Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 25
Posts 11 - 20

The problem with becoming an inspirational meme

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 9.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, meme
Summary | The author of the article was suprised to see that her commute home from work had become a meme. She was photographed while riding her bike wearing heels and looking "determined". The comments were quite positive (e.g. "making it work", "divas bike too", or "goals"). However, the author then started to question those positive comments. Why is determination linked to a willingness to risk one's life? People nowadays seem to glorify work in an unhealthy way. For instance, the fact that a 94-year-old woman has been working at McDonald's for 44 years seems to be something people should be striving for.
Image Description | N/A

No, Grandma, You Are Not LOL

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 7.5.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, social media, youth
Summary | Older people used to stay away from technology and used to express themselves using elevated language. With the advent of social media, things have changed. Now, 62% of seniors (65+) use Facebook and seem to be acting like their grandchildren; they are the fastest-growing demographic since 2000. You can easily notice when an old person is using social media; if you see the post 'Check this out LOL', it's probably been shared by a senior. Seniors are late adopters when it comes to new media. The feeling of competitivity, jealousy, or of being left out does not only concern young people. Older people can also feel the same way when using social media.
Image Description | N/A

Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?

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Newspaper | The Atlantic
Date | 0.9.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, cyberbullying, gender, smartphone, social media, threat, youth
Summary | A US study has conducted a large survey among teenagers and found out that smartphones are impacting their lives significantly. They sleep less, go out less, date less, are less likely to get (someone) pregnant, feel left out more, have more mental health issues, etc. Especially girls are more likely to feel left out because they spend more time on social media and because girls tend to bully each other by ostracization which is very easily achievable in cyberspace. Also, the teenage suicide rate has surpassed the teenage homicide rate for the first time in history.
Image Description | Two illustrations showing a woman falling with a tablet and a woman lying in bed at night looking at her smartphone. Charts showing the results from the US survey.
Image Tags | chart, female(s), smartphone, tablet

How Artificial Intelligence Is Helping The Visually Impaired

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Newspaper | Huffington Post
Date | 11.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, artificial intelligence
Summary | The discourse around artificial intelligence is usually centered around how it will make tons of jobs obsolete. What few people think about however, is the tremendous potential artificial intelligence has to improve the life of visually impaired or blind people. The same technology that is being developed to operate self-driving cars can be used to help visually impaired people read or recognize people on the street by face recognition cameras.
Image Description | Person using AI camera to read and photograph of interviewee.
Image Tags | male(s)

Poor Sleep Hygiene Is Killing You And Your Career

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Newspaper | Huffington Post
Date | 22.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, smartphone
Summary | Poor sleep habits are detrimetal to one's health. Part of a good sleep hygiene is to stop being exposed to short-wave blue light - emitted by all kinds of screens - in the evening before going to sleep. So one should really stop using a laptop or a smartphone a few hours before going to sleep because it blocks the production of sleep-inducing hormones. One should also refrain from checking one's email (work-related) late at night because it keeps people from winding down psychologically.
Image Description | Getty image of a woman sleeping in bed.
Image Tags | female(s)

Why I Set My Phone Aside…Sometimes

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Newspaper | Huffington Post
Date | 25.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, smartphone, technology-free
Summary | Turning off one's phone at times can drastically improve one's well-being. While smartphones make our lives easier in many ways, they are also a constant source of disruption. Shutting it off for "family/couple/me time" allows one to enjoy the moment rather than be on-guard and available for any and all disruptions life may throw at you via smartphone.
Image Description | Mother (author) and two children at a lake.
Image Tags | female(s)

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.

‘Unicorn Food’ Is Colorful, Sparkly and Everywhere

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 20.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, hashtags, Instagram, marketing, politeness, social media
Summary | Starbucks is cashing in on the 'unicorn food' trend - a trend to make all food colorful. The trend was likely sparked from a Florida-based Instagrammer who has now acquired a huge following. She noticed that her hobby had become a trend when people would copy her creations and Instagram them with the fitting hashtag. Now Starbucks has caught on the trend and they are offering a unicorm frappucino for five days only.
Image Description | Unicorn/rainbow foods and the Starbucks Unicorn Frappucino.

Facebook Could Be Associated With a Longer Life, Study Finds

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 31.10.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, Facebook, research/study
Summary | A recent study about longevity shows that moderate Facebook activity correlates with better health and hence a longer life. Previous research shows that an active social life in general (so offline) also correlates with longevity. Because the results however only attast to correlation and not necessarily to a causal connection, it could also be that healthier people are just more social online and offline and not that sociability has an effect on health. It has been confirmed that a rich social life makes people happier while excessive Facebook use leads to people being unhappy.
Image Description | Woman instructing old man using a computer.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, female(s), male(s)

Here’s A Clear Sign You Might Be Too Dependent On Your Phone

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Newspaper | Huffington Post
Date | 26.1.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, research/study, threat
Summary | American researchers have conducted studies confirming that "device dependability" is a real psychiatric illness that leads people to perceive phantom buzzes from their smartphones, i.e. to hear a notification when there is none. Most individuals affected show neurotic personality traits and/or feel anxious when separated from their smartphone. The condition is supposed to be included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders by the American Psychological Association and the researchers hope that this will raise awareness of the dangers of smartphone dependability or addiction.
Image Description | Getty image of five race and gender diverse young adults holding smartphones in front of an orange wall.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone

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