Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 65
Posts 41 - 50

Sprich mit dem Bot

(Talk to the bot)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 31.3.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, threat, Twitter
Summary | Most big tech companies seem to agree: chatbots are the future. They mean a move from downloading several apps to using just one app that incorporates services (chatbots) from third parties. These third party services are accessible through a conversational interface: chatting with a bot. Artificial intelligence research is making huge strides but is still faulty as the Tay debacle showed. Microsoft let their AI chatbot Tay loose on Twitter to learn how people actually speak. What Tay learned however was mostly racist and otherwise inappropriate so the experiment was ended prematurely.
Image Description | Reuters image of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
Image Tags | male(s)

Papst gibt auf Instagram Einblicke in sein Leben

(The pope gives insights into his life on Instagram)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 20.3.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | Instagram
Summary | Pope Francis is the first pope to create an Instagram account. He was known to appreciate digital communication and images as very powerful media to engage with one another. To create his account, he even received a visit from the CEO of Instagram.
Image Description | Pope Francis' Instagram posts (a picture and a video) and one Instagram post about it by Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom.
Image Tags | Instagram, male(s)

Datenverbrauch von Flüchtlingen übersteigt den von Airports

(Mobile data usage of refugees is greater than an airport's )

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 19.2.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | politics, smartphone
Summary | Refugees depend on their smartphones to access critical information and to stay in touch with their loved ones back home. This is why refugee shelter's number one request is that they offer the refugees broadband internet access. There is a huge telecommunications business catering to refugees' needs, offering the prepaid SIM cards and data packets for which they do not need a stable address.
Image Description | Two refugees in a shelter using a smartphone.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone

Da hilft auch das Internet nicht

(The internet won't help with that)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 18.1.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | digitized education, politics, smartphone, threat
Summary | The access to internet has been declared a basic human right because it was thought that the internet is the only way to access unbiased information that may be censored elsewhere. While it is true that the internet opens up a flood of information unavailable outside of it, it does not guarantee that people become less biased or more tolerant. This is exemplified by the clash of cultures which happened on New Year's Eve in Cologne where foreign refugees sexually harrassed German women publicly despite all having had smartphones and thus access to the internet which could have taught them that this is inappropriate behavior in Germany.
Image Description | Portrait of the author.
Image Tags | male(s)

"Heute wird einfach gute Stimmung gemacht"

("Nowadays, it's all about creating a good mood")

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 6.6.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | emojis, politics, selfie, Snapchat, social media
Summary | Selfies on social media can have huge currency. They serve celebrities and politicians to style themselves as down-to-earth. Taylor Swift further includes cats in her selfies for the additional cuteness factor. Angela Merkel's selfie with a refugee has served to send the message that refugees are welcome in Germany. Selfies can also be seen as inspired by emojis; people mimick the facial expressions or use a Snapchat filter to emulate emojis.
Image Description | Portrait of the interviewee holding a smiley balloon.
Image Tags | emojis, male(s)

Die Frau, die ungewollt mit Emojis ein Haus mietete

(The woman who inadvertently rented a house with emojis)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 24.5.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | emojis, language threat, law, misunderstanding
Summary | The debate around whether emojis count as words or seriously meaningful content is very heated - not only in academics but also in law. The Oxford English dictionary only reheated that fire by choosing an emoji as word of the year. Multiple law cases have centered on misunderstandings around emoji use, most recently a case where a woman indicated interest in renting a house with emojis (flamenco dancer, dancer girls, squirrel, comet, a victory sign, and a bottle of Champagne). The house owner sued her for using misleading emojis after she decided not to rent the house after all.
Image Description | An image of a woman's hand holding a smartphone and picking out an emoji and a portrait of the Israely judge who worked on the emoji case.
Image Tags | emojis, female(s), hand(s), male(s), smartphone

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)

Elf neue Wörter, die wir dringend brauchen

(Eleven new words that we need urgently)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 1.9.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | (mental) health, smartphone, word/writing
Summary | Our language cannot keep up with technological innovations and other changes. There are dozens of new scenarios that have no name and urgently need one. For instance the shame parents feel when their children join an idiotic fad like Pokémon Go or the neck deformation our generation will have from staring at a smartphone all our lives. Another discrepancy is that we have no catchy name for involuntary images taken of floors or the insides of our pockets. We also new words to describe intersex people or stretched out ears after a lifetime of ear-gaging.
Image Description | Getty Images of a woman with ear gages and a transgender person.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, female(s), male(s), smartphone

Sag noch einmal Wasserpistole!

(Say water pistol one more time!)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 2.8.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | emojis, politics, threat
Summary | Apple will replace the pistol emoji with a water pistol emoji as a political statement. Apple has been known to take political sides but it is questionable whether censoring guns will help any cause, especially because the bomb, sword, and knife emojis are not being removed.
Image Description | A photoshopped scene from Pulp Fiction showing Samuel L. Jackson pointing a water pistol emoji.
Image Tags | emojis, male(s)

Das Internet der letzten Dinge

(The Internet of the last things)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 26.6.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | social media, texting
Summary | We now leave much more behind than previous generations. We document large parts of our mundane and sometimes staged life online on various social media platforms. Most Young adults today have an average of six social media profiles. All those are very complicated to delete post-mortem.
Image Description | A Photocase Image of various Polaroid pictures.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

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