Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 20
Posts 1 - 10

Liebesgeschichte, Heldenreise, Flachwitze, Kacke

(Love story, a hero's journey, flat jokes, poop)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 2.8.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | childhood, emojis, marketing, smartphone, texting, threat, youth
Summary | The new emoji movie for children is an animated film starring emojis as its main protagonists. Critics find it quite distasteful because it is full of casual advertising for major tech companies and because it does not address the danger of the internet at all. In Textopolis, the world in which emojis live, alphabetic letters are depicted as elderly with walking canes because the youth does not use letters anymore.
Image Description | Screenshots from the Emoji movie.
Image Tags | emojis, female(s), male(s)

Mit SMS zum Suizid gedrängt – Junge Frau muss 15 Monate ins Gefängnis

(Pressured to commit suicide with SMS - young woman get 15 months prison)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 4.8.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | (mental) health, law, texting, youth
Summary | A young woman has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for pressuring her ex-boyfriend to commit suicide via text messages. Although she was not physically involved in helping with his suicide, the woman is held accountable for encouraging him and not calling the police when she knew he was about to commit suicide.
Image Description | Image of a woman crying.
Image Tags | female(s)

"Für viele ist Politik wie Bärchenwurst"

("For many, politics is like bear deli meat")

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 6.9.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | politics, social media, youth
Summary | It is very difficult to get young people today engaged in politics. Political parties operate with archaic patterns of communication and youths do not identify with them anymore. Some young politicians try to address young people on social media to animate them to at least go vote. The tried to imitate the Ice Bucket Challenge and tried to launch an "I'm voting" challenge where users nominate each other to vote.
Image Description | Image of a pro EU protest in the UK.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

Die Jungs von heute können einfach nicht mehr flirten

(The boys of today just can't flirt anymore)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 7.7.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | online dating, research/study, smartphone, social media, youth
Summary | Young people nowadays cannot flirt anymore. They are constantly tied to their smartphones - 57 hours per week a recent study says - and do not pay attention to what is going on around them. They are more comfortable communicating via a medium than face-to-face. Many girls lament on social media how there are no available boys. Young boys should look up form their phones more often - the girls would be grateful.
Image Description | Getty images of young men and women with and without smartphones.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone

Pling, Pling, Doppel-Pling

(Ding, Ding, Double-Ding)

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Newspaper | Süddeutsche Zeitung
Date | 30.9.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | addiction, smartphone, social media, WhatsApp, youth, YouTube
Summary | A day in the life of a 13 year old who receives 200 messages a day. Lina uses her smartphone first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Though her father does not necessarily like her constant use of the smartphone and the notifications all the time, he is not worried about an addicion. Parents were taught about the risks on parent-teacher meetings. Lina is in a ton of group chats and is beginning to use Musical.ly. YouTube is a staple entertainment source for her.
Image Description | Lina with the smartphone on her bed and a hand holding a smartphone.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), smartphone

So erobern Zahnspangen-Mädchen die Werbewelt

(This is how girls with braces are conquering the world of advertising)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 8.2.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | Instagram, law, marketing, Snapchat, social media, youth, YouTube
Summary | A new breed of celebrities has emerged: social media celebrities or 'influencers' as they are called in marketing. These ordinary youths have millions of followers on Instagram, Snapchat, Musical.ly, or YouTube and are attractive to advertisers, not only because of their large following but because their fans feel personally close to them and are more likely to accept advice from them than from a distant celebrity. It is however still illegal to covertly advertise a product without notifying viewers that they are viewing sponsored content.
Image Description | German Musical.ly stars Lisa and Lena.
Image Tags | female(s)

Ärger mit vermeintlich kostenfreien Apps

(Trouble with supposedly free apps)

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Newspaper | Bergische Morgenpost
Date | 15.3.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | addiction, childhood, game, youth
Summary | Parents need to be warned about the hidden costs of supposedly free games. They are hugely popular among children and youths and free at first, like drugs where the first dose is often free, and then they get very expensive very quickly. Experts discourage parents from sharing their credit card information with their children. Addiction experts also advise parents to set up rules of smartphone usage with their children and enforce them - that is the only way how we can keep ourselves from getting addicted to our smartphones in a world of constant availability: by setting the limits ourselves.
Image Description | Pixabay photograph of a woman holding a smartphone.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), smartphone

Jungbürger verzweifelt gesucht

(Young citizen seeked out desperately)

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Newspaper | Tagblatt (Thurgau)
Date | 15.1.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | WhatsApp, youth
Summary | Swiss towns traditionally invite all of their citizens who turn 18 to a young citizens’ celebration to initiate them into the life of their town, meet the town council, find out about their right, and to mingle with fellow young citizens during some fun activities. Less and less youths however responded to such invites and so the town of Sirnach decided to send their invites via text message and WhatsApp. This is meant to create a group dynamic so that young citizens would animate fellow young citizens to attend the celebration.
Image Description | Photograph of a group of teenagers playing curling.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

Wer nicht snapt, ist out

(Who doesn’t snap is out)

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Newspaper | B.Z. (Berlin)
Date | 1.5.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | Facebook, Snapchat, WhatsApp, youth
Summary | Snapchat is the new hot social media channel for the German youth. Now that the parent generation is uding Facebook and WhatsApp, teenagers are looking for digital spaces free of parental supervision. Snapchat is more aimed at visual rather than verbal communication, though now audio and video calls can be made. The article lists three new (not necessarily messaging) apps that are gaining popularity amongst young people: Miitomo, musical.ly, WeMesh.
Image Description | Screenshots of two snaps, and digital image of the Snapchat logo.
Image Tags | female(s), logo, Snapchat

Studenten können nicht mehr richtig schreiben

(Students cannot write properly anymore)

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Newspaper | 20 Minuten
Date | 21.1.2015
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | language threat, school, spelling, texting, youth
Summary | Students' writing skills are poorer than in previous years. It may be due to the fact that elementary schools no longer correct every spelling mistake in first and second grade but rather value content over form. Another reason that can explain students' lower writing skills is new media use. Most of young people's writing and reading is done through new media nowadays, and informal writing is prevalent in those digital spheres. The increasing informalization of language on social media is seen as a threat to our language.
Image Description | Photograph taken from behind of an elementary classroom with children.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), school

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