Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 15
Posts 1 - 10

One in four girls have depression by the time they hit 14, study reveals

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 20.9.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, gender, research/study, social media, threat
Summary | According to a new study, about 24% of teenage girls (and about 9% of boys) are depressed, which has led people to ask whether social media and issues related to body image have an impact on teenagers' health. It seems that today's girls are facing more mental health problems that previous generations.
Image Description | Photograph of a girl sitting on a deck.
Image Tags | female(s)

Growing social media backlash among young people, survey shows

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 5.10.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, cyberbullying, research/study, social media, technology-free, threat, youth
Summary | Two out of three pupils claim they would not care if there was no social media. According to the survey, young people are aware of the negative effects of new technologies on their lives and mental health. Some of them said that they had been victims of online abuse, that they were addicted, or/and that they felt less confident. Other pupils talked about the positive aspects of new technologies and social media (e.g. memes, Snapchat stories) and what improvements they would like to see. At a private boarding school for girls, pupils tried a new experiment: hand over their phones for three days. The girls liked the experiences and would like to do it again for a longer period.
Image Description | Photograph of someone (whose face is cut off) sitting on a bed and using/looking at a laptop.
Image Tags | computer/laptop

A Hunt for Ways to Combat Online Radicalization

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 23.8.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Google, research/study, social media, threat, YouTube
Summary | Social media companies have only recently begun waking up to the fact that their unpoliced platforms are safe spaces for all kinds of extremism. Studies show that extremists nowadays get radicalized online, whether they be islamists or white supremacists. While these two movements may differ in ideologies, they resemble each otehr very strongly in their internet strategies of recruitment and organization of offline events. A research group at Google has now come up with a diversion strategy to combat the radicalization of individuals online. They target people who watch extremist recruitment videos on YouTube with video suggestions that present differing arguments and the downsides of that ideology. So far, there can be no knowing whether this strategy is helping but the redirection videos are being watched.
Image Description | GIF with mouse cursor arrows: black arrows surrounding a white arrow.
Image Tags | gifs

Popular People Live Longer

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 1.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, research/study, social media
Summary | Resent research has shown that popularity significantly improves one's longevity due to many genetic, psychological, and evolutionary reasons. This may explain why so many people value their popularity on social media, i.e. how many followers, retweets, or likes they get. That is however not the kind of popularity that significantly improves one's chances at a long life. That requires a stable and large social surrounding with nurturing relationships.
Image Description | Illustration of a tombstone saying "not enough likes" with a thumbs down symbol.
Image Tags | emojis, Facebook

How can women build better friendships? Start with the right words.

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 11.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | research/study, social media, texting, threat
Summary | Linguist Deborah Tannen has just published her latest book about how women build their friendships through language. Communicating with friends and negotiating the terms of the friendship is fraught with risks especially now that social media lets one know exactly when one is being exluded from group activities. Texting also complicates our friendships.
Image Description | N/A

Comment le langage évolue sur les réseaux sociaux?

(How does language evolve on social networks?)

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Newspaper | Les Echos
Date | 7.5.2017
Language | French
Country | France
Topic Tags | research/study, social media
Summary | Researchers have started a new study on social media language. Since the beginning of social networks, language has evolved/changed with the use of emojis, gifs and "memes". A team of researchers from different French-speaking countries (France, Belgium, Switzerland and Quebec) decided to study social media language by collecting Facebook, WhatsAapp, or Viber discussions. Researchers need a lot of users to share their private conversations. The goal is to attract between 5000 and 10000 Internet users.
Image Description | N/A

Jekyll, Hyde y Facebook

(Jekyll, Hyde and Facebook)

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Newspaper | El País
Date | 15.5.2017
Language | Spanish
Country | Spain
Topic Tags | research/study, social media, threat, virtual reality
Summary | The idea of dissociative personality (or multiple personality) has been exploited in various novels, comics and movies (e.g. Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, Hulk, The Mask, Mrs. Doubtfire). With the advance of virtual reality, the issue of dissociative personality will be more and more apparent, especially with social networks. The version of ourselves that we display online is a better version of ourselves. Our online clones represent what we would like to be.
Image Description | Photograph of Mark Zuckerberg
Image Tags | male(s)

“Facebook no teme a los Gobiernos, pero sí a perder a sus usuarios”

("Facebook is not afraid of governments, but is afraid of losing its users")

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Newspaper | El País
Date | 17.5.2017
Language | Spanish
Country | Spain
Topic Tags | censorship, privacy, research/study, social media, threat
Summary | Interview of the historian and journalist Timothy Garton. He talks about people's use of internet and how they can spread lies and truths. Private data, lies, truths, vigilance, and hatred circulate online. Garton claims that regarding freedom of speech, things are worse than before. According to Garton, it is part of what he calls a global anti-liberal counterrevolution. The enemies of freedom of speech are: states, and private superpowers such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon, Apple. Indeed, they also control what we see and do not see. When states and those superpowers come together, things can become dangerous.
Image Description | Photograph of Timothy Garton
Image Tags | male(s)

Redes sociales en las primarias del PSOE: una competición desigual

(Social networks in the PSOE primaries: an uneven competition)

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Newspaper | El País
Date | 21.5.2017
Language | Spanish
Country | Spain
Topic Tags | hashtags, politics, research/study, social media, Twitter
Summary | The PSOE candidates in Spain use social media differently in their campaign. Sánchez knows the language of social networks very well and knows how to use them. He is the most active candidate on social media. Lopez was the first one to have a Twitter account and uses the social network intensively. However, he doesn't use the network the same way Sanchez uses it. Díaz only posted 670 tweets and has 115000 followers. Moreover, her language is not actualized; she uses the at sign @ too much. A study analyzed the online community of the candidates. When Díaz started using the hashtag #100por100PSOE, some people started attacking and criticizing her using the same hashtag. There are also multiple analytical tools that show different statistics regarding the candidates and their online campaign.
Image Description | Screenshots of the three candidates' Twitter profiles, and five different charts/graphs related to the candidates and their online campaign
Image Tags | chart, female(s), male(s), Twitter

Instagram, la peor red para la salud mental de los adolescentes

(Instagram, the worst social network for adolescents' mental health)

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Newspaper | El País
Date | 21.5.2017
Language | Spanish
Country | Spain
Topic Tags | (mental) health, Instagram, research/study, social media, youth
Summary | According to a British study, Instagram can have a negative impact on its users. Young people who spend more than two hours a day on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook or Instagram are more likely to suffer from mental health problems, especially anxiety and depression. One of the respondents said that Instagram easily makes girls and women feel as though their bodies are not good enough, so they add filters and edit their images to look perfect.
Image Description | Photographs of someone taking a picture of two girls
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), smartphone

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