Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 104
Posts 61 - 70

Taking the Dread Out of Technology for Older People

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 12.3.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | digitized education, threat
Summary | Marian Goldberg is 70, and she went to a Senior Planet Exploration Center to learn more about digital technologies. Now, she can use Pinterest and Facebook, and can use emojis in her emails. In our digital age, there are more and more senior centers that help older people to be more comfortable online. If older people learn how to use new technologies, they'll feel less isolated and less depressed, and their brain will stay active. GrandPad is a digital tablet that was created for older people; for instance, it allows you to tap a photo to call someone.
Image Description | N/A

How I Learned to Love Snapchat

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 22.5.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Snapchat, social media, texting, threat
Summary | The texting revolution, as with other major and rapid technological advances, has inspired moral panic. People think that we are becoming less social. It might be true, but we should also look at the advantages of new technologies. For instance, texting has allowed a whole generation to be free from the "stricture" and "inconvenience" of phone calls. Snapchat is one the latest technological trends and it goes beyond words. It's the most well realized way of expressing meaning. With texting, people tried to find ways to approximate normal human conversations (e.g. typing awareness indicator, or read receipt), but they are almost as awkward as phone calls. The author of the article talks about voice memos and the fact that they are becoming more popular. She also talks about Snapchat and how different it is from other social networks; Snapchat is the place where you can be yourself.
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

Revenge Porn Must Be Criminalized

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Newspaper | Huffington Post
Date | 6.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, law, sexting, threat
Summary | There have been more and more cases of people posting intimate photographs of their ex-lovers on the internet. The practice is called revenge porn and it is horrible for the victims: their most intimate images are shared with the whole world without their consent and they cannot really erase the images from the internet afterards. New York CIty is now working on criminalizing the distribution of revenge porn - something that should already have happened long ago.
Image Description | Getty image of hands typing on a laptop.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, hand(s)

5 Ways Parents Can Help Prevent Cyberbullying

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Newspaper | Huffington Post
Date | 11.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | childhood, cyberbullying, social media, threat, youth
Summary | Cyberbullying, i.e. when people are bullied textually or with images over a digital platform, can be detrimental to teenagers' psyche. Especially since they are always available for notifications on their smartphones and because these digital tracks never disappear. It is important that parents keep an open line of communication with their children about this issue.
Image Description | Image of two girls holding a smartphone and looking shocked.
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone

Constant Smartphone Usage Forced This Town To Put Traffic Lights On The Ground

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Newspaper | Huffington Post
Date | 12.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | smartphone, threat
Summary | A town in the north-west of the Netherlands has adjusted their traffic light signals to accommodate smartphone users. Since two thirds of all people own a smartphone, many are glued to it even while crossing the street. In order to prevent accidents, the local government has installed LED lights in the pavement at street crosswalks so that people do not have to lift their gaze from their smartphones to see if the light is red or green.
Image Description | LED light signal on the ground at crosswalk.

Social Media Finds New Role as News and Entertainment Curator

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 16.5.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | social media, threat
Summary | Most social media platforms have an editorial staff who curate new media and other content. This work is very powerful because if certain stories or patterns are chosen to represent a perceived trend, they are seen by many users and become much more influential. Though most say they try to be neutral, the social media platforms face criticism.
Image Description | Mark Zuckerberg having a speech.
Image Tags | male(s)

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

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)

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