Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 16
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

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

Are teenagers having less sex – and is social media the reason why?

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 10.3.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | addiction, research/study, social media, youth
Summary | Teenagers are having less sex; is it because of new media? One theory says that it might be because young people spend more time in their bedroom in front of their screen and less time socializing and getting drunk with friends. The drop in teenage pregnancies is also accompanied by a drop in teenage drinking levels. A US report claims that teenagers spend 9 hours each day on social media, and kids between 8 and 12 spend 6 hours online each day. Japan has one of the lowest birth rates in the world, and they even coined the word 'sekkusu shinai shokogun' which means “celibacy syndrome”.
Image Description | Photographs of a boy looking at a tablet, girl wearing sunglasses (we can see the Facebook logo in the reflection), two girls sitting back to back using their smartphone, classroom with students and teacher
Image Tags | Facebook, female(s), headphones, male(s), smartphone, tablet

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

Generation Blödphone?

(Generation Dumbphone?)

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Newspaper | Der Bund
Date | 11.8.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | addiction, research/study, smartphone, threat, youth
Summary | A US study has conducted surveys among teenagers asking them how often they go out without their parents, whether they date or have had sex, how much they sleep , etc. The results show that teenagers go out/date less, sleep less, and have sex later in life since the advent of smartphones. Swiss media psychologist Gregor Waller criticizes the study because it bases its conclusions on mere correlation. It leaves out other important developments in the US since 2007 like the financial crisis. An equivalent Swiss study does not show similar results. Most Swiss teenagers continue to have a rich social life despite smartphones. Only about 10% of Swiss teenagers are at risk of smartphone addiction.
Image Description | Graphs showing results of the US study and a portrait of the interviewee (Swiss psychologist Gregor Waller).
Image Tags | chart, male(s)

«Le mobile est le meilleur ami des Milléniums»

("Mobile phone is Millennials' best friend")

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Newspaper | 24 heures
Date | 16.3.2017
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | addiction, pornography, smartphone, youth
Summary | Céline Cabourg and Boris Manenti answer some questions related to Millennials and their digital world. They say that today, the gap between teenagers and adults is getting more important. For instance, one teenager told Manenti that adults have different Facebook profiles; they only post pictures of their family and their vacation. In sum, they don't use social media the same way as young people. Moreover, teenagers view their smartphone as their best friend and not as a tool. What about "You Porn Generation"? It is true that children as young as 10 can have access to porn. Parents have an important role to play in their relationship with their children, and they should have open discussions with them.
Image Description | Photograph of three teenagers (one girl and two boys) on their smartphones
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone

An app to stop a blazing row? No thanks...

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Newspaper | Telegraph
Date | 20.4.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | online dating, addiction, threat, youth
Summary | There seems to be an app for everything nowadays, As if this generation of smartphone addicts needed to digitalize any more aspects of their lives. Our relationship were digitally invaded with Tinder ( a statistic says that 30% of people on there are married). Now there is even an app that monitors our emotional responses when fighting with our partner via a bracelet which functions as a stand-in robot counsellor.
Image Description | Alamy image of a fighting couple (woman verbally attacking man).
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

Nach Spielen im Internet kann man süchtig werden

(One can get addicted to games on the internet)

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Newspaper | General-Anzeiger
Date | 10.11.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | addiction, game, school, threat, youth
Summary | Internet games have a high addiction potential because one needs to spend a lot of time on it to succeed. Experts say that if one spends more than 4 hours a day on games, one has a problem and needs to seek professional help. Game addicts stop seeing their friends and let their school grades slide.
Image Description | Image of a boy sitting with his smartphone in his lap.
Image Tags | hand(s), male(s), smartphone

Los jóvenes se sienten incompletos sin internet y las redes sociales

(Young people feel incomplete without internet and social media)

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Newspaper | El Mundo
Date | 9.4.2014
Language | Spanish
Country | Spain
Topic Tags | addiction, research/study, smartphone, social media, threat, youth
Summary | A lot of young people wouldn't be able to live without new technologies (internet, social media, etc.). According to a study, they feel isolated and incomplete without them, and they wouldn't know how to socialize. Young people are aware of the advantages of internet and social media (e.g. possibility to have many relationships) as well as the risks of such new technologies (e.g. loss of privacy). They also know they can become dependent on their digital devices. However, they are not so worried; they think such disadvantages are normal and part of today's society. The survey also showed contradictory results; 74% of the respondents thought that social media facilitate new friendships, but about 72% of them thought that social media isolate people more.
Image Description | Video: interview of young people about their online practices, and two charts showing statistics about online practices.
Image Tags | chart, computer/laptop, female(s), male(s), smartphone

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