Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 19
Posts 1 - 10

Ban mobile phones in schools to protect pupils' mental health

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 26.9.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, childhood, school, smartphone, threat
Summary | According to Shannon Turner, schools should ban smartphones to protect their pupils. Screens and social media can have a negative impact on children's health, which is why some schools have already put in place new rules (e.g. give children 6 hours of digital-free time).
Image Description | Photograph of two pupils in a classroom; one of them is showing her friend a smartphone and the other is giggling.
Image Tags | female(s), school, smartphone

A robot Rembrandt? I'll eat my beret!

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 23.2.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, smartphone
Summary | Google’s Creative Lab just unveiled a new tool that can transform a photo into a drawing. Robots won't be able to master every human skill, and portraiture is one of those skills robots will never be able to replicate. Robots can't do art; they are just following what they have been programmed to do.
Image Description | Photograph of a smartphone next to a series of portraits, and video about the new tool.
Image Tags | smartphone

I need to escape from the planet of the apps

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 21.3.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | smartphone
Summary | The author talks about her experience with apps and constant notifications. Alerts constantly come from apps and it's starting to bother her. Even though she turned off push notifications, she still gets too many notifications, day and night. Those alerts telling her that she hasn't practiced her Italian or that matches on dating apps are about to expire make her feel guilty and bad about herself. Those apps also encourage obsessive habits, which is not good.
Image Description | Photograph of a hand holding a smartphone.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone

Five of the best brain-training apps

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 23.3.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, smartphone
Summary | Brain-training apps are very popular. Here is a list of the best apps: Peak, Elevate, Luminosity, Fit brains trainer, and Cognito.
Image Description | Digital image of a brain, and five screeshots of the five apps.
Image Tags | smartphone

Islamic State releases children's mobile app 'to teach Arabic'

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 11.5.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | childhood, smartphone
Summary | The Islamic State released a new app for children where they can learn Arabic. They can learn words such as ‘tank’, ‘gun’ and ‘rocket’.
Image Description | Photograph of a hand holding a smartphone.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone

Google launches new Assistant and puts it at heart of Home

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 4.10.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Google
Summary | Google just launched a personal assistant; its new characteristic is its conversational interface. You can ask it a question at home and it will respond to you. You can also use it on your smartphone. Instead of typing a question, you can now directly ask something. Besides Google, Apple also has its personal assistant Siri, and Amazon has Alexa. Google Home can turn on the lights, play music, and answer your questions.
Image Description | Photographs of Google's assistant, Google Home speakers, and three smartphones displaying chat conversations
Image Tags | Google, smartphone, speaker, text

Now anyone can build their own version of Microsoft's racist, sexist chatbot Tay

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 31.3.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, social media
Summary | Microsoft now lets people build their own chatbots. Bots are the new app, and developers will soon be able to create bots that respond to chat messages. Big tech companies are now trying to build their own bots (e.g. Facebook, Google, Amazon, Slack, Microsoft).
Image Description | Digital image of a smartphone screen displaying a female face (Tay).
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone

Facebook’s 'spammy' chatbots must improve - and fast

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 14.4.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Facebook, marketing
Summary | Facebook's chatbots must improve; people have been complaining about bots' nonsensical answers and spams. Chatbots are not new, but thanks to Facebook, brands and publishers can reach users more easily.
Image Description | Photograph of a hand holding a smartphone displaying the Messenger Platform beta, screenshots of three conversations with bots
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone, text, Twitter

Are teenagers having less sex – and is social media the reason why?

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 10.3.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | addiction, research/study, social media, youth
Summary | Teenagers are having less sex; is it because of new media? One theory says that it might be because young people spend more time in their bedroom in front of their screen and less time socializing and getting drunk with friends. The drop in teenage pregnancies is also accompanied by a drop in teenage drinking levels. A US report claims that teenagers spend 9 hours each day on social media, and kids between 8 and 12 spend 6 hours online each day. Japan has one of the lowest birth rates in the world, and they even coined the word 'sekkusu shinai shokogun' which means “celibacy syndrome”.
Image Description | Photographs of a boy looking at a tablet, girl wearing sunglasses (we can see the Facebook logo in the reflection), two girls sitting back to back using their smartphone, classroom with students and teacher
Image Tags | Facebook, female(s), headphones, male(s), smartphone, tablet

Please, Facebook, don't make me speak to your awful chatbots

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 29.4.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Facebook, threat
Summary | Chatbots are the future! Soon, you'll be able to do everything thanks to chatbots (e.g. order a pizza, schedule a meeting). With Facebook, the idea is to introduce third-party bots into Messenger. Existing chatbots are not perfect yet; they are still slow and don't always understand everything. Facebook's goal is to create something flawless, a platform for your phone where you'll be able to book a table, pay a bill, order a cab, check the weather, and manage your relationships.
Image Description | Photograph of Mark Zuckerberg speaking in front of a giant screen displaying the Messenger platform, photograph of engineer Charles Lawson lighting a robot's cigarette, screenshot of a tweet, photograph of a smartphone screen displaying WeChat.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone, text, Twitter

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