Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 6
Posts 1 - 6

Twitter testet doppelt so lange Tweets

(Twitter is testing twice as long tweets)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Welt
Date | 27.9.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | texting, Twitter, word/writing
Summary | Twitter has announced that they will be allowing a test group tweets of up to 280 characters in length instead of just 140 characters. The extreme shortness dictated by Twitter is a remnant of its early beginnings when Twitter was mimicking text messages. Japanese, Chinese, and Korean will not be included in this update because those languages can express far more content in fewer characters already.
Image Description | Twitter logo with colorful hashtags.
Image Tags | hashtag, logo, Twitter

Elf neue Wörter, die wir dringend brauchen

(Eleven new words that we need urgently)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Welt
Date | 1.9.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | (mental) health, smartphone, word/writing
Summary | Our language cannot keep up with technological innovations and other changes. There are dozens of new scenarios that have no name and urgently need one. For instance the shame parents feel when their children join an idiotic fad like Pokémon Go or the neck deformation our generation will have from staring at a smartphone all our lives. Another discrepancy is that we have no catchy name for involuntary images taken of floors or the insides of our pockets. We also new words to describe intersex people or stretched out ears after a lifetime of ear-gaging.
Image Description | Getty Images of a woman with ear gages and a transgender person.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, female(s), male(s), smartphone

Los emoticonos invaden nuestra conversación

(Emoticons are invading our conversation)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | El País
Date | 18.10.2016
Language | Spanish
Country | Spain
Topic Tags | emojis, language threat, word/writing, youth
Summary | Craig Federighi claimed that the chidren of tomorrow won't be know how to write with words anymore. The problem does not only lie in the use of abbreviations, but also in the rise of emojis. Now, if you text someone, you can substitue words with emojis. It seems that using emojis in our conversations is a very efficient way to communicate.
Image Description | Video about the use of emojis and image of an Apple keyboard and a new text
Image Tags | emojis, keyboard, text

When things are so bad you have no words, don’t reach for an emoji

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 13.10.2015
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | emojis, word/writing
Summary | Some people didn't like the fact that the newspaper USA Today decided to add a little emoji next to one of its editions' front-page stories. The author of this Guardian article thinks that it was inappropriate to use a crying face emoji next to a story about an American hero who was stabbed. Many people use emojis to add context to their messages and to show some emotion. However, emojis are also limited. The author claims that they work well with positive statements, but not with negative ones. This is due to their "inherent ridiculousness". Finally, the author is not worried about the future of words, but she wants to warn people and tell them that if they can't find the right words, it's better not to say anything rather that using an emoji.
Image Description | Screenshot of the front page of USA Today, screenshot of a tweet about the front page, and series of five yellow-face emojis.
Image Tags | emojis, newspaper, Twitter

Emojis: The death of the written language?

Hyperlink

Newspaper | CNBC
Date | 24.6.2015
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | emojis, language threat, misunderstanding, word/writing
Summary | People are using more and more emojis, which can be seen as a threat to written language. Indeed, people are starting to replace words with emojis in order to communicate a feeling or emotion, and according to the author of the article, this is worrying. Moreover, using emojis can lead to misunderstandings and miscommunication. Finally, if school start to incorporate emojis in their curriculum, it can be perceived as a regress back to hierogylphics.
Image Description | Getty image of a keyboard composed of emojis, and image of a series of Apple emojis representing diversity.
Image Tags | emojis, keyboard

Schreiben: Die Handschrift verkümmert

(Writing: Handwriting is hampered)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ)
Date | 1.3.2015
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | language threat, research/study, texting, word/writing
Summary | We are living in an age writing renaissance; no generation before us has written this profusely. We are always texting someone or updating our social media statuses and yet, ironically, we are losing a staple of writing culture: our handwriting. Researchers are debating whether this is a problem or not, but the fact is that many neuroscientific studies show that humans learn better while writing by hand rather than typing. The abbreviated, informal, emoticon-filled writing style of WhatsApp and co. may be corrupting writing culture at large.
Image Description | Photograph of a young child (girl) typing on a laptop.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, female(s)

Page 1 of 1