Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 21
Posts 1 - 10

Weißt du, was diese Emojis wirklich bedeuten?

(Do you know what these emojis really mean?)

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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

Mit diesem Gadget kannst du Sprachbarrieren überwinden

(With this gadget you can overcome language barriers)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 7.8.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | translation
Summary | There is a new invention from China: an in-ear device that can directly translate speech. It lags three seconds behind real-time - plenty of time for silence to become awkward. It is also dependent on a wireless internet connection. So far it can translate these languages into Mandarin: French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, English, German.
Image Description | Getty images of three women with the German, Spanish, and Italian flag painted on their faces, as well as Getty images of a woman and a man using headphones together, buttons labeled with different languages, as well as GIFs of cats speaking French and Japanese and a film reference GIF (Anchorman).
Image Tags | female(s), gifs, male(s), text

iOS 11 - Diese 11 neuen Features solltest du kennen

(iOS 11 - you should know these 11 new features)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 22.9.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | smartphone, texting
Summary | The Apple operational system iOS 11 is meant for iPhones and iPads. It has a lot of new functions, like a screen recording function, or a one-handed texting function where the keyboard is slightly shifted to the right for people who only want to text with one thumb. Other features include a new control center and other changes to the user surface as well as a way to save GIFs.
Image Description | Getty images of a man presenting iOS 11 and a woman using a smartphone, screenshots showing the iOS 11 user surface, and tweets about the new iOS 11 features, some with GIFs.
Image Tags | female(s), gifs, male(s), smartphone, Twitter

A Hunt for Ways to Combat Online Radicalization

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 23.8.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Google, research/study, social media, threat, YouTube
Summary | Social media companies have only recently begun waking up to the fact that their unpoliced platforms are safe spaces for all kinds of extremism. Studies show that extremists nowadays get radicalized online, whether they be islamists or white supremacists. While these two movements may differ in ideologies, they resemble each otehr very strongly in their internet strategies of recruitment and organization of offline events. A research group at Google has now come up with a diversion strategy to combat the radicalization of individuals online. They target people who watch extremist recruitment videos on YouTube with video suggestions that present differing arguments and the downsides of that ideology. So far, there can be no knowing whether this strategy is helping but the redirection videos are being watched.
Image Description | GIF with mouse cursor arrows: black arrows surrounding a white arrow.
Image Tags | gifs

Google’s Calendar Now Finds Spare Time and Fills It Up

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 13.4.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Google
Summary | The Google calendar now lets users enter personal goals like exercising, skill building, and me time which the artificial intelligence algorithm then feeds into the blanks in our calendar. Users can then check whether they have completed the goal at the time the calender suggested and based on that, the calender can learn which times are likely to work out for that particular user and which are not. Users can also connect their calender to a friend's calender to figure out when they both have a gap in their schedule to meet up.
Image Description | GIFs showing a smartphone showing the Google calendar at work.
Image Tags | gifs, Google, smartphone

Texting With Boys

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 10.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | gender, online dating, texting
Summary | The author loves how the digital age has changes dating enabling romantic interests to communicate mainly via text messages, despite the widespread opinion that cell phones have killed romance. However, many men prefer women to be good listeners in person and via text message and lose interest when women text them music and books recommendations.
Image Description | A GIF of the response being typed symbol known from messaging apps (speech bubble and ellipses).
Image Tags | gifs

Why Kids Can't Write

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 2.8.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | grammar, punctuation, school, smartphone, social media, spelling, texting, threat, word/writing
Summary | Many students struggle with writing despite various pedagogical models that have been implemented in past years to tackle that perpetual issue. This is all the more suprising considering that today's students may do moret voluntary writing than any generation before it. They text and post on social media a lot but the writing register is different there. The format's main principle is shortness so grammar, spelling, and punctuation take a back seat.
Image Description | GIF of a hand writing and a group of teachers in a workshop.
Image Tags | female(s), gifs, text

What Chatbots Reveal About Our Own Shortcomings

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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

Apple Opens the iMessage Door, and the Ephemera Rushes In

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 22.9.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | emojis, GIFs, word/writing
Summary | An Apple user of iMessage can now use different "tchotchkees" (e.g. GIFs, stickers, emojis) which dominate text messages whereas words are just "afterthought". Users can also throw confetti and balloons. Apple is trying to mimic what is out there on the internet.
Image Description | Screenshots of iMessage chats with words and stickers/emojis/GIFs/confetti, and screenshot of a tweet
Image Tags | emojis, gifs, text, Twitter

9 Gründe, warum du dich auf den 30. freuen kannst

(9 reasons why you can look forward to your 30st)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 16.6.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | addiction, smartphone, technology-free
Summary | One of the reasons why becoming 30 years old right now is not so bad is that one is practically a digital native but remembers a time before omnipresent internet and digital devices. One knows how to use all things digital, i.e. "speaks the language of the zombies", but knows how to avoid becoming a zombie.
Image Description | Getty images of a woman blowing out candles, a pig farm, a medieval painting, a man with an alcoholic beverage, a crowd of people, two women taking a selfie, a woman sticking her head in a bush, as well as GIFs of a treadmill accident and a Star Wars meme.
Image Tags | female(s), gifs, male(s), selfie

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