Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 79
Posts 61 - 70

Schulen verbieten Handys – sogar während Pausen

(Schools prohibit mobile phones – even during recess)

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Newspaper | 20 Minuten
Date | 11.9.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | digitized education, school, smartphone, technology-free
Summary | Several Swiss schools are prohibiting smartphone use at school, even outside of classes. Apparently, teachers think that students are no longer interacting with one another. This ban clearly clashes with the Swiss German curriculum reform “Lehrplan 21” which plans to occasionally introduce smartphone use in the classroom for school assignments. It does not make sense for a few schools to refuse to acknowledge what is now a reality, namely that people now frequently use their smartphones to communicate rather than talking face-to-face.
Image Description | Series of four photographs: group of teenagers sitting together and using their smartphone, and three portraits of male interviewees.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone

Digitale Überdosis lässt Jugendliche abstürzen

(Digital overdose brings about the downfall of the youth)

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Newspaper | 20 Minuten
Date | 5.7.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Summary | A lot of young people are overwhelmed with the omnipresent internet access and pressure for constant availability. The quick style of digital communication is affecting their speech competence in face-to-face encounters. While many of them can develop a pragmatic relationship with new media, others cannot cope well with the addictive aspect of new media (e.g. games) and suffer from a lack of concentration. In order to prevent any negative outcomes, it is important for children to have role-models (i.e. parents) who are not constantly attached to their smartphone.
Image Description | Series of nine photographs: young female looking at ther smartphone, portraits of males and females interviewees, and pictures of indoor settings.
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone

BTDTGTTSAWIO – das FBI erklärt Slang

(BTDTGTTSAWIO – the FBI explains slang)

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Newspaper | Der Bund
Date | 19.6.2014
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | abbreviations, childhood, texting, youth
Summary | The FBI has published a list of social media/messaging app abbreviations which helps them in their hunt for criminals and which could help the broader public to keep an eye on their children. Some of these abbreviations are: SOMSW (someone over my shoulder watching), NIFOC (naked in front of computer), and BTDTGTTSAWIO (been there, done that, got the t-shirt and wore it out). The FBI’s publication has been criticized for being irrelevant because these abbreviations are rarely used.
Image Description | Photograph of a hand holding a smartphone and texting. Photograph of a hand holding a smartphone and texting.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone, text

Versetzt Whatsapp dem E-Mail den Todesstoss?

(Is WhatsApp giving the e-mail the death blow?)

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Newspaper | Der Bund
Date | 23.10.2015
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | email, threat, WhatsApp
Summary | A rumor is going around that WhatsApp is planning to introduce a document sharing function into the app. This way, Word or PDF documents could be sent through WhatsApp rather than other channels. This might mean the death of emails, a media that already counts as old-fashioned.
Image Description | Photograph of a hand holding a smartphone where there are four social media icons.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone, social media

Statt Whatsapp bitte wieder den Telefonalarm

(Instead of WhatsApp please bring back the telephone chain)

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Newspaper | Der Bund
Date | 1.3.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | WhatsApp
Summary | WhatsApp group chats are convenient to spread messages quickly. The only problem is that all members can contribute to a WhatsApp chat, and if everybody responds to an announcement, these group chats can get very annoying because one gets notified of everyone's contribution.
Image Description | Photograph of an adult male looking at his smartphone.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone

Schriftliche Forschheiten: Vom Niedergang der Höflichkeit

(Written briskness: On the demise of politeness)

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Newspaper | Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ)
Date | 1.9.2014
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | email, language threat, politeness, school, texting, WhatsApp, word/writing
Summary | Communication researchers agree that politeness in professional writing has decreased with the rise of digital communication. Rules of formal writing are omitted: what was“Honored Professor So-and-so” is now a simple “Hello”. Both students and also professors are reported to have a relaxed level of formality in email exchanges. This is usually seen as an influence of texting, where traditional messages of respect are omitted, but it can also be argued that the new brief communication style is a form of respecting the addressee’s time by writing efficiently.
Image Description | Photograph of a female texting; the shot does not show the person's face but emphasizes the phone.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), smartphone, text

Digitale Bilderflut: Raubt uns nicht die Phantasie!

(Digital image flood: Don’t rob us of our imagination!)

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Newspaper | Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ)
Date | 9.7.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | language threat, WhatsApp
Summary | New messaging apps make it really easy to send snapshots and users have increasingly conventionalized the inclusion of image material in their messages. The image material is usually a quick snap of the situation the sender is in (morning coffee, etc.) or of something the sender is messaging about (herb garden, etc.), as if to provide evidence of their actually experiencing/doing something. Some voices now proclaim the replacement of language by images but the same prognosis was made in the mid-19th century when postcards were invented. What might suffer by our inflationary sharing of photographs is our imagination.
Image Description | Photograph of adults taking pictures of the Mona Lisa; the shot mostly shows hands and three smartphones.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone

Teenager: Vom Handy um den Schlaf gebracht

(Teenagers: Kept from sleeping because of cell phone)

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Newspaper | Beobachter
Date | 29.5.2014
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | childhood, smartphone, threat, youth
Summary | Smartphones or other screens should not be part of the going to sleep routine because the light emitted by screens hinders the sleeping process. Action films and games excite children too much, which prevents them from sleeping well. Smartphones should not be in the bedroom at night because they disrupt sleep.
Image Description | Photograph of a teenage girl using her smarphone in bed.
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone

Ist Kindsein gefährlicher geworden?

(Has being a child become more dangerous?)

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Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 29.7.2014
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | childhood, smartphone, threat, youth
Summary | Thanks to the fact that most teenagers and even children own a smartphone, parents depend more heavily on the constant availability of their children. Nowadays, parents are worried when they can’t reach their children for an hour whereas previous generations just had to trust their sons and daughters. Psychologists claim that this lack of independence causes a late development of emotional maturity in today’s generation.
Image Description | Photograph of a woman on her phone, at the beach, taken from behind.
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone

Das Tempo der Übermittlung heizt die Gefühle an

(The pace of transmissions heats up feelings)

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Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 30.8.2014
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | addiction, smartphone, texting, threat
Summary | Couples therapist Klaus Heer noticed the huge impact cell phones have on relationships. They are omnipresent: at the dinner table as well as in bed. Smartphones can cause distance and distrust but they can also reignite a romantic flame with a simple erotic or just loving text message. In the case of a fight, stopping all communication hurts even more because everyone is theoretically available all the time.
Image Description | Illustration of a naked woman whose reflection can be seen on three smartphones.
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone

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