Number of Posts: 11
Posts 1 - 10
A Hunt for Ways to Combat Online Radicalization
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
Google’s Calendar Now Finds Spare Time and Fills It Up
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 13.4.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Google
Summary | The Google calendar now lets users enter personal goals like exercising, skill building, and me time which the artificial intelligence algorithm then feeds into the blanks in our calendar. Users can then check whether they have completed the goal at the time the calender suggested and based on that, the calender can learn which times are likely to work out for that particular user and which are not. Users can also connect their calender to a friend's calender to figure out when they both have a gap in their schedule to meet up.
Image Description | GIFs showing a smartphone showing the Google calendar at work.
Image Tags | gifs, Google, smartphone
Texting With Boys
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 10.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | gender, online dating, texting
Summary | The author loves how the digital age has changes dating enabling romantic interests to communicate mainly via text messages, despite the widespread opinion that cell phones have killed romance. However, many men prefer women to be good listeners in person and via text message and lose interest when women text them music and books recommendations.
Image Description | A GIF of the response being typed symbol known from messaging apps (speech bubble and ellipses).
Image Tags | gifs
Why Kids Can't Write
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 2.8.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | grammar, punctuation, school, smartphone, social media, spelling, texting, threat, word/writing
Summary | Many students struggle with writing despite various pedagogical models that have been implemented in past years to tackle that perpetual issue. This is all the more suprising considering that today's students may do moret voluntary writing than any generation before it. They text and post on social media a lot but the writing register is different there. The format's main principle is shortness so grammar, spelling, and punctuation take a back seat.
Image Description | GIF of a hand writing and a group of teachers in a workshop.
Image Tags | female(s), gifs, text
What Chatbots Reveal About Our Own Shortcomings
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 24.4.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, marketing, misunderstanding, threat, Twitter
Summary | Artificial intelligence is the new big thing but it is mostly geared towards commercial services like ordering pizza, etc. Microsoft for instance proudly announced that their AI assistant can now even understand slang inputs. But this way of learning from actual users has shown to be risky when Microsoft released their AI robot Tay on Twitter and people trolled them by teaching Tay offensive things.
Image Description | Illustration and a GIF of smartphones typing.
Image Tags | gifs, smartphone, text
Apple Opens the iMessage Door, and the Ephemera Rushes In
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 22.9.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | emojis, GIFs, word/writing
Summary | An Apple user of iMessage can now use different "tchotchkees" (e.g. GIFs, stickers, emojis) which dominate text messages whereas words are just "afterthought". Users can also throw confetti and balloons. Apple is trying to mimic what is out there on the internet.
Image Description | Screenshots of iMessage chats with words and stickers/emojis/GIFs/confetti, and screenshot of a tweet
Image Tags | emojis, gifs, text, Twitter
Can a GIF Work Better Than Words?
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 21.9.2015
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | emojis, GIFs, language threat, word/writing
Summary | An interviewee claims that using GIFs allows her to express complex feelings and emotions in a a couple seconds. GIFs are becoming more and more popular (i.e. on Facebook, Tumblr, etc.). Words and emojis are becoming old-fashioned.
Image Description | GIF representing three men looking at their smartphone.
Image Tags | gifs, male(s), smartphone
DNCE Confirms They Don’t Use Autocorrect
Newspaper | Huffington Post
Date | 18.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | autocorrect
Summary | The band members of DNCE joke about how their band name is not autocorrect friendly. None of their band name ideas were and many other musicians also do not use autocorrect friendly names. Essentially, autocorrect cannot keep up with contemporary communication because people are just more creative with language than any software could keep up with.
Image Description | Photograph of DNCE at a performance and a GIF of them posing on a red carpet.
Image Tags | female(s), gifs, male(s)
That time when ‘that time when’ took over the Internet #InstantNostalgia
Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 15.9.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | hashtags, research/study, social media
Summary | It has become customary to frame anecdotal posts on social media with the phrase "that time when" or "that akward moment when". Sometimes it is even used to describe events that have just happened, even though it is a formulation that suggests an old memory. This linguistic strategy thereby creates an air of nostalgia around the memory and makes it iconic. Linguists suggest that the usage of the demonstrative "that" suggests that sender and receiver of the message have shared memories. This is why many celebrities use this construction to create a false sense of intimacy with their fans online.
Image Description | GIF of a woman taking a selfie and posting it to social media.
Image Tags | female(s), gifs, smartphone, social media
Snap Makes a Bet on the Cultural Supremacy of the Camera
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 8.3.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | GIFs, language threat, Snapchat
Summary | Snapchat is showing us the future: communication is switching to more visual modes of communication such as photographs, videos, GIFs, funny filters. Linguist Gretchen McCulloch has argued that Snapchat filters constitute a new mode of phatic communication. We have seen the primacy of text gradually broken up in the past decade. This does not mean, however, that the written language will disappear altogether. Text is still very important for conveying accurate information concisely.
Image Description | GIF with anthropomorphic cameras and emojis dancing around.
Image Tags | camera, emojis, gifs
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