Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 20
Posts 11 - 20

Just how separated are we? Two cross-country hitchhikers use social media to prove it’s just four degrees

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 9.7.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | social media, threat, youth
Summary | Two millennials, Ari Gootnick, 23, and Oliver Shahery, 22, went on a road trip to see whether new technology and social media have changed our relationships and "shrunk the world". They showed that people are much more connected than they think they are. Through the project, the millennials are trying to prove that people are only four degrees of separation from other people. During their trip, they have seen close and long-lost friends as well as complete strangers. They also documented their whole trip on social media and said that the borders between physical and digital interactions are fluid.
Image Description | Three hotographs of both millennials in front of the Capitol in D.C., next to a car, and in the White Sands in N.M.
Image Tags | male(s)

A zillion videos follow the same recipe

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 14.4.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | social media, video communication
Summary | The article talks about recipe videos that can be found online. All the videos follow the same trends (e.g. shot overhead, fast and slow motion, shows the cook's hands, adds music...). The Tasty videos all end with the formula "Ohhh, yesss.", which has been used for parody.
Image Description | N/A

Creepy start-up asks would-be renters for the keys to their data

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 10.6.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | law, privacy, social media, threat
Summary | A British start-up company wants to offer a service called "Tenant Assured" where landlords can check applicants' social media background. The individual's social media posts as well as private messages are analyzed and turned into a statistic of how much financial stress that person has based on their mentions of spending, loans, and pregnancies. This could be the future of all hiring processes, they say, because people are willing to give up their privacy for a service they want.
Image Description | N/A

That time when ‘that time when’ took over the Internet #InstantNostalgia

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 15.9.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | hashtags, research/study, social media
Summary | It has become customary to frame anecdotal posts on social media with the phrase "that time when" or "that akward moment when". Sometimes it is even used to describe events that have just happened, even though it is a formulation that suggests an old memory. This linguistic strategy thereby creates an air of nostalgia around the memory and makes it iconic. Linguists suggest that the usage of the demonstrative "that" suggests that sender and receiver of the message have shared memories. This is why many celebrities use this construction to create a false sense of intimacy with their fans online.
Image Description | GIF of a woman taking a selfie and posting it to social media.
Image Tags | female(s), gifs, smartphone, social media

Scary clown rumors, threats feed hysteria, leading to school lockdowns, arrests

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 6.10.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, law, school, Snapchat, social media, threat
Summary | In the weeks running up to Halloween, many schools and colleges have had attack scares. Students heard over Snapchat or Yik Yak or some other social media platform that a clown was on the prowl at their school/college. These theats always ended up being false but students were worried and so were parents. Schools have to take such threats seriously. The police are being very clear that there are legal repercussions for false attack threats.
Image Description | Clown video and scary clown masks.

In search of 'lulz,' trolls hijack civic engagement

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 7.11.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, politics, social media, threat
Summary | Internet culture's sense of humor has become careless. A meme was recently circulated in Pennsyvania that said that one could vote online by just commenting the name of their candidate. Even though this was a joke, it was dangerously close to disenfranchising people of their votes. In the same way some people post anti-semitic or racist/sexist things and then claim to just do it to combat the tyranny of political correctness and not really meaning any harm. Such content however promotes extremism and is harmful - no matter the intentions.
Image Description | Man holding up Hillary Clinton toilet paper.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

Today’s protest signs are sharper, meaner, funnier — and live on long after the rallies

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 2.2.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | politics, social media
Summary | Protest signs are becoming increasingly wittier as popular culture and politics converge by politics increasingly becoming entertainment. The protest sign are not only wittier but also live longer thanks to their digital footprint. The funniest/best protest signs are spread online and are seen by thousands of people nowhere near the protest which is why such signs may be remembered for longer.
Image Description | Various protesters with signs.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), text

Wikipedia is fixing one of the Internet's biggest flaws: Online comments sections

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 26.10.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | politeness, social media, threat
Summary | Comment sections on any internet page of social media platform are notorious for displaying the worst in people. Social media is designed in such a way that it shelters its users into 'ideological echo chambers' and the isolation effect of the internet liberates people to be cruel with their language. Wikipedia has somehow managed to have a fairly respectful forum culture on their website even though it has not always been like this.
Image Description | The Wikipedia logo multiple times.
Image Tags | logo, Wikipedia

Trash talking has reached a whole new level, and it's all thanks to social media

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 12.12.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, politeness, social media, threat
Summary | Politeness and basic human decency has gone out the window since the advent of social media. Complete strangers and even politicians swear at each other online for the whole world to see. Insults are very personal and with no inhibitions.Especially in sports, pre-game trash-talking is now documented online for eternity. Many athletes even exhibit their religiousness online by thanking God after a successful game.
Image Description | N/A

In messaging apps for teens, talk of dangers and dollars

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 14.2.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | social media, threat, youth
Summary | Teenagers are moving away from public social media and towards private communication channels where they are unsupervised by their parents. Parents should however look into technologies to monitor their children's online activity - even on private media such as WhatsApp or Kik. Because Kik has reported a 40% increase in teenage users, businesses are eager to advertise on this platform. Online advertising is however moving away from banner ads to chatbots which approach the prospective customers in an informal conversational manner. For now, chatbots are only for advertising but they are planned to enable users to actually shop within a messaging app.
Image Description | Video about teenage deaths/pedophile crimes faciliated on Kik and a screenshot of a chat with the Kik chatbot.
Image Tags | text

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