Number of Posts: 7
Posts 1 - 7
Germany springs to action over hate speech against migrants
Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 6.1.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | censorship, cyberbullying, Facebook, law, politics, social media
Summary | Facebook has recently decided to comply with German law rather than their own corporate policies when it comes to hate language on their platform contributed by users from Germany. Germany is very strict about prohibiting hate language against minorities. Critics say this is a step in the wrong direction towards censorship.
Image Description | Protest crowd holding a canvas.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), text
New ideas for treating concussions
Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 12.4.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, smartphone, texting
Summary | Doctors are looking into new ways to treat concussions and one of those ways is to stop texting or using a smartphone. Concussion-related headaches are often visually triggered so staring at a screen for hours like many people routinely do does not help heal from a concussion.
Image Description | Hands of a woman placing a football helmet on a boy's head.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), male(s)
Taking poetic license with AI personalities
Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 7.4.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, emojis, gender, research/study
Summary | Artificial intelligence assistants are now being creatively enganced by educated and professional writers and poets so as to make their conversation appear more human-like (f.i. by using emojis) and their personalities more authentic. Polls have shown that users prefer female voices for AI assistants and most companies have acted accordingly. Microsoft has however pre-empted reinforcing stereotypes about female assistants by limiting the number of apologies and self-deprecating comments for their AI assistant Cortana.
Image Description | Image of a meeting of professional writers working in AI at Microsoft.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, female(s), male(s)
That time when ‘that time when’ took over the Internet #InstantNostalgia
Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 15.9.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | hashtags, research/study, social media
Summary | It has become customary to frame anecdotal posts on social media with the phrase "that time when" or "that akward moment when". Sometimes it is even used to describe events that have just happened, even though it is a formulation that suggests an old memory. This linguistic strategy thereby creates an air of nostalgia around the memory and makes it iconic. Linguists suggest that the usage of the demonstrative "that" suggests that sender and receiver of the message have shared memories. This is why many celebrities use this construction to create a false sense of intimacy with their fans online.
Image Description | GIF of a woman taking a selfie and posting it to social media.
Image Tags | female(s), gifs, smartphone, social media
In search of 'lulz,' trolls hijack civic engagement
Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 7.11.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, politics, social media, threat
Summary | Internet culture's sense of humor has become careless. A meme was recently circulated in Pennsyvania that said that one could vote online by just commenting the name of their candidate. Even though this was a joke, it was dangerously close to disenfranchising people of their votes. In the same way some people post anti-semitic or racist/sexist things and then claim to just do it to combat the tyranny of political correctness and not really meaning any harm. Such content however promotes extremism and is harmful - no matter the intentions.
Image Description | Man holding up Hillary Clinton toilet paper.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)
Please, don't silence your cellphones
Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 16.4.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | smartphone, technology-free, threat
Summary | AMC's entertainment chief executive commented that they are considering letting moviegoers use their smartphones in AMC theaters. The reasoning behind this statement being that it is no longer possible to tell young adults today to put away their smartphones for two hours. This statement was met with a lot of public anger about smartphones entering even the sanctity of the cinema. AMC quickly rectified the statement saying that texting will not be allowed in their theaters in the foreseeable future.
Image Description | Illustration of a (abstracted, faceless) movie theater audience on top of a huge smartphone screen.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone
Field studies of the offspring
Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 31.5.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Facebook, smartphone, Snapchat, technology-free, youth
Summary | The research center conducts in depth interviews with today’s teenagers, the so-called Generation Z or digital natives, on behalf of various corporations. The aim of the study is to find out about this generation’s relationship with new technologies. They all value mobile/digital communication very highly, to the extent that many choose online colleges, online shopping, and home office work over actually having to physically go somewhere to study, work, or shop. They report of the abundance of messages each day and that they also highly value their offline hobbies, such as reading or knitting.
Image Description | Collage-like illustration of youths and online and offline activities.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone, social media
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