of the day. That's why, on Monday, we broke down the meanings of all the coronavirus-related hashtags for you to follow, in order to stay-up-to-date, or simply stay entertained.

While these are global hashtags, new data has revealed what those in the UAE, specifically, are talking about.

And perhaps not surprisingly, the most used hashtags, in both Arabic and English, are instructing people to stay home.

Using social media analytics tool Talkwalker Quick Search, we've crunched the numbers across all online sources (social media, blogs, online news) over the last 30 days.

Together, the Arabic and English hashtags asking people to stay home have been mentioned 56,900 times in the last week alone. And, considering the mentions rack up a total of 57,500 mentions over the last 30 days, it's clear the Emirates has really ramped up its social campaigning recently. Most graphs show a large spike from around March 21.

#StayHome mentions in the last month

NEW A graph that shows the #StayHome hashtag mentions in the UAE last week. Courtesy Talkwalker
NEW A graph that shows the #StayHome hashtag mentions in the UAE last month. Courtesy Talkwalker

#StayHome mentions in the last week

NEW A graph that shows the #StayHome hashtag mentions in the UAE last week. Courtesy Talkwalker
This graph that shows the #StayHome hashtag mentions in the UAE in the last week. Courtesy Talkwalker

Even the Burj Khalifa got onboard with the social campaign, lighting up with the English and Arabic hashtag on Tuesday night.

In English, the #StayHome hashtag is the most widely used in the country relating to the pandemic (aside from the generic #Covid19 / #Covid-19 / #Coronavirus varieties).

A picture shows Dubai's Burj Khalifa lit up with a message "Stay Home" reminding citizens to stay home amid the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, on March 24, 2020. / AFP / Giuseppe CACACE
Dubai's Burj Khalifa lit up with the message "Stay Home" on March 24. AFP.

It has been used 20,900 times in the last week and 21,400 times in the past 30 days. Others relating to the pandemic have only managed several thousand mentions, such as #FlattenTheCurve (around 800), #Covidiots (2,200), #StayHomeStaySafe (2,100) and #SocialDistancing (2,900).

The equivalent hashtag in Arabic outstripped its English-language equivalent.

The most-used Arabic hashtags have quickly become خلك_في_البيت# (stay in the house) and ملتزمون_يا_وطن# (committed to our country).

#StayHome in Arabic mentions in the last month

This graph shows the number of times the Arabic hashtag for #StayHome has been mentioned in the UAE over the last week. 
This graph shows the number of times the Arabic hashtag for #StayHome has been mentioned in the UAE over the last week. 

The stay home hashtag in Arabic has seen 36,000 mentions in the last week, and 36,100 mentions in the last 30 days.

But how do we compare to what the world is saying?

Well, globally, the #StayHome hashtag has seen a mammoth 1.6 million mentions in the last month, and 1.2m in the last seven days.

The Arabic equivalent, however, has been mentioned almost 190,000 times the world over in the last week, meaning UAE users make up almost one-fifth of that.

And if you think the pandemic is all you're seeing on social media at the moment, you might be right.

Globally, the generic pandemic-related hashtags, #Covid19, #Covid-19 and #Coronavirus, have warranted 102 million mentions in the last three months.

And because this new social media lingo isn't about to go away any time soon, perhaps acquaint yourself with our Covid-19 hashtag glossary, just so you know your #QuarantineandChill from your #Covidiot.