Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 21
Posts 11 - 20

Brauchen wir ein Emoji mit nicht-binärer Geschlechtsidentität?

(Do we need an emoji with a non-binary gender identity?)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 14.5.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | diversity, emojis, gender, research/study
Summary | A new package of emojis will be released soon. One of them represents a person who is neither entirely male nor female, i.e. of non-binary gender identity. It is questionable whether it is worthwhile to represent such a small minority, seeing that there is no redhead emoji either because only 2% of the global population are redheads. A linguist of the research project "What's Up, Germany?" however argues that having a gender inclusive emoji is sending a powerful sign and can affect society via language in the long-term.
Image Description | A Getty image of a woman vomiting a rainbow, a tweet about the gender inclusive emoji, and a few GIFs of celebrities.
Image Tags | emojis, female(s), gifs, male(s)

600 millions de dollars pour Giphy, le roi du «GIF»

(600 million dollars for Giphy, the king of "GIF")

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Newspaper | 24 heures
Date | 8.11.2016
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | GIFs
Summary | Several companies share the "GIF market", but one of them (Giphy) seems to stand out. GIF stands for "Graphics Interchange Format" and are very popular nowadays. They usually come from TV shows, movies, or animated movies.
Image Description | Screenshot of Giphy's website
Image Tags | gifs

Can a GIF Work Better Than Words?

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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

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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

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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

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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

Sechs Chat-Fehler, die dir schaden, ohne dass du es merkst

(Six chat mistakes you are making that you don't even know about)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 16.12.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | emojis, misunderstanding, research/study
Summary | Using emojis can be tricky. Firstly, they do not look the same on all devices. This can lead to misunderstandings because we interpret a lot in other people's emoji use. Researchers also advise people to use few if any emojis in work-related communication. One should entirely abstain from using emojis when communication with a superior or employee. One should also be mindful of how often one changes the profile picture and what one's profile picture depicts.
Image Description | A Getty image of a surprised woman and of a selfie, a Bollywood GIF, and a collection of emojis.
Image Tags | emojis, female(s), gifs, selfie

Dein iPhone kann etwas, das du nicht kennst...

(Your iPhone can do something that you don't know about...)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 23.2.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | (mental) health, emojis, smartphone
Summary | The iPhone has many features that you may not know about. You can create shortcuts to type your favorite emojis rather than search them manually on the keyboard. With a simple touch of the home button you can reorganize your screen so that when using your iPhone one-handedly even smaller hands can reach all content that would usually be at the top of the display.You can have Siri acoustically announce who is calling. To improve your selfies you can use the volume button on your headphones to take a picture from afar. Also, to avoid anxiety from lots of app notifications you can just deactivate those.
Image Description | Many screenshots and GIFs illustrating the directions and a Getty image of a woman 'blown away' while looking at her smartphone.
Image Tags | female(s), gifs, selfie, smartphone

One Small Step for NASA, One Giant Leap for GIFs

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 14.12.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | GIFs, social media
Summary | NASA is now providing GIFs of their video footage on giphy.com in order to meet the contemporary public on their channels: social media.GIFs are a poetically fitting medium to depict the movement of celestial objects - they are infinitely repetitive. GIFs have become central to online communication as a means to express strong emotions or stances. Some linguists say that GIFs are a more extreme version of emojis which are thought to replace body language in the digital realm.
Image Description | GIFs of a rocket taking off, an explosion in space, and some NASA employees cheering.
Image Tags | gifs

¿Le mandarías una foto desnudo a tu mejor amigo?

(Would you send a naked picture of yourself to your best friend?)

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Newspaper | El País
Date | 15.4.2016
Language | Spanish
Country | Spain
Topic Tags | sexting, texting
Summary | Human beings have three vital functions: communication, reproduction, and drinking/eating. Nowadays, people can satisfy these three functions online. Some might say that sharing naked pictures online is egocentric, but others try to normalize online nudity (e.g. with #FreeTheNipple and #Nutscapes). Another example is frexting (friends + texting); people send (half) naked pictures of themselves to friends instead of sending them to everyone on social media. Unlike popular beliefs, the author of the article found out that users who practice frexting can be males, females, and from different sexual orientations. Unlike sexting and the idealization of bodies, frexting is a way to go beyond the pressure of body representation. Frexting equals normalization and ridicule.
Image Description | Two photographs of frexting on social media: Paco Leon on Twitter, and Chelsea Handler on Instagram, and GIF of a naked woman (breasts and genitalia blurred).
Image Tags | female(s), gifs, male(s), social media

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