Number of Posts: 8
Posts 1 - 8
Weißt du, was diese Emojis wirklich bedeuten?
(Do you know what these emojis really mean?)
Newspaper | Welt
Date | 30.9.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | emojis, misunderstanding, punctuation, texting
Summary | We cannot imagine texting nowadays without emojis. They have become as important to us as punctuation. They serve to add a specific tone to our messages or to present them in a specific light. They are however also very easy to misunderstand. Do we really know what the emojis stand for? Here is an emoji quiz to text your emoji literacy!
Image Description | Artsy photograph of women texting and using emojis, a GIF, and emojis.
Image Tags | emojis, female(s), gifs, smartphone
What Chatbots Reveal About Our Own Shortcomings
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 24.4.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, marketing, misunderstanding, threat, Twitter
Summary | Artificial intelligence is the new big thing but it is mostly geared towards commercial services like ordering pizza, etc. Microsoft for instance proudly announced that their AI assistant can now even understand slang inputs. But this way of learning from actual users has shown to be risky when Microsoft released their AI robot Tay on Twitter and people trolled them by teaching Tay offensive things.
Image Description | Illustration and a GIF of smartphones typing.
Image Tags | gifs, smartphone, text
Le point à la fin du SMS: un mauvais signe
(A period at the end of a text: a bad sign)
Newspaper | Le Monde
Date | 5.1.2016
Language | French
Country | France
Topic Tags | abbreviations, misunderstanding, punctuation, spelling, texting, word/writing
Summary | Texting is becoming very popular among younger people who will soon be getting their smartphone transplanted on their hand. The language of texting is "cool", does not necessarily follow traditional rules, uses phonetics and abbreviations. Moreover, to replace the tone of voice and other nonverbal cues that are lacking in writing, people use emoticons. Now, it seems that adding a period at the end of a text can lead to misunderstandings.
Image Description | Photograph of a businessman walking and looking at his phone
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone
Die Frau, die ungewollt mit Emojis ein Haus mietete
(The woman who inadvertently rented a house with emojis)
Newspaper | Welt
Date | 24.5.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | emojis, language threat, law, misunderstanding
Summary | The debate around whether emojis count as words or seriously meaningful content is very heated - not only in academics but also in law. The Oxford English dictionary only reheated that fire by choosing an emoji as word of the year. Multiple law cases have centered on misunderstandings around emoji use, most recently a case where a woman indicated interest in renting a house with emojis (flamenco dancer, dancer girls, squirrel, comet, a victory sign, and a bottle of Champagne). The house owner sued her for using misleading emojis after she decided not to rent the house after all.
Image Description | An image of a woman's hand holding a smartphone and picking out an emoji and a portrait of the Israely judge who worked on the emoji case.
Image Tags | emojis, female(s), hand(s), male(s), smartphone
The Complicated, Distressing Relationship Teens Have With The News
Newspaper | Huffington Post
Date | 8.3.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | misunderstanding, research/study, youth
Summary | Most youths get their news from their family, through the news media their parents consume, or through social media. The majority does not visit traditional news channels on their own initiative. Studies have shown that many youths cannot tell sponsored from editorial content. They are increasingly skeptical of news reports and at the same time unable to differentiate fake news or set valid news into a meaningful context.
Image Description | Silhouette of a person using a smartphone.
Image Tags | smartphone
Was It Something I Texted?
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 22.11.2015
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | misunderstanding, sexting, texting
Summary | A woman waits for her current love interest to text back. The night before she had sent him a text with sexual innuendo and he hadn't texted back until morning. Now she is obsessing over checking her phone constantly to see if he texted back. She starts over-interpreting how he may have misunderstood or what might have tipped him off. She concludes that, ultimately, it would be better if they figured out this early that they are no good match. Finally, he texts her back.
Image Description | Illustration of a woman blow-drying her hair with the smartphone laying nearby.
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone
To Text or Not to Text: A Dating Conundrum
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 28.1.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | misunderstanding, texting
Summary | A woman and a man meet, show interest in each other, and go on a date. After that they text for two months without ever seeing each other again face to face. The woman is upset that the man does not aske her out again but she cannot overcome traditional conventions about women not initiating a date. After two months she breaks up the non-relationship by saying that she does not need a penpal. Then the man invites her for dinner and they get married several years after.
Image Description | Illustration of a man and a woman with a giant smartphone separating them and the woman holding a chainsaw.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone
Autocorrect and the Tao of Texting
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 6.2.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | autocorrect, misunderstanding, texting
Summary | Most people are annoyed by the automatic correction (autocorrect) program installed on their smartphones by default. It changes typos in text messages but often misunderstand's the writer's intention. Autocorrect can feel like an uninvited content sabotage of one's messages. If we however did not have autocorrect, our messages would likely all be mistyped to the degree of non-intellegibility. Autocorrect, through its seeming random misunderstandings opens up opportunities for philosophic though or "gives voice to the voiceless" such as cats or babies playing with phones and autocorrect stepping in to 'translate'. So while autocorrect can be annoying, fun can be had with it as well.
Image Description | Illustration of one of the exemplified autocorrect mishaps: woman reading an autocorrected (visualized) message about a woman having had a bear attack (should have said heart attack).
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone
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