Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 17
Posts 1 - 10

I can't be trusted with Google's texting app

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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

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

Rise of the defrienders: Nine in ten young people have been 'ghosted' by their friend or partner

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Newspaper | Mirror
Date | 6.5.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | smartphone, social media, texting, youth
Summary | “Ghosting” or defriending someone by text or social media is a new phenomenon. It seems that young people prefer using their smartphones and laptops to end relationships instead of doing it face-to-face. The term "ghosting" came from Katy Perry's song "Ghost" where she talks about ex-husband Russell Brand who had not spoken to her after demanding a divorce via text. Thanks to social media and the fact that you can hide behind your phone it is now easier to defriend people by ghosting.
Image Description | Photographs of two hands holding a smartphone, Russell Brand and Katy Perry, a man using his phone and looking at it, a hand holding a smartphone displaying the Facebook icon.
Image Tags | Facebook, female(s), hand(s), male(s), smartphone

Children are humiliating victims by using memes and chat rooms to 'roast' them in the latest cyberbullying craze

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Newspaper | Mail Online
Date | 25.7.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | childhood, cyberbullying, gender, texting, youth
Summary | Parents and teachers are worried about one type of cyberbullying; children pick on another with offensive abuse until the victim ‘cracks’. Girls seem to be twice as likely as boys to be perpetrators and victims of cyberbullying (boys seem to be more involved in physical bullying). It usually happens in group chats where people know each other. Cyberbullying is a competitive activity; the most offensive thing someone says, the better. One of the downsides of the digital era is cyberbullying and our children's protection.
Image Description | Photograph of a girl in front of her computer screen and photograph of a boy looking at a tablet screen.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, female(s), male(s), tablet

Logisches Pisa-Ergebnis

(Logical Pisa result)

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Newspaper | Appenzeller Zeitung
Date | 15.12.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | childhood, research/study, school, social media, texting, word/writing, youth
Summary | The Pisa study shows that Swiss students have decreasing writing and reading skills. This is not suprising considering the high percentage of foreign heritage children in Switzerland, the many national languages and distinct dialects, and the fact that children learn two foreign languages while still in primary school - let alone the dubious influence of new media, texting, social media, and so on.
Image Description | N/A

Die Putzfrau ist schuld

(It's the cleaning lady's fault)

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Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 15.2.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | texting, youth
Summary | The visitors of the carneval in Basel carry around lanterns on which they traditionally write political statements which are significant to them. One observer remarks that those political messages on the lanterns have become shorter in the past years, especially with youths. They resemble texting language.
Image Description | Image of the interviewee.
Image Tags | male(s)

Junge schreiben - mehr als je zuvor

(Youths write - more than ever)

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Newspaper | Appenzeller Zeitung
Date | 29.1.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | code-switching, language threat, research/study, school, smartphone, social media, spelling, texting, word/writing, youth
Summary | There is a public hysteria about how youths are no longer capable of spelling correctly or writing appropriately and skillfully. All this is seen to be caused by new media such as smartphones. BUt young people today write far more than previous generations did: they post on social media and text every day. The only difference is that this writing culture is very informal and colloquial. Researchers however assume that one cannot simply state that this spoils their writing skills generally, most students are easily capable of code-switching from informal registers to a formal register appropriate for school.
Image Description | N/A

D'où vient l'acronyme Osef ?

(Where does the acronym Osef come from?)

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Newspaper | Le Figaro
Date | 15.12.2016
Language | French
Country | France
Topic Tags | hashtags, texting, Twitter, word/writing, youth
Summary | The term "osef" seems to be very popular among teenagers nowadays. It means "on s'en fout" (we don't care). The expression was born on Twitter and was preceded by a hashtag or mot-dièse (the English term won).
Image Description | N/A

«Jpp», «wtf», «oklm»... maîtrisez-vous le parler jeune?

("Jpp", "wtf", "oklm"... do you master teenagers' language?)

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Newspaper | Le Figaro
Date | 25.8.2016
Language | French
Country | France
Topic Tags | abbreviations, language threat, texting, youth
Summary | Young people tend to use a lot of words and abbreviations that are unintelligible, according to many parents and professors. Their language is very creative and is influenced by our ancestors' language. Writer Stéphane Ribeiro claims that young people's language is a melting pot; it is a mix of American and historical expressions. Moreover, the language used by today's youth has been influenced by new technologies and the texting culture. It is not a threat to the French language; language is constantly changing and evolving
Image Description | Photograph of five young people looking happy, screenshots of two tweets depicting the use of abbreviations, and "Top Wesh" video.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), text, Twitter

Das eigene Verhalten überdenken

(Reflect one’s own behavior)

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Newspaper | St. Galler Tagblatt
Date | 17.2.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | school, technology-free, texting, WhatsApp, youth
Summary | A Sunday school teacher reports that more and more younger people give up part of their multi-media consumption for lent instead of food. Many will for instance give up their use of WhatsApp, text messaging, or video games rather than food. This shows that youths think very critically about their consumption habits.
Image Description | N/A

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