Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 48
Posts 1 - 10

Twitter founder: Trump presidency is product of short attention spans

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 13.9.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | politics, social media, threat, Twitter
Summary | Evan Williams, one of Twitter's founders, claims that Donald Trump's online behavior is showing how social media platforms are making us dumber. Indeed, social networks are based on short attention spans, and they also undermine open-mindedness and our sense of truth. According to Williams, advertising models are to be blamed.
Image Description | Portrait of Donald Trump.
Image Tags | male(s)

Are smartphones really making our children sad?

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 13.8.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, childhood, smartphone, threat, youth
Summary | Children's relationship with screens has become a contested topic; not everyone agrees with what should or shouldn't be done. Last week, the Atlantic published an excerpt of Jean Twenge's book (the Atlantic article was titled "Have smartphones destroyed a generation?"), which initiated very diverse reactions. Jean Twenge, who is an American pychologist, said that social media have a negative effect on young people. Twenger then answered some of her critics in this Guardian article.
Image Description | Photograph of a group of teenagers all staring at their phone or tablet.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone, tablet

Inside the rehab saving young men from their internet addiction

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 16.6.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, technology-free, threat
Summary | Marshall Carpenter is a 25-year old man who was addicted to new technologies. He used to play video games for 15 hours each day. Now, Marshall lives with other "addicted" men in an apartment in Washington State, where they started a rehab program called reSTART Life. The men talk about their experiences and how being addicted to the internet almost ruined their lives. At the rehab center, those men have to learn how to live again.
Image Description | Photographs of two men sitting outside in the woods, two men and a dog on a couch, man climbing a wall, woman standing outside a cabin, man sweeping, different vignettes with positive messages, man on a couch, and portrait of a man in the woods.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

'My electronic Swiss army knife': readers on 10 years of the iPhone

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 29.6.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | smartphone
Summary | Guardian readers talk about the smartphone/iPhone revolution. They explain their personal experiences with smartphones and digital devices and how they've changed their lives.
Image Description | Photographs of hands using smartphones, an egg, a hand holding a smartphone, and Steve Jobs holding a smartphone.
Image Tags | hand(s), male(s), smartphone

Technology can save lives, not just improve them

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 11.7.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | smartphone
Summary | Much has been said about the negative effects of new technologies. However, technology can save people's life. For instance, Bristol Braille Technology is an enterprise that created a braille electronic reader for blind people. Chatterbox is another tool that was created by a refugee in order to offer language tutoring. Within the "health" category, someone created a wireless sensor that makes physiotherapy exercises more fun, and someone created a tool to improve cancer diagnosis.
Image Description | Photographs of two men using a braille electronic reader, a man and a woman talking, and three women staring at a smartphone.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone

Want to captivate an audience like Obama? There's an app for that

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 14.7.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | smartphone
Summary | A new app called Orai allows speaker to improve their skills. The app uses artificial intelligence and gives users feedback about their public speaking skills.
Image Description | Portrait of Barack Obama speaking, and three iPhones.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone

Is it wrong to let my child play on my smartphone?

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 10.8.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, childhood, smartphone, technology-free
Summary | The author of the article sometimes feels guilty when she lets her 2-year old son play on a smartphone. When young children are glued to a screen, they are so captivated by what they're watching. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children younger than 2 should have no exposure to screens; it can hinder their language and social development/skills. The author of the article also claims that her kids already show characteristics of "addicted" behavior. For instance, they scream and are irascible if someone takes their screen away. She also says that what is dangerous is not so much when kids are on screens, but rather when parents are.
Image Description | Photograph of a kid using a smartphone next to an adult.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone

Why are YouTube stars so popular?

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 3.2.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | YouTube
Summary | YouTube stars such as Zoella are popular and very influential. According to a study, young people find YouTubers more influencial than 'traditional' celebrities. One of the reasons why YouTubers are more influential is because they can connect with their fans more easily, which creates more authentic relationships.
Image Description | Portrait of Zoella (female YouTuber), video "what is YouTube", ranking of eight celebrities, video "coming out", and digital image of Stampy.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

Y'all have a Texas accent? Siri (and the world) might be slowly killing it

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 10.2.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence
Summary | Siri uses voice recognition, but it still struggles to understand regional accents, such as the Texas accent. Siri didn't understand Ben Crook when he asked her something. People usually adapt their voice and speech to the people they're talking to. They should do the same thing with virtual assistants; they should try to be polite and explicit, and not be colloquial.
Image Description | Photograph of two men wearing cowboy hats watching a rodeo.
Image Tags | male(s)

Young people don't have tribes any more. We have smartphones instead

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 18.3.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | addiction, smartphone, threat
Summary | Every generation had its rebellion (e.g. skinheads, punk, new romantics). What about the millennials? How do they deal with boredom? We have smartphones, and we can do anything with them. The difference between us and the older generations is that we are not "tribal" anymore. We are more "individual".
Image Description | Photograph in black and white of one punk and two other people.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

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