Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 70
Posts 41 - 50

Cyberdépendance: quand le Web devient une maladie

(Cyberdependence: when the internet becomes an illnesss)

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Newspaper | La Tribune de Genève
Date | 17.1.2015
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, smartphone, threat
Summary | News media have been talking about cyberdependence for a few years. Is internet addiction a real thing? A doctor (chief of the "addiction" service at the HUG) claims that it is a pathology; patients have the same symptoms as alcoholics or drug addicts. Internet addicts are mostly young people, and they are addicted to a specific product (e.g. video games, social media, etc.). The dependence becomes a problem when it has an impact on family, friends, or work.
Image Description | N/A

Abus d'écrans, responsabilité de parents

(Screen abuse, parents' responsibility )

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Newspaper | Le Temps
Date | 31.1.2015
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | addiction, childhood, smartphone, technology-free, threat, youth
Summary | Parents keep complaining about the fact that their children are stuck to their digital devices. More and more households in Switzerland own several digital devices ("screens"), which has consequences on family relations. Indeed, screens hinder natural communication and create problems. Parents seem lost and don't know what to do. Some parents have specific rules: no phone during dinner, or no phone before going to school in the morning, or no more than 30 minutes a day. A psychiatrist claims that the main rule should be to always privilege people physically present around us, especially children.
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Comment j'ai survécu à...une semaine sans smartphone

(How I survived...a week without smartphone)

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Newspaper | La Tribune de Genève
Date | 18.7.2015
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | addiction, email, smartphone, technology-free
Summary | A journalist tried to live 7 days without her smartphone and talks about her experience. She might be part of the 20% of the Swiss addicted to their smartphone. People are addicted when they spend more time online than with their friends and family. This is not her case. She also realizes that with a smartphone, there is almost no separation between private and professional life; she can read her emails anytime. Without her smartphone, the journalist finds it difficult to organize her day: who is going to pick up the kids? At what time?
Image Description | Blurred photograph of a woman holding a phone; the person is blurred but the phone is in sharp focus.
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone

Le rêve éveillé chez les geeks

(Daydream for geeks)

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Newspaper | 24 heures
Date | 14.9.2015
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Summary | Smartphone addiction among young people can exasperate parents. Psychologists experts in this new field call this addiction "cyberaddiction" or "hyperconnectivity". It can have dangerous side effects for young geeks or nerds: isolation, irritability, school failure, etc. Sleep disorder is also a side effect of cyberaddiction: screens' artificial light prevent people from sleeping. They don't dream; they daydream.
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Jamais sans mon portable!

(Never without my cell phone!)

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Newspaper | 24 heures
Date | 21.2.2016
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | addiction, smartphone
Summary | Are people addicted to their smartphone? Is it bad or dangerous? Experts claims it is not a real addiction; doctors don't talk about "cell phone addictions". It is also a bad idea to use pathological terms when talking about new media uses (a selfie is narcissistic, Facebook is exhibitionist etc.). Why are people afraid to lose their phone or forget it at home? People are not attached to the object, but to its functionalities. Smartphones replace a lot of everyday objects (agenda, newspaper, etc.). Therefore, people can be anxious if they don't have their smartphone with them.
Image Description | Photograph of a young woman in bed using her smartphone.
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone

Des camps de désintox pour pour accros au smartphone

(Rehab camps for smartphone addicts)

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Newspaper | 24 heures
Date | 12.3.2016
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | addiction, brain, childhood, smartphone, technology-free, youth
Summary | South Korea is one of the most digitally connected countries. As a consequence, 1 out of 10 children is addicted to internet and other digital devices. Rehab camps for young internet addicts is supposed to help children live without digital devices. In those camps, children go hiking, play guitar, and read paper books. Rehab can be tough; it is almost the same process as for alcoholics or drug addicts. At the end of the camp, those young people know how to appreciate real life and have to find out what the causes of their escape to the virtual world are.
Image Description | Photograph of young people in South Korea playing video games in a room full of computers.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, game, male(s)

Le téléphone pleure de joie

(The phone is crying of joy)

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Newspaper | Le Matin
Date | 2.7.2016
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | addiction, smartphone
Summary | An American man and a smartphone became "husband and smartphone" in a chapel in Las Vegas. The man did that to condemn our society's addiction to digital devices such as smartphones.
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Les jeunes parlent romand

(Young people speak Romand (Swiss French))

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Newspaper | Le Matin
Date | 18.5.2016
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | emojis, research/study, texting, What's up Switzerland, WhatsApp
Summary | Interview with Federica Diémoz at the University of Neuchâtel. She talks about a study related to the different expressions used in the Swiss French part of Switzerland. People also use their local expressions in text messages. The "What's up Switzerland" project is going to analyze WhatsApp messages. From what researchers have observed so far, people sometimes use regional expressions and don't always write the same way. They also add emoticons and images that replace words.
Image Description | Photograph of the interviewee, Federica Diémoz.
Image Tags | female(s)

C'est tu, que tu le veuilles ou non

(It is 'you', whether you want it or not)

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Newspaper | Le Matin
Date | 30.7.2016
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | Facebook, politeness
Summary | A Migros customer complained because an employee from Migros used the "tu" form (familiar 'you') instead of "vous" (formal 'you') when replying to the customer on a Facebook post. The customer does not understand why a Migros employee would talk to her online using the "tu" form, as if there are only young people on social media. It might be one of Migros' strategies to get closer to its customers. Nevertheless, a cashier should not use "tu" when addressing a customer. The more 'light-hearted' tone of the internet does not mean one cannot be polite.
Image Description | Photograph of a Migros customer with shopping carts, and screenshot of a Facebook chat between an employee and a customer.
Image Tags | Facebook, female(s)

Un festival bannit les téléphones portables

(A festival banned cell phones)

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Newspaper | 20 minutes
Date | 27.5.2016
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | addiction, smartphone, technology-free, youth
Summary | A small festival in Zug decided to ban cell phones so that people can enjoy the festival and live the "present". Smartphones are useful, but it is annoying when people spend most of their time on them. This new rule is a good marketing strategy; it allows the festival to be noticed. However, the restriction couldn't be applied to other big festival such as Paleo Festival or Montreux Jazz Festival.
Image Description | Series of four photographs portraying young people and shots of the festival layout.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone

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