Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 8
Posts 1 - 8

Has tech ruined our relationship with time?

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Newspaper | Telegraph
Date | 29.9.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | smartphone, technology-free
Summary | When the Oxford University Press revealed a list of the most commonly used nouns, number one was "time". Our lives seem to be dominated by (digital) clocks. If you take a look at available smartphone apps, you'll notice that they are designed to save us time. The author of the article wrote a book about people's obssesion with time. It is now almost impossible to experience time independently of technology.
Image Description | Photograph of an arm and a smart watch, and people gathered under the Waterloo station clock
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), male(s)

The science behind why you shouldn't take your phone on holiday

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Newspaper | Telegraph
Date | 28.4.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | addiction, smartphone, technology-free, threat
Summary | We take our smartphones with us everywhere, including when we go on vacation. However, smartphones can become a distraction. The articles lists several reasons why people should leave their phone at home and enjoy their vacation: for instance, holidays are good and technology can lead to a lot of problems and dangers, you want to relax and soak up the artmosphere, you want to avoid unimportant trivia, you want to bond with other people, you want to avoid wasting time, you want to leave with the best memories.
Image Description | Photograph of a group of young people taking a selfie, two hands holding a smartphone and taking a picture of a landscape, four young people on their digital devices, man holding a phone and looking at it,
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), male(s), selfie, smartphone

Why are computers such a darned pain to use?

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Newspaper | Telegraph
Date | 16.1.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | research/study, technology-free, threat
Summary | The author talks about her mother who never got online. She rejected everything related to new technology. A BBC survey showed that older people who don't want to use the internet are worried when they see that people are prioritizing online content over more traditional broadcasting. Banks or newspapers should nevertheless take into account people that feel left behind because they can't or don't want to get online. With new media, there is something new every month, and other things become out of date quickly.
Image Description | Two hands on a laptop keyboard, vintage radio, collage of four new technologies, and chart of UK's five tech types
Image Tags | computer/laptop, hand(s), keyboard

Quand le smartphone fait de l'ombre au bébé

(When smartphones eclipse babies)

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Newspaper | La Tribune de Genève
Date | 13.6.2017
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, childhood, smartphone, technology-free, threat
Summary | More and more parents take a lot of pictures of their newborn before holding him/her for the first time. As a result, a hospital in the Swiss German part of Switzerland decided to impose a new rule: no screen during mother-baby nap. The problem especially affects the younger generation (under 30). Parents seem to pay more attention to their smartphone, which is alarming. For instance, mothers post pictures of themselves in labor. There are no special rules in Geneva, but doctors and midwives are thinking about alternatives. An excessive use of smartphones can also have a negative impact on children's development.
Image Description | Photograph of a hand taking a picture of a newborn with a smartphone
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone

How To Completely Unplug From Your Smartphone For An Entire Day

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Newspaper | Huffington Post
Date | 3.6.2015
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | addiction, research/study, technology-free
Summary | We are all a little addicted to our technological devices and are so used to spending all spare time we have on our smartphones. It is however greatly beneficial to our body and mind to unplug completely for a day. We may not be able to fathom what we could do will all that time without technological devices but the author provides a long list of possible activities: cooking a well-balanced breakfast, reading an actual print newspaper or book, exercising, cleaning up, taking up a craft, playing with one's pets, meeting friends, or going on a day trip to explore.
Image Description | Getty images of people doing the suggested activities and one of a person photographing a sunset on their smartphone (described by tags).
Image Tags | camera, female(s), hand(s), smartphone

The five lessons I learned from breaking my smartphone

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 24.1.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | brain, research/study, smartphone, technology-free
Summary | After dropping her smartphone in the sink, the author lives without one for six weeks and discovers that she sleeps better without a smartphone, enjoys being unavailable, few things need to be tended to urgently, that she spends less money, and her memory suffers from having a smartphone. Studies have also confirmed that it is detrimental to one's sleep pattern to sleep next to a smartphone because notifications release dopamin in the brain similarly to a nicotine or recreational drug addiction. She values the time she now has to just not be available for messages from work because we tend to respond to any and all messages as if they were urgent when really they are not. The author reports to spend less money because she can no longer do online shopping on the go without a smartphone. She has also realized how dependent on Google she has become. Neurological studies confirm that our brains are adapting to the constant accessibility of all information by remembering how to find it and googling again if necessary rather than remembering the little snippets of information.
Image Description | Getty image of a woman's hands holding a smartphone.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), smartphone

Does quitting social media make you happier? Yes, say young people doing it

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 21.9.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, Facebook, social media, technology-free, youth
Summary | Interview with young people who decided to quit social media; they explain why. They mostly talk about deleting their Facebook account and how better they feel now. Some of them report feeling less depressed, happier, free, more productive, and enjoying meeting their friends face-to-face. Having a Facebook account was a lot of pressure for them; they didn't like the idea of having to report everything on the platform, to read articles they were not interested in, or to wait for other people's approval or "like".
Image Description | Series of three photographs: close up shot of hands holding smartphones, Snapchat icon, and Twitter app.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone, Snapchat, Twitter

"Je suis accro aux jeux sur smartphone"

("I am addicted to smartphone games")

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Newspaper | 24 heures
Date | 11.5.2014
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | addiction, smartphone, technology-free, threat
Summary | Anne is a 40-year old mom and she was addicted to the game Candy Crush. She used to spend most of her time online to play that game; she would even play instead of spending time with her family. Then, one day, she saw a TV show where two women were sitting at the kitchen table and were both on their phone without talking. Anne realized that she had made a huge mistake. She went back to real life and felt much better. Now she realizes how unhealthy her life was.
Image Description | Photograph of two hands playing Candy Crush on a smartphone.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone

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