Number of Posts: 10
Posts 1 - 10
The Facebook Breakup
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 13.3.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, Facebook, research/study, threat
Summary | Many studies have been published about whether Facebook makes us happy or unhappy. Studies with both conclusions exist. They agree that Facebook notifications can cause a hormone release that boosts feelings of happiness for a moment, like all other addictive substances. Facebook has teams working on solustions on how to deal with accounts of users who pass away or how to assist people with avoiding their ex-partners on Facebook.
Image Description | An illustration of a vacuum cleaner vacuuming a broken heart, a team of designers working at Facebook, motivational posters from Facebook, and a smartphone showing the post-breakup settings Facebook offers.
Image Tags | Facebook, female(s), male(s), smartphone, text
Taking Baby Steps Toward Software That Reasons Like Humans
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 6.3.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, brain, research/study
Summary | Computers are being programmed to mimick thought processes of the human brain. This technology is called "deep neuronal net". It enables softwares to interpret the content of images like for instance whether the tennis player in the image is wearing a hat. Many research teams are workin on this technology world-wide and it will likely be used for computerized customer support in the future.
Image Description | Portrait of a "deep neuronal net" researcher.
Image Tags | male(s)
The Week in Tech: The Next Big Thing, According to Mark Zuckerberg
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 16.4.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Facebook, research/study, smartphone, texting, virtual reality
Summary | Facebook is already huge: more than three times as many messages are transmitted over Facebook Messenger than SMS messages at its peak. But Facebook is also hugely significant as a video platform and they are investing much of their resources in developing virtual reality. Apparently, Zuckerberg believes that VR is the next big platform after the smartphone. They are even working with anthropologists to make the body language VR avatars more realistic.
Image Description | An image of Zuckerberg doing a presentation with VR goggles projected behind him.
Image Tags | Facebook, male(s)
Hey Siri, Can I Rely on You in a Crisis? Not Always, a Study Finds
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 14.3.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, artificial intelligence, research/study, smartphone, threat
Summary | Researchers have tested various artificial intelligence assistants like Siri and Cortana to see how they respond to emergencies. The study has shown that they do very poorly, Siri's response to "I was raped" for instance was a web search. Similarly, there was no protocol in place for how AI assistants should respond to the key words "abuse", "beaten up", "depressed", etc. Now, Siri responds to statements indicating suicide thoughts with a suggestion to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
Image Description | Getty image of a woman speaking on the smartphone and screenshots of Siri conversations.
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone
In the Apple Case, a Debate Over Data Hits Home
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 13.3.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Facebook, law, politics, privacy, research/study, smartphone, threat
Summary | Apple's refusal to aide the FBI with breaking into the phone of the San Bernardino attacker has unleashed a political debate among Americans. IT experts as well as lay people report that they have had discussions about the topic with other people, some say they have had fights over Facebook with family members about the issue. Polls show that the American people are hugely divided on the topic: 42% think Apple should cooperate with the FBI while 47% support Apple's stance to protect user privacy.
Image Description | Getty image of a protest crowd showing a man holding up his smartphone with the text: "Don't turn our phones into FBI drones".
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone, text
Smartphone Era Politics
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 23.2.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | addiction, language threat, research/study, smartphone
Summary | Smartphones are changing everything: the news media, politics, and most fundamentally how humans communicate and connect with one another. A UK study claims that we check our phones over 200 times a day. All the app notifications are addictive. Despite this extensive use of a communication device, we most rarely use it to communicate with one another.
Image Description | N/A
Creating A Computer Voice That People Like
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 14.2.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, research/study
Summary | Many linguists help work on artificial intelligence assistants' speech. Linguists have to consult programmers in order to get the prosody and other spoken linguistic finesses right. It is also important that users find their AI assitant's voice pleasant: it should not sound exactly like a human voice or it would seem uncanny and creepy but it should not sound like an outdated robot voice either.
Image Description | Portrait of an IBM empployee.
Image Tags | male(s)
At C.D.C., a Debate Behind Recommendations on Cellphone Risk
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 1.1.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | (mental) health, brain, childhood, research/study, smartphone, threat
Summary | A controversy has sparked over the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's health recommendation regarding cell phones. They had reviewed research on brain tumor risk connected with cell phone use and decided that the data were not convincing enough. Their recommendation was that cell phone users need not be more cautious with cell phones than other daily lifestyle choices. However, the research is also not extensive enough to disprove an increased risk of brain tumor with high rates of cell phone use, especially for children. In response to the backlash to this recommendation, their stance was revised a few times so that it now states that the C.D.C. does not recommend caution but other organizations do.
Image Description | Reuters image of a crowd and one man speaking on the smartphone.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone
Should You Spy on Your Kids?
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 9.11.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | childhood, privacy, research/study, threat
Summary | Many parents now monitor their children's online and social media activity, regulate their internet access (or even texting abilities) through the night and school hours using sophisticated technology, a few even observe the movements of their children or partners by tracking their devices. While tracking each other's devices in a relationship can be useful to avoid texting while driving, such technology can also be exploited and result in an emotionally abusive relationship. This is especially risky when the monitoring is not mutual like when parents 'stalk' their children, danah boys says. It is impossible for children to learn media competency when they are constantly under surveillance, they become less reluctant to share social media passwords with their peers and can otherwise remain naïve when it comes to online safety because they have been shielded from everything growing up.
Image Description | A series of minimalistic illustrations of a woman with a smartphone leaving a trail (dotted line).
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone
Judging Others by Their Email Tics
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 29.10.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | email, research/study
Summary | Meaning in emails is not only conveyed by the content but also by the form: Whether we use 'hi', 'hey', or 'dear' and how witty our email signature is really determines our personal brand. People make an effort to go back to previous emails to see on what kind of greeting terms (hi or hey?) with their addressees, linguist Gretchen McColloch says. Whether we use proper spelling with capitalizations or whether we just use lower-case throughout can have implications about power relations. Emojis and GIFs have become commonplace even in emails now to help us quickly signal an emotion.
Image Description | Illustration of a paper plane with emojis and word snippets (hey, hi, cc, bcc) flying out of it.
Image Tags | emojis
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