Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 17
Posts 1 - 10

Ban mobile phones in schools to protect pupils' mental health

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 26.9.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, childhood, school, smartphone, threat
Summary | According to Shannon Turner, schools should ban smartphones to protect their pupils. Screens and social media can have a negative impact on children's health, which is why some schools have already put in place new rules (e.g. give children 6 hours of digital-free time).
Image Description | Photograph of two pupils in a classroom; one of them is showing her friend a smartphone and the other is giggling.
Image Tags | female(s), school, smartphone

Five of the best brain-training apps

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 23.3.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, smartphone
Summary | Brain-training apps are very popular. Here is a list of the best apps: Peak, Elevate, Luminosity, Fit brains trainer, and Cognito.
Image Description | Digital image of a brain, and five screeshots of the five apps.
Image Tags | smartphone

New ideas for treating concussions

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 12.4.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, smartphone, texting
Summary | Doctors are looking into new ways to treat concussions and one of those ways is to stop texting or using a smartphone. Concussion-related headaches are often visually triggered so staring at a screen for hours like many people routinely do does not help heal from a concussion.
Image Description | Hands of a woman placing a football helmet on a boy's head.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), male(s)

Maybe a new frontier in medicine: Ask patient, 'How are you feeling?'

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 12.4.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, smartphone
Summary | Medicine is using new technologies to enhance the treatment of patients. This is especially useful for patients of chronic illnesses because they can track their health parameters, moods, pain levels on their smartphones and then share this data with their physicians.
Image Description | N/A

In a crisis? Don't count on Siri, Google, Cortana

Hyperlink

Newspaper | USA Today
Date | 17.3.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, artificial intelligence, research/study, smartphone, threat
Summary | Researchers have tested various artificial intelligence smartphone assistants with how they respond to crises. The results were very poor. Most AI assistants could not handle clear indications of a crisis like "I was raped" and just offered web searches. Experts think AI assistants could potentially be a great help in a crisis because people might more easily open up to their smartphones than to another person.
Image Description | N/A

Hey Siri, Can I Rely on You in a Crisis? Not Always, a Study Finds

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 14.3.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, artificial intelligence, research/study, smartphone, threat
Summary | Researchers have tested various artificial intelligence assistants like Siri and Cortana to see how they respond to emergencies. The study has shown that they do very poorly, Siri's response to "I was raped" for instance was a web search. Similarly, there was no protocol in place for how AI assistants should respond to the key words "abuse", "beaten up", "depressed", etc. Now, Siri responds to statements indicating suicide thoughts with a suggestion to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
Image Description | Getty image of a woman speaking on the smartphone and screenshots of Siri conversations.
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone

At C.D.C., a Debate Behind Recommendations on Cellphone Risk

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 1.1.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | (mental) health, brain, childhood, research/study, smartphone, threat
Summary | A controversy has sparked over the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's health recommendation regarding cell phones. They had reviewed research on brain tumor risk connected with cell phone use and decided that the data were not convincing enough. Their recommendation was that cell phone users need not be more cautious with cell phones than other daily lifestyle choices. However, the research is also not extensive enough to disprove an increased risk of brain tumor with high rates of cell phone use, especially for children. In response to the backlash to this recommendation, their stance was revised a few times so that it now states that the C.D.C. does not recommend caution but other organizations do.
Image Description | Reuters image of a crowd and one man speaking on the smartphone.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone

Peut-on vivre sans écrans?

(Can we live without screens?)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Le Figaro
Date | 13.5.2016
Language | French
Country | France
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, smartphone, technology-free
Summary | In the past few years, new technologies have been spreading so fast. We use our smartphone everywhere (restaurant, bathroom, street). A few French people decided to unplug for an hour, a weekend, or their whole life. Marie Bezou says that she felt free when she gave up her phone. People who try to regulate their use of digital devices are rare. A 16-year old girl claims that she doesn't use her phone very often, unlike other young people who are hyperconnected. People who own a smartphone look at their device about 150 times a day.
Image Description | N/A

Heute: Dazugehören

(Today: Belonging)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 16.8.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | (mental) health, smartphone, social media, WhatsApp, youth
Summary | The internet has brought humanity, especially younger generations a lot of stress. A lot more information is now available, for instance about what one could do, and that leads to a fear of missing out on something. People constantly have to check their smartphones so as not to miss a new viral video or a new thread in their WhatsApp chat about changing group hangout plans.
Image Description | N/A

Elf neue Wörter, die wir dringend brauchen

(Eleven new words that we need urgently)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Welt
Date | 1.9.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | (mental) health, smartphone, word/writing
Summary | Our language cannot keep up with technological innovations and other changes. There are dozens of new scenarios that have no name and urgently need one. For instance the shame parents feel when their children join an idiotic fad like Pokémon Go or the neck deformation our generation will have from staring at a smartphone all our lives. Another discrepancy is that we have no catchy name for involuntary images taken of floors or the insides of our pockets. We also new words to describe intersex people or stretched out ears after a lifetime of ear-gaging.
Image Description | Getty Images of a woman with ear gages and a transgender person.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, female(s), male(s), smartphone

Page 1 of 2
Back | Next