Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 9
Posts 1 - 9

Are smartphones really making our children sad?

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 13.8.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, childhood, smartphone, threat, youth
Summary | Children's relationship with screens has become a contested topic; not everyone agrees with what should or shouldn't be done. Last week, the Atlantic published an excerpt of Jean Twenge's book (the Atlantic article was titled "Have smartphones destroyed a generation?"), which initiated very diverse reactions. Jean Twenge, who is an American pychologist, said that social media have a negative effect on young people. Twenger then answered some of her critics in this Guardian article.
Image Description | Photograph of a group of teenagers all staring at their phone or tablet.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone, tablet

AI in your earphones? The brave new world of hearables

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 29.6.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, smartphone
Summary | "Hearables" are earbuds/headphones that work with artificial intelligence. They can translate foreign languages, be personal assistants, or improve your hearing. In the future, we might even be able to get rid of our smartphones because earbuds will have anything we want.
Image Description | Photograph of a woman wearing earbuds.
Image Tags | headphones

'My electronic Swiss army knife': readers on 10 years of the iPhone

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 29.6.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | smartphone
Summary | Guardian readers talk about the smartphone/iPhone revolution. They explain their personal experiences with smartphones and digital devices and how they've changed their lives.
Image Description | Photographs of hands using smartphones, an egg, a hand holding a smartphone, and Steve Jobs holding a smartphone.
Image Tags | hand(s), male(s), smartphone

Technology can save lives, not just improve them

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 11.7.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | smartphone
Summary | Much has been said about the negative effects of new technologies. However, technology can save people's life. For instance, Bristol Braille Technology is an enterprise that created a braille electronic reader for blind people. Chatterbox is another tool that was created by a refugee in order to offer language tutoring. Within the "health" category, someone created a wireless sensor that makes physiotherapy exercises more fun, and someone created a tool to improve cancer diagnosis.
Image Description | Photographs of two men using a braille electronic reader, a man and a woman talking, and three women staring at a smartphone.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone

Want to captivate an audience like Obama? There's an app for that

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 14.7.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | smartphone
Summary | A new app called Orai allows speaker to improve their skills. The app uses artificial intelligence and gives users feedback about their public speaking skills.
Image Description | Portrait of Barack Obama speaking, and three iPhones.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone

Is it wrong to let my child play on my smartphone?

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 10.8.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, childhood, smartphone, technology-free
Summary | The author of the article sometimes feels guilty when she lets her 2-year old son play on a smartphone. When young children are glued to a screen, they are so captivated by what they're watching. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children younger than 2 should have no exposure to screens; it can hinder their language and social development/skills. The author of the article also claims that her kids already show characteristics of "addicted" behavior. For instance, they scream and are irascible if someone takes their screen away. She also says that what is dangerous is not so much when kids are on screens, but rather when parents are.
Image Description | Photograph of a kid using a smartphone next to an adult.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone

'Bring your own device': weighing up the business benefits

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 23.1.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | smartphone
Summary | Some businesses let their employees bring their own devices (e.g. laptop) at work. This is called BYOD (Bring your own device). This way, companies can save money, and it's also more convenient for employees to carry one device instead of two. In order to avoid any problems, companies that work with BYOD need to come up with good employee agreements, and use cloud-based services. The article also lists several examples of BYOD companies and explains the (dis)advantages of the method.
Image Description | Portraits of four men, and photograph of people's hands using a tablet, a smartphone, and a laptop.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, hand(s), male(s), smartphone, tablet

'They're collaborating all the time': the schools making the most of mobile

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 13.1.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | childhood, digitized education, school, smartphone, youth
Summary | Some schools are embracing the technological advancements influencing our everyday lives by incorporating them into their classes. Some classes have even become entirely paper-free! Not all, however, the learning tools are chosen so as to to help maximize students' learning. Students are already familiar and comfortable with most of the technology and it makes no sense to ban smartphones from classrooms if they can enhance learning.
Image Description | Two girls looking at a smartphone together.
Image Tags | female(s), school, smartphone

The five lessons I learned from breaking my smartphone

Hyperlink

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

Page 1 of 1