Number of Posts: 27
Posts 21 - 27
Dumbing Down the Phone for Children
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 12.12.2015
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | childhood, smartphone, threat, youth
Summary | Parents all face the problem of their children wishing for smartphones for christmas at some point. Often, parents feel that point arrives too early. There are some possibilities to ease children into new media use, by getting a "dumbphone" for instance which has no internet access. Even smartphones have settings for parental control where curfews can be set when the child/teenager is supposed to sleep and not be able to use the smartphone or to block social media or in-app purchases. It is irresponsible to give young children/teenagers full use of a smartphone but one should give them access to the digital sphere in steps, just as one does not start teaching a child how to cook by handing it all the sharp knives.
Image Description | Photograph of a family in front of christmas tree gathered around a smartphone.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone
Dear Doc, :-(
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 18.1.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, texting, youth
Summary | Physicians report that their children who are away at college frequently text them to ask about symptoms such as throat aches or send them images of their swollen toes, turf burns, or their roommates' rashes. Given the fact that today's teenagers conduct an increasing amount of their social interactions over their smartphones, it is not surprising that they would seek medical counsel through that medium as well. Hospitals are already looking into possibilities of diagnosing certain ailments via digital communication in order to expand medical coverage to remote areas.
Image Description | Illustration of a smartphone taking an x-ray of a foot.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone
To Text or Not to Text: A Dating Conundrum
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 28.1.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | misunderstanding, texting
Summary | A woman and a man meet, show interest in each other, and go on a date. After that they text for two months without ever seeing each other again face to face. The woman is upset that the man does not aske her out again but she cannot overcome traditional conventions about women not initiating a date. After two months she breaks up the non-relationship by saying that she does not need a penpal. Then the man invites her for dinner and they get married several years after.
Image Description | Illustration of a man and a woman with a giant smartphone separating them and the woman holding a chainsaw.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone
Autocorrect and the Tao of Texting
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 6.2.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | autocorrect, misunderstanding, texting
Summary | Most people are annoyed by the automatic correction (autocorrect) program installed on their smartphones by default. It changes typos in text messages but often misunderstand's the writer's intention. Autocorrect can feel like an uninvited content sabotage of one's messages. If we however did not have autocorrect, our messages would likely all be mistyped to the degree of non-intellegibility. Autocorrect, through its seeming random misunderstandings opens up opportunities for philosophic though or "gives voice to the voiceless" such as cats or babies playing with phones and autocorrect stepping in to 'translate'. So while autocorrect can be annoying, fun can be had with it as well.
Image Description | Illustration of one of the exemplified autocorrect mishaps: woman reading an autocorrected (visualized) message about a woman having had a bear attack (should have said heart attack).
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone
Married to Their Smartphones (Oh, and to Each Other, Too)
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 30.10.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | addiction, gender
Summary | Married couples increasingly report of marital disputes around smartphone use. Especially women feel devalued when their husbands give more attention to their smartphones rather than then. Marriage counsellors report that it is particularly problematic when spouses both use their smartphones in bed since it prevents emotional incimacy before going to sleep, as well as reducing the likelihood of physical intimacy.
Image Description | Illustration of a female and male smartphone on a marriage counselling couch.
Image Tags | emojis, smartphone, text
Branding the Smiley Face: Emoji as Corporate Tools
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 21.6.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | emojis, threat
Summary | Messenger designers are thinking about incorporating techniques to “emojify” one’s message. The keyboard would suggest appropriate emojis to replace certain words of the message. A central organization called Unicode, where all major smartphone companies have voting rights, decides on which new emojis will be added. This society is effectively deciding what is and what is not part of our visual language. The new emoji feature that Apple offers can hamper users' individual creativity and expression. By using the 'emojify' feature, we let big companies control people's ways to express themselves.
Image Description | Digital image of a collection of new emojis and photograph of an iPhone with a chat (with emojis) open.
Image Tags | emojis, smartphone
The end of reflection
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 12.6.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | addiction, brain, smartphone, threat
Summary | Because virtually everyone carries a smartphone with them all day, all previously unfilled down-time is now filled with looking at notifications, text-messaging, browsing social media, etc. These little periods of unoccupation were important for self-reflection and introspection rather than tweeting every mundane thought. Our brains are capable of changing according to our media use and we are unaware of just how intensively we use digital media.
Image Description | Illustration of the “Thinker”-Statue looking at a smartphone and illustration of a landscape with people chasing after smartphones.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone
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