Number of Posts: 29
Posts 1 - 10
I can't be trusted with Google's texting app
Newspaper | Telegraph
Date | 19.5.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | Google, language threat, texting, word/writing, youth
Summary | Google's new Allo app is supposed to make you save time while you're texing, but it can sometimes lead to misunderstandings. The author of the article doesn't really like emojis and doesn't know how to use them well. She doesn't follow young people's digital habits. Their generation favors brevity, which can have a negative impact on language.
Image Description | Photograph of two young girls on their smartphones, two smartphones displaying chat conversations, and a man standing in front of a screen displaying "Allo" and "Duo".
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone, text
Donald Trump Threatens Ted Cruz’s Wife, Eliciting Angry Retort
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 23.3.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | hashtags, misunderstanding, politics, Twitter
Summary | Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have started a public feud on Twitter over their spouses. Trump thinks that Cruz has used footage of Melania Trump modeling nude for GQ magazine in a commercial against Trump. Trump then threatened to reveal secrets about Heidi Cruz. It turned out the anti-Trump advertisement was not made or paid for by Cruz and Cruz shamed Trump via Twitter for threatening his wife with the hashtag #classless.
Image Description | Image of Ted Cruz speaking with his wife Heidi in the background.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)
What Happened to Who?
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 8.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | abbreviations, grammar, language threat, politics, Twitter
Summary | More and more politicians have begun replacing the relative pronoun "who" with "that" in sentences like ''people that come with a legal visa and overstay''. Although some dictionaries say this is an acceptable for, the New York Times' style sheet does not condone using "that" instead of "who". It denies the mentioned persons their humanity. This trend is unsurprising considering that our communication is increasingly happening on platforms like Twitter that only allow 140 characters so that we invent loads of abbreviations like "LOL" and "TTYL".
Image Description | Artwork copying Edvard Munch's "The Scream" and a few high-profile Tweets with spelling mistakes.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), Twitter
Erik Orsenna: «N'oublions jamais qu'une langue est un cadeau!»
(Erik Orsenna: "Let's never forget that a language is a gift!")
Newspaper | Le Monde
Date | 9.3.2017
Language | French
Country | France
Topic Tags | language threat, spelling, texting, word/writing
Summary | Writer Erik Orsenna talks about language and why it shapes us. He talks about the new French spelling reforms, the French Academy, the relationship between language and people's identity, rap music, useless anglicisms, and texting.
Image Description | Photograph of interviewee Erik Orsenna
Image Tags | male(s)
Facebook musste AI abschalten, die "Geheimsprache" entwickelt hat
(Facebook had to turn of AIs who developed their own "secret language")
Newspaper | Welt
Date | 28.6.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Facebook, language threat
Summary | Facebook had to deactivate two artificial intelligence chatbots called Bob and Alice. They had begun communicating with one another in a knockoff language similar to English with sentences like: "I can can I I everything else." Because this communication is unintellegible for the developers, Bob and Alice were taken down for security reasons.
Image Description | Getty images of Mark Zuckerberg and cyborgs as well as a Tweet by Elon Musk.
Image Tags | male(s), Twitter
Hinter dem Hashtag #BlauerWal steckt eine verstörende Geschichte
(A disturbing story hides behind the hashtag #BlueWhale)
Newspaper | Welt
Date | 18.5.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | (mental) health, hashtags, law, social media, threat, youth
Summary | Currently, a man is on trial in Russian courts for supposedly urging 15 teenagers to commit suicide. The case is connected to the #BlueWhale challenge that is said to circulate online on social media. It is a lethal game where one person gives another increasingly self-destructive tasks. Apparently, psychologically fragile teenagers are targeted online.
Image Description | Getty image of a blue whale and images of a man being arrested and in trial with his face pixellated.
Image Tags | male(s)
Dieser Chatbot reserviert den Tisch fürs Abendessen
(This chatbot makes dinner reservations)
Newspaper | Welt
Date | 27.7.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Facebook, language threat, youth
Summary | Facebook messenger now has the chatbot Botmio on offer which lets users make dinner reservations at restaurants. This is perfect for younger generations who are reluctant to pick up the phone to call a human to make a reservation - digital natives are "language lazy". They would rather just make a reservation online without interacting with another human.
Image Description | A hand holding a smartphone using a Facebook chatbot and a portrait of the Botmio inventer.
Image Tags | Facebook, hand(s), male(s), smartphone
Die Frau, die ungewollt mit Emojis ein Haus mietete
(The woman who inadvertently rented a house with emojis)
Newspaper | Welt
Date | 24.5.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | emojis, language threat, law, misunderstanding
Summary | The debate around whether emojis count as words or seriously meaningful content is very heated - not only in academics but also in law. The Oxford English dictionary only reheated that fire by choosing an emoji as word of the year. Multiple law cases have centered on misunderstandings around emoji use, most recently a case where a woman indicated interest in renting a house with emojis (flamenco dancer, dancer girls, squirrel, comet, a victory sign, and a bottle of Champagne). The house owner sued her for using misleading emojis after she decided not to rent the house after all.
Image Description | An image of a woman's hand holding a smartphone and picking out an emoji and a portrait of the Israely judge who worked on the emoji case.
Image Tags | emojis, female(s), hand(s), male(s), smartphone
Jetzt kommt die Sticker-Schwemme
(The sticker flood is on its way)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 15.11.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | abbreviations, emojis, Facebook, language threat, marketing, social media
Summary | Emoticons (f.i. ":-D") and abbreviations (f.i. "LOL") have trickled down from "geek speak" and established themselves in the mainstream. Emojis are nowadays ever present in our digital communication as well as in other arenas such as film or advertising. Now various social media platforms, among them Facebook, offer users various palettes of stickers. They are larger versions of emojis and are sent as an image file rather than included on the keyboard as a letter. Because many sticker palettes need to be purchased, a whole economy is beginning to form: The Japanese messaging app Line has sold over $250 mio worth of stickers last year. We do not need to fear that emojis and co. will replace language as we know it.
Image Description | Commodified emojis in various forms (as balls, as tattoos, as bed sheets, as food, on clothing, as masks, etc.) and Facebook messenger chats using/purchasing sticker collections.
Image Tags | emojis, Facebook, male(s), social media
Redes sociales en las primarias del PSOE: una competición desigual
(Social networks in the PSOE primaries: an uneven competition)
Newspaper | El País
Date | 21.5.2017
Language | Spanish
Country | Spain
Topic Tags | hashtags, politics, research/study, social media, Twitter
Summary | The PSOE candidates in Spain use social media differently in their campaign. Sánchez knows the language of social networks very well and knows how to use them. He is the most active candidate on social media. Lopez was the first one to have a Twitter account and uses the social network intensively. However, he doesn't use the network the same way Sanchez uses it. Díaz only posted 670 tweets and has 115000 followers. Moreover, her language is not actualized; she uses the at sign @ too much. A study analyzed the online community of the candidates. When Díaz started using the hashtag #100por100PSOE, some people started attacking and criticizing her using the same hashtag. There are also multiple analytical tools that show different statistics regarding the candidates and their online campaign.
Image Description | Screenshots of the three candidates' Twitter profiles, and five different charts/graphs related to the candidates and their online campaign
Image Tags | chart, female(s), male(s), Twitter
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