Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 5
Posts 1 - 5

Auf die Bombe folgten die Explosionen

(The bomb was followed by explosions)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 10.12.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | Facebook, law, politics, privacy
Summary | Recently the news story about a company called Cambridge Analytica made waves: they claimed to have extracted an accurate psychological profile of all adult US citizens based on their Facebook likes. The company uses those profiles to target very specific audiences with political advertising. Such rigorous profiling based on data that was not willingly given for the purposes of such analysis would be illegal in Europe.
Image Description | Bloomberg image of a woman with glasses (only eyes portion of face visible), the glasses reflecting a screen showing the Facebook logo.
Image Tags | Facebook, female(s), logo

Schweizer Firmen setzen auf Bots

(Swiss firms put their money on bots)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 27.12.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Facebook, privacy
Summary | Many companies in Switzerland are testing out chatbots to replace their telephone customer service. Many company chatbots can be contacted via the Facebook messenger. They are quite useful because they can organize tasks according to content and delegate them to the appropriate departments or help the customers themselves. Experts demand full transparency about what happens to customer data created in chatbot uses.
Image Description | Getty image of a woman's torso holding a smartphone, some chatbot chat screenshots and graphs.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), smartphone, text

Wer nur auf Facebook lebt, stirbt früher

(Those who only live on Facebook die sooner)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | 20 Minuten
Date | 21.10.2015
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | Facebook, threat
Summary | Canadian psychologist Susan Pinker says that people who spend more time on Facebook than actually interacting with people face-to-face do not live as long. Face-to-face interaction enables us to develop intimate relationships and friendships that significantly increase our happiness, which in turn increases our life expectancy. New media can create a disparity between how many friends and social interactions one has online versus offline. Offline social interactions are however much richer and more important for a good psychological health.
Image Description | Photograph of a woman looking at her smartphone.
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone

C'est tu, que tu le veuilles ou non

(It is 'you', whether you want it or not)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Le Matin
Date | 30.7.2016
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | Facebook, politeness
Summary | A Migros customer complained because an employee from Migros used the "tu" form (familiar 'you') instead of "vous" (formal 'you') when replying to the customer on a Facebook post. The customer does not understand why a Migros employee would talk to her online using the "tu" form, as if there are only young people on social media. It might be one of Migros' strategies to get closer to its customers. Nevertheless, a cashier should not use "tu" when addressing a customer. The more 'light-hearted' tone of the internet does not mean one cannot be polite.
Image Description | Photograph of a Migros customer with shopping carts, and screenshot of a Facebook chat between an employee and a customer.
Image Tags | Facebook, female(s)

Schreiben statt streicheln: Die neue kalte Liebesordnung

(Writing instead of stroking: The new cold order of love)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ)
Date | 20.6.2014
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | Facebook, smartphone, threat, WhatsApp, youth
Summary | Youth nowadays do not get to know their love interests face-to-face but rather through digital channels. A typical digital encounter would be a Facebook friend request, message exchanges and possibly the exchange of seductive images. Now intimacy means something different; people open up to each other in letter form rather than with actual physical contact. Cultural pessimists fear that while it is convenient that all of our interactions can be done online, this convenience may turn into a huge problem because people could virtually stay at home all the time and become lonely.
Image Description | Photograph in back and white of a couple (male and female), sleeping entwined.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

Page 1 of 1