Number of Posts: 14
Posts 1 - 10
Popular People Live Longer
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 1.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, research/study, social media
Summary | Resent research has shown that popularity significantly improves one's longevity due to many genetic, psychological, and evolutionary reasons. This may explain why so many people value their popularity on social media, i.e. how many followers, retweets, or likes they get. That is however not the kind of popularity that significantly improves one's chances at a long life. That requires a stable and large social surrounding with nurturing relationships.
Image Description | Illustration of a tombstone saying "not enough likes" with a thumbs down symbol.
Image Tags | emojis, Facebook
Review: When the Digital World Is Judging Your Every Thought
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 17.3.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | marketing, politics, social media, threat
Summary | The new novel "I Hate The Internet" by Jarett Kobek poses a lot of interesting questions about how social media is affecting our society. The main question is: why is everyone willingly giving away their intellectual property on platforms owned by for-profit corporations? How did these capitalist platforms become to be perceived as the most appropriate space to exercise one's freedom of speech? Wannabe social activists think they are helping a cause by posting provocative comments on social media but few people are getting active for real social change.
Image Description | Image of the book and a portrait of the author holding a giant plush emoji.
Image Tags | emojis, male(s)
China Disrupts WhatsApp Service in Online Clampdown
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 18.7.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | censorship, Facebook, Google, Instagram, privacy, threat, Twitter, WhatsApp
Summary | The Chinese government has partly shut down the use of WhatsApp within their borders. The app is widely used around the globe and was used by some in China do communicate with people outside of Chine with end-to-end encryption. Other popular social media platforms and internet sites like Google, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are blocked under the "Great Firewall" in China.
Image Description | Woman using a smartphone and women standing in front of Facebook and Instagram logos as well as emojis.
Image Tags | emojis, Facebook, female(s), Instagram, logo, smartphone
Muslim Teenager Proposes Emoji of Woman Wearing a Head Scarf
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 14.9.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | diversity, emojis
Summary | A muslim teenager from Germany didn't think she could fully express herself with the emojis available on her phone; she wanted to use a hijab emoji. She emailed her proposal to the Unicode Consortium, and her proposal caught the eye of Unicode employees. Since there are about 550 million women who wear a hijab, she thought it was a good reason to propose a hijab emoji. Women want to be better represented on their keyboard, this is why there has been various requests to add more diverse female emojis.
Image Description | Pictures of potential hijab emojis
Image Tags | emojis
Apple Opens the iMessage Door, and the Ephemera Rushes In
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 22.9.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | emojis, GIFs, word/writing
Summary | An Apple user of iMessage can now use different "tchotchkees" (e.g. GIFs, stickers, emojis) which dominate text messages whereas words are just "afterthought". Users can also throw confetti and balloons. Apple is trying to mimic what is out there on the internet.
Image Description | Screenshots of iMessage chats with words and stickers/emojis/GIFs/confetti, and screenshot of a tweet
Image Tags | emojis, gifs, text, Twitter
Gaymoji: A New Language for That Search
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 14.3.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | diversity, emojis, research/study, sexting
Summary | The dating app Grindr caters to gay men and is now adding specific emojis - called Gaymojis - to their app. They have noticed that 20% of the messages sent on their platform contain emojis so they are providing emojis specific to the gay dating experience such as a peach with a phone (= bootycall) or an eggplant with a ruler (= well endowed). One linguist says that emojis may take some pressure off of the content of the conversation. Instead of thinking of something to say, emojis just signal that 'I am here and I am interested'.
Image Description | Portrait of the Grindr owners, the Grindr office in LA, and some Gaymojis.
Image Tags | emojis, male(s)
Find and Use Emoji Symbols on Your Computer
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 13.1.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | email, emojis
Summary | Many people do not know where to find emojis on their computers and how to for instance insert them emails. Many email providers already offer them as part of the menu bar but if that is not the case, then there are some combinations of keys that will bring forth an emoji menu on any computer.
Image Description | Email window and emoji menu.
Image Tags | emojis
Snap Makes a Bet on the Cultural Supremacy of the Camera
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
New York Public Hospitals Use Emojis to Reach Young People About Sex
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 17.7.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | emojis, social media, youth
Summary | New York City hospitals are now trying to get young people's attention on social media to inform them about free, confidential sexual health services. The advertisement campaign includes emojis, for instance the question "Need to talk to someone about 'it'?" accompanied by an eggplant emoji or bird and bee emojis. They talked to youths in focus groups and determined that this might be the best way to reach them. The campaign is particularly important because many youth report that they do not approach their parents with questions concerning sexual health. Critics of the campaign however say that the advertisements might be too ambiguous and difficult to understand for people who are only just learning English.
Image Description | Two advertisements of the question "Need to talk to someone about 'it'?" accompanied by an eggplant emoji and bird and bee emojis.
Image Tags | emojis
Judging Others by Their Email Tics
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 29.10.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | email, research/study
Summary | Meaning in emails is not only conveyed by the content but also by the form: Whether we use 'hi', 'hey', or 'dear' and how witty our email signature is really determines our personal brand. People make an effort to go back to previous emails to see on what kind of greeting terms (hi or hey?) with their addressees, linguist Gretchen McColloch says. Whether we use proper spelling with capitalizations or whether we just use lower-case throughout can have implications about power relations. Emojis and GIFs have become commonplace even in emails now to help us quickly signal an emotion.
Image Description | Illustration of a paper plane with emojis and word snippets (hey, hi, cc, bcc) flying out of it.
Image Tags | emojis
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