Number of Posts: 14
Posts 1 - 10
Twitter testing longer tweets to boost its appeal
Newspaper | Los Angeles Times
Date | 27.9.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | social media, Twitter
Summary | Twitter announced a new test: they are going to try to let a group of users tweet with a limit of 280 characters. Twitter's current limit (140 characters) was actually based on the SMS, but now many Twitter users feel constrained by the current limit. Twitter thus hopes the new limit of 280 characters will make things easier for users. Twitter has struggled to remain competitive next to Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook; they all offer other attractive features.
Image Description | N/A
Caricatures become an obsession
Newspaper | Los Angeles Times
Date | 14.9.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | smartphone, virtual reality
Summary | Bitmoji is an app that allows users to create avatars of themselves. Bitmoji images are funny and absurd, which is why the app has become so popular. 3D Bitmoji World Lenses allows users to create 3D Bitmojis in the real world; they can select specific scenes through their smartphone, and it looks like Bitmoji avatars are interacting with their environment. Jacob Blackstock claims that it is important to have a digital extension of oneself. Also, based on a focus group study with teenagers, users want diversity. Moreover, they like the app because it offers a kind of lightheartedness that they can't find elsewhere.
Image Description | Screenshot of Bitmoji World Lenses, and series of different Bitmojis.
Bizarre tweet, weird explanation
Newspaper | Los Angeles Times
Date | 1.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | politics, Twitter
Summary | President Trump's latest Tweet seems to be interrupted mid-sentence featuring a mistyped word: "covfefe". The news media have been reporting about covfefe for hours with millions of people cracking jokes about it on Twitter and other social media. This alleged mistake (which was taken down after five hours) managed to dominate the political discourse in the US rather than any actual pressing issues like the Presidents possible ties to Russia.
Image Description | Sean Spicer at a press conference and Donald Trumps Twitter feed.
Image Tags | male(s), Twitter
A hunt for militants at a key location: the Internet
Newspaper | Los Angeles Times
Date | 6.5.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Facebook, law, texting, threat, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube
Summary | The EU's police organization as well as the US government are targeting IS material online in their battle against terrorism. Attempts to intercept communication via encrypted instant messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram have failed. The IS also uploads video and other content to YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. These social media platforms report to have deleted hundreds of thousands of entries linken to the IS.
Image Description | Portrait of a high profile IS member.
Image Tags | male(s)
Listen up, coaches: Your players might be recording your every word -- to use against you
Newspaper | Los Angeles Times
Date | 28.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | privacy, school, smartphone, threat, word/writing
Summary | A high school sports coach has recently been fired because he was secretly recorded while speaking to his team. The record alluded to physical violence - which he corrected in the recorded speech as a mere metaphor, not an actual recommendation - and inappropriate words. It is not entirely clear whether the student was allowed to record the conversation because a locker room speech is not technically in a classroom and was not explicitly classified as private. Coaches need to be aware that there is no privacy with smartphones everywhere.
Image Description | N/A
I swiped right and got a life coach, not a life partner
Newspaper | Los Angeles Times
Date | 6.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, online dating, smartphone, social media
Summary | The author of the article met a life coach/texting buddy on Tinder. They have now been texting each other for two years, and they have never met. Her life coach, a young Syrian man, regularly gives her tips about relaxation, meditation, and breathing. She likes the fact that her "therapist" is digitally accessible 24 hours a day.
Image Description | Illustration of a laptop and two hands touching each other
Image Tags | computer/laptop, hand(s), keyboard
Happy birthday, iPhone: Ten years later, Steve Jobs' creation owns us
Newspaper | Los Angeles Times
Date | 21.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | smartphone, texting
Summary | The first iPhone became available to the public in June 2007; ten years later, the iPhone owns us and represents our capitalist society. When Jobs presented the first iPhone in San Francisco in 2007, he knew he was going to make a revolution. The author of the article owned a Blackberry but decided to buy an iPhone. With the iPhone, she thought it was hard to write long emails, and found it easier to use abbreviations and emojis. She also started taking too many pictures. When comparing the iPhone with other smartphones, Steve Jobs used to say that it was way smarter. The author agrees with Apple's philosophy "We are smarter so you can be dumber".
Image Description | Photograph of Steve Jobs holding an iPhone
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone
Chinese social media sites lit up with grief for dissident Liu Xiaobo, but not for long
Newspaper | Los Angeles Times
Date | 15.7.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | censorship, politics, social media
Summary | Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace laureate, just died. Many Chinese people expressed their sympathy and grief online, but the government tried to censor those comments. Most Chinese citizens don't know the dissident's name. On Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter, the government deleted pictures of Liu and his wife.
Image Description | N/A
The Emoji Movie's' trip through a smartphone world lacks imagination
Newspaper | Los Angeles Times
Date | 28.7.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | emojis, smartphone, technology-free, word/writing
Summary | The new Emoji movie is like its main character: "meh". The story is unimaginative and pretty obvious. People should try to spend those 86 minutes outside, reading a book, or talking face-to-face to another person instead of watching this movie.
Image Description | N/A
Eager crowds are flattening Southern California's vibrant 'super bloom'
Newspaper | Los Angeles Times
Date | 6.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Instagram, social media, threat, Twitter
Summary | Rare rainfalls in California have cause the 'super-bloom' in the deserts, drawing thousands of visitors to the national parks. This is the first time social media has had such a huge impact on visitor numbers: people are eagerly Instagramming the admittedly photogenic natural phenomenon. The only problem is that people are breaking park rules in order to get a good picture: many are straying off the tracks, trampling the delicate flowers. People have posted pictures of themseves with wildflower bouquet and lying or sitting on top of the flowers. Not all parks have this problem, but some people are destroying the flora just to get a good Instagram post.
Image Description | Photographs of the superbloom off of Twitter.
Image Tags | Twitter
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