Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 12
Posts 1 - 10

One in four girls have depression by the time they hit 14, study reveals

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 20.9.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, gender, research/study, social media, threat
Summary | According to a new study, about 24% of teenage girls (and about 9% of boys) are depressed, which has led people to ask whether social media and issues related to body image have an impact on teenagers' health. It seems that today's girls are facing more mental health problems that previous generations.
Image Description | Photograph of a girl sitting on a deck.
Image Tags | female(s)

Ban mobile phones in schools to protect pupils' mental health

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 26.9.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, childhood, school, smartphone, threat
Summary | According to Shannon Turner, schools should ban smartphones to protect their pupils. Screens and social media can have a negative impact on children's health, which is why some schools have already put in place new rules (e.g. give children 6 hours of digital-free time).
Image Description | Photograph of two pupils in a classroom; one of them is showing her friend a smartphone and the other is giggling.
Image Tags | female(s), school, smartphone

Growing social media backlash among young people, survey shows

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 5.10.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, cyberbullying, research/study, social media, technology-free, threat, youth
Summary | Two out of three pupils claim they would not care if there was no social media. According to the survey, young people are aware of the negative effects of new technologies on their lives and mental health. Some of them said that they had been victims of online abuse, that they were addicted, or/and that they felt less confident. Other pupils talked about the positive aspects of new technologies and social media (e.g. memes, Snapchat stories) and what improvements they would like to see. At a private boarding school for girls, pupils tried a new experiment: hand over their phones for three days. The girls liked the experiences and would like to do it again for a longer period.
Image Description | Photograph of someone (whose face is cut off) sitting on a bed and using/looking at a laptop.
Image Tags | computer/laptop

Are smartphones really making our children sad?

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 13.8.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, childhood, smartphone, threat, youth
Summary | Children's relationship with screens has become a contested topic; not everyone agrees with what should or shouldn't be done. Last week, the Atlantic published an excerpt of Jean Twenge's book (the Atlantic article was titled "Have smartphones destroyed a generation?"), which initiated very diverse reactions. Jean Twenge, who is an American pychologist, said that social media have a negative effect on young people. Twenger then answered some of her critics in this Guardian article.
Image Description | Photograph of a group of teenagers all staring at their phone or tablet.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone, tablet

Inside the rehab saving young men from their internet addiction

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 16.6.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, technology-free, threat
Summary | Marshall Carpenter is a 25-year old man who was addicted to new technologies. He used to play video games for 15 hours each day. Now, Marshall lives with other "addicted" men in an apartment in Washington State, where they started a rehab program called reSTART Life. The men talk about their experiences and how being addicted to the internet almost ruined their lives. At the rehab center, those men have to learn how to live again.
Image Description | Photographs of two men sitting outside in the woods, two men and a dog on a couch, man climbing a wall, woman standing outside a cabin, man sweeping, different vignettes with positive messages, man on a couch, and portrait of a man in the woods.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

Is it wrong to let my child play on my smartphone?

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 10.8.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, childhood, smartphone, technology-free
Summary | The author of the article sometimes feels guilty when she lets her 2-year old son play on a smartphone. When young children are glued to a screen, they are so captivated by what they're watching. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children younger than 2 should have no exposure to screens; it can hinder their language and social development/skills. The author of the article also claims that her kids already show characteristics of "addicted" behavior. For instance, they scream and are irascible if someone takes their screen away. She also says that what is dangerous is not so much when kids are on screens, but rather when parents are.
Image Description | Photograph of a kid using a smartphone next to an adult.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone

Five of the best brain-training apps

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 23.3.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, smartphone
Summary | Brain-training apps are very popular. Here is a list of the best apps: Peak, Elevate, Luminosity, Fit brains trainer, and Cognito.
Image Description | Digital image of a brain, and five screeshots of the five apps.
Image Tags | smartphone

Why Twitter fans are more itchy than twitchers

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 14.6.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, technology-free
Summary | According to a new study, smartphone addict people are more anxious than people who love nature. They also tend to take seven times more selfies.
Image Description | Photograph of a hedgehog.

Jewish woman in Montana sues over 'troll storm' of neo-Nazi harassment

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 18.4.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, cyberbullying, social media
Summary | A Jewish family in a Montana town is being terrorized by white supremacist groups. There have been no actual physical attacks but trolls on social media are harrassing them, they receive tons of hateful phone calls, and even their employers have been urged to fire them. Tanya Gersh, the mother of the household is struggling with sever anxiety because of the cyberbullying (to put it mildly).
Image Description | Images of the town of Whitefish, Montana, and of a protest against the white supremacist groups there.
Image Tags | text

Eight things that will happen on your week of digital detox

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 26.8.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, technology-free
Summary | We are so addicted to our digital devices that we feel terrible when we have to live without them. We don't want to miss out on things that happen around us (good and bad news). A lot can happen in the world in one week (e.g new prime minister, wars, death of a famous person), so we could miss a lot without our digital devices. The author of this article went camping and found herself in an internet-free zone; she felt really anxious and started thinking that maybe someone she knew had died or that an important news event had happened. Without internet she would not know. Moreover, without internet people don't have virtual relationships; they have to communicate with words and body language. Despite all this, the author found that digital detox was good.
Image Description | Photograph taken from behind of a man sitting on the rocks of a canyon.
Image Tags | male(s)

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