Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 37
Posts 1 - 10

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

Screens and teens: survival tips for parents on the technology battlefield

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Newspaper | Telegraph
Date | 23.9.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, smartphone, social media, threat, youth
Summary | A mom talks about her battle over digital screens with her children. Children are spending more time online, and research keeps showing the negative effects that screens can have (e.g. isolation, bullying, porn, suicide etc.). Since the phenomenon is so new, it is difficult for parents -they have no guide to follow. Technology is not necessarily bad, but parents should make sure their children are okay and happy. The article provides a list with some advice concerning young people and screens; from screen time limit to online groups and social media.
Image Description | Photograph of a young girl using her laptop, a mom and her daughter with a laptop and tablet, three children behind books, and a mom and her two kids with a laptop, tablet, and smartphone.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, female(s), male(s), smartphone, tablet

The dangerous teenage texting slang that all parents should be aware of

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Newspaper | Mirror
Date | 12.6.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | texting, threat, youth
Summary | Young people are always creating new "texting language". Parents should try to keep track of this language evolution, because the online world can be dangerous. A chief parent officer of software program Bark said that she's still surprised that some parents don't know what Netflix and chill’ means -it means sex. Different surveillance softwares help parents to keep an eye their children's texting habits. For instance, Bark is a surveillance software that can recognize when kids are joking and when they are serious.
Image Description | Three photographs of young girls on their smartphones.
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone

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)

Should I befriend my children and their pals online?

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Newspaper | Telegraph
Date | 10.6.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | childhood, privacy, social media, threat, youth
Summary | 80% of children between 11 and 15 years old have a smartphone. They spend a lot of time on social media platforms. Social media have a lot of advantages but they can also lead to social exclusion and embarrassment. According to a study, Instagram and Snapchat are the worst platforms for teenagers and young adults. As a result, some parents want to join the same social media sites and befriend their children so they can keep an eye on them. However, this might not be the right solution. Children and parents have a right to privacy.
Image Description | Photograph of a woman (foreground) and two children on their phone (background), a kid using and looking at a screen,
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone, tablet

Can travel still broaden the minds of the smartphone generation?

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Newspaper | Telegraph
Date | 17.8.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | addiction, smartphone, technology-free, threat, youth
Summary | William Sutcliffe is the author of "Are You Experienced?"; he complains about the smartphone generation and how new technologies have changed travel and backpacking. According to Sutcliffe, it almost looks like people's experiences and adventures today haven't really happened until they have been shared, liked, and commented on. Travels are important for young people; once you're cut off from everything familiar, you can be challenged and see the world from a new perspective. But in today's digital world, is it still possible to cut yourself off from home?
Image Description | Photograph of 5 young people taking a selfie with a selfie stick, drawing of the front page of the book Are you Experienced?, picture of a young man holding a smartphone and looking at it, young woman using her smartphone and looking at it, photograph of a landscape and someone's legs, portrait of a young woman
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), selfie, selfie stick, smartphone

Girls gang up on boys in new cyberbullying craze called 'roasting', expert warns

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Newspaper | Telegraph
Date | 25.7.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, cyberbullying, gender, social media, texting, threat, youth
Summary | "Roasting" is a new cyberbullying craze where girls pick on boys on WhatsApp, Instagram, or Facebook until they crack. Teenage girls and boys have already killed themselves because of cyberbullying.
Image Description | Photograph of three young girls using and staring at their smartphone
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone

Talk to your teen about Snapchat Ghost Mode, and track their time

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Newspaper | USA Today
Date | 15.7.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | addiction, privacy, research/study, Snapchat, threat, youth
Summary | Teenagers today mainly use Snapchat, 75% to be extact. In comparison, 66% use Facebook, and 47% use Twitter. One third of teenage Snapchat users said they use Snapchat because their parents are not on it. There are various apps that let parents track their children's activity on apps to make sure they do not approach addictive levels of usage. Another good way to track that is to join Snapchat as a parent and keep an eye on one's children from within the app - this is for parents who want to be less "lame" about watching over their children. Snapchat map is a recently added function that parents should be partticularly worried about enabling users to share their location at all times.
Image Description | Screenshots of Snapchat map showing user avatars and settings as well as surveillance apps for parents.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), Snapchat

Munich shooter's meticulous planning revealed: Teenager researched shooting sprees and even hacked into a Facebook account to lure children to McDonald's before murdering nine

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Newspaper | Mail Online
Date | 23.7.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | Facebook, threat, youth
Summary | Munich killer created a fake Facebook account to lure children to the McDonald massacre. Sonobly spent months planning his murder; he was obsessed with mass murders. For instance, his Whatsapp profile picture was a picture of Anders Breivik, the Norwegian mass murderer. Sonobly hacked Selina Akim's Facebook account and posted a message saying that there would be free food at the McDonald's restaurant near the Olympic stadium at 4pm.
Image Description | Photograph of the fake Facebook account, portrait of the killer, and several pictures of the massacre site.
Image Tags | Facebook, female(s), male(s)

Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?

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Newspaper | The Atlantic
Date | 0.9.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, cyberbullying, gender, smartphone, social media, threat, youth
Summary | A US study has conducted a large survey among teenagers and found out that smartphones are impacting their lives significantly. They sleep less, go out less, date less, are less likely to get (someone) pregnant, feel left out more, have more mental health issues, etc. Especially girls are more likely to feel left out because they spend more time on social media and because girls tend to bully each other by ostracization which is very easily achievable in cyberspace. Also, the teenage suicide rate has surpassed the teenage homicide rate for the first time in history.
Image Description | Two illustrations showing a woman falling with a tablet and a woman lying in bed at night looking at her smartphone. Charts showing the results from the US survey.
Image Tags | chart, female(s), smartphone, tablet

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