Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 32
Posts 21 - 30

La nomophobie est-elle vraiment le mal du siècle?

(Is nomophobia today's ill?)

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Newspaper | La Tribune de Genève
Date | 17.1.2015
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, research/study, smartphone, technology-free, youth
Summary | A lot of people are stressed and anxious just thinking they might lose or forget their phone. This pathology is called "nomophobia" (no mobile phobia). An American study showed that 50% of participants could not live without their smartphone for 24 hours. Some even mentioned a feeling similar as loosing a limb.
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Les jeunes parlent romand

(Young people speak Romand (Swiss French))

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Newspaper | Le Matin
Date | 18.5.2016
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | emojis, research/study, texting, What's up Switzerland, WhatsApp
Summary | Interview with Federica Diémoz at the University of Neuchâtel. She talks about a study related to the different expressions used in the Swiss French part of Switzerland. People also use their local expressions in text messages. The "What's up Switzerland" project is going to analyze WhatsApp messages. From what researchers have observed so far, people sometimes use regional expressions and don't always write the same way. They also add emoticons and images that replace words.
Image Description | Photograph of the interviewee, Federica Diémoz.
Image Tags | female(s)

Schreiben: Die Handschrift verkümmert

(Writing: Handwriting is hampered)

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Newspaper | Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ)
Date | 1.3.2015
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | language threat, research/study, texting, word/writing
Summary | We are living in an age writing renaissance; no generation before us has written this profusely. We are always texting someone or updating our social media statuses and yet, ironically, we are losing a staple of writing culture: our handwriting. Researchers are debating whether this is a problem or not, but the fact is that many neuroscientific studies show that humans learn better while writing by hand rather than typing. The abbreviated, informal, emoticon-filled writing style of WhatsApp and co. may be corrupting writing culture at large.
Image Description | Photograph of a young child (girl) typing on a laptop.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, female(s)

La vérité si je mens!

(The truth if I'm lying!)

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Newspaper | 24 heures
Date | 23.8.2015
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | research/study, social media
Summary | 66% of online users said they lie on social media. People have a tendency to portray themselves as beautiful, talented, and smart so that people can "like" them, notice them, or be jealous of them. What can we do against this syndrome? We can go back to "real" pleasures; for example, communicate with friends and not count them, or feel emoticons, and not click on them.
Image Description | Photograph in black and white of the author of the article.
Image Tags | female(s)

Der Mann zieht seine Nummer ab

(A man takes off his number)

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Newspaper | Sonntagszeitung
Date | 14.8.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, research/study, smartphone, technology-free
Summary | A 29-year old man has decided to live without a cell phone because it causes anxiety and is not as necessary as everybody thinks. Recent studies have shown that many smartphone users can effectively be labeled as addicts because they check their phones more than 60 times a day. This obsession, paired with the fact that push notifications effect the release of dopamine, confirm the claim that smartphones increase anxiety.
Image Description | Photograph of the 29-year old man, crouching.
Image Tags | male(s)

Mädchen fotografieren, Knaben gamen

(Girls take photographs, boys play games)

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Newspaper | St. Galler Tagblatt
Date | 11.2.2015
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | research/study, smartphone, youth
Summary | A study repeated biannually by the Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften (ZHAW) collects data on teenagers‘ use of old and new media. Close to 100% of teenagers own a phone, the vast majority a smartphone, and most of them use it daily. The data shows that most girls are more interested in listening to music and taking photographs while most boys care more about playing games and watching videos.
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Schweizer immer länger online

(The Swiss are spending more and more time online)

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Newspaper | St. Galler Tagblatt
Date | 16.12.2015
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | research/study, WhatsApp
Summary | The University of Zurich has collected data on Swiss citizens internet usage. The article lists many statistics stemming from this broad data collection such as the fact that Swiss people spend 22 hours a week online on average which is twice as much as in 2011. Further, only 7% of Swiss citizens do not have internet access; most of them have a lower income or are unemployed. The most popular categories of googling and emailing are joined by the activity of chatting which has dramatically increased since the advent of WhatsApp.
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Non, le langage “sms” ne nuit pas à l’orthographe!

(No, text message language does not harm spelling!)

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Newspaper | 24 heures
Date | 22.3.2014
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | language threat, research/study, school, texting, youth
Summary | Some people are worried that the new language of text messages is going to replace grammar, and that our children might forget how to write words properly. According to a study published in the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, the answer is no. The results of the study show that 48% of the words are spelled according to standard spelling. The research also shows that there is no link between traditional spelling skills and text message features. Finally, they claim that the best students are the ones who use text message features the most. Other similar studies prove the same point.
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Il faut archiver nos vies pour que l’histoire vivante ne s’arrête pas

(We need to archive our lives so that history does not stop)

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Newspaper | La Tribune de Genève
Date | 26.3.2014
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | language threat, research/study, school, spelling, texting, youth
Summary | Some people claim that writing with abbreviations is harmful for standard language. Others claim that it does not; some studies demonstrate that students can perfectly write abbreviations and their "standard" equivalent. Moreover, a study showed that students who are skilled in text message language have also better spelling skills in general. Writing is part of our culture; we write more and more. Thus, our practices resemble our forefathers’. The only difference is that nowadays it is more difficult to save and record our texts, whereas in the past people used to keep their letters and messages.
Image Description | Photograph of Benjamin Chaix, the author of the opinion piece.
Image Tags | male(s)

Le langage sms, éternel accusé de tous les maux des mots

(Text message language, always blamed for the ills of the words)

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Newspaper | La Tribune de Genève
Date | 30.8.2014
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | language threat, research/study, school, smartphone, texting, youth
Summary | Although we can now send unlimited texts on our smartphones using the spellcheck feature, text message language is still widely used, especially among the younger generation. Should we be worried about that? Researchers claim that we shouldn’t be worried; texting does not threaten the French language. According to a study, young students can make the difference between a text message and a written school assignment; they can adapt their language according to the medium. Although no study has demonstrated that text messages have any deleterious effect on spelling skills, more research is needed.
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