Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 102
Posts 11 - 20

Die Welt mit jungen Augen sehen

(See the world with young eyes)

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Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 5.8.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | smartphone, threat, youth
Summary | More and more fiction is not targeted at one age group in particular. It is debatable whether that means that the youth today is smarter than ever of whether our currents population consists various generations of eternal teenagers. Novels about young people have always embodies the hope for the future as well as anxieties about current developments like the question, what will happen to our society when smartphones replace all social contacts?
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Als die Server zusammenbrechen, fliessen die Tränen

(As the servers break down, the tears start )

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Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 27.7.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | game, smartphone, threat, virtual reality
Summary | Pokémon Go is a hugely popular smartphone video game that lets players catch virtual Pokémons in their real surroundings by means of augmented reality. A huge public Pokémon Go event was held in Chicago with 20'000 attendees. At some point the inevitable happemned, the servers collapsed and the app would not work any more. Many players became very upset and Pokémon Go reimbursed all attendees who paid to be at the event with a rare Pokémon.
Image Description | An image of a park with Pokémon, a screenshot of a Pokémon Go map, and a hand holding a smartphone with Pokémon Go open on the screen.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone

At C.D.C., a Debate Behind Recommendations on Cellphone Risk

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 1.1.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | (mental) health, brain, childhood, research/study, smartphone, threat
Summary | A controversy has sparked over the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's health recommendation regarding cell phones. They had reviewed research on brain tumor risk connected with cell phone use and decided that the data were not convincing enough. Their recommendation was that cell phone users need not be more cautious with cell phones than other daily lifestyle choices. However, the research is also not extensive enough to disprove an increased risk of brain tumor with high rates of cell phone use, especially for children. In response to the backlash to this recommendation, their stance was revised a few times so that it now states that the C.D.C. does not recommend caution but other organizations do.
Image Description | Reuters image of a crowd and one man speaking on the smartphone.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone

Überwachung von WhatsApp gefordert

(Surveillance of WhatsApp wanted)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 2.4.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | law, privacy, texting, threat, WhatsApp
Summary | Politicians demand that WhatsApp let them access WhatsApp communications for surveillance. WhatsApp is withholding that access to protect user privacy. Terrorists are aware that the police can read their messages if they text them via SMS but that they cannot read them as long as they are on WhatsApp. This is a huge security gap.
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Diese drei Anwendungen sind besser als Whatsapp

(These three apps are better than WhatsApp)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 5.5.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | law, privacy, threat, WhatsApp
Summary | Brazil has just blocked WhatsApp in their country for 72 hours in order to for WhatsApp to share chats with their police in ciminal cases. It is unlikely that something like this will happen in Germany but it is good to know about some alternatives just in case... Especially since WhatsApp is not very trustworthy about user privacy. Threema is a Swiss app that alllows for user anonymity, Slack is a really good app to use with colleagues because files can be saved within group chats, and Telegram deletes inactive chats after a while so that there are no traces.
Image Description | Woman using a smartphone with headphones on the street.
Image Tags | female(s), headphones, smartphone

Niedlichkeit hat ihren Preis

(Cuteness has its price)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 20.1.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | marketing, privacy, selfie, threat
Summary | A new popular app in China called Meitu lets users edit their selfies. The process includes a beautification filter which enlarges the eyes and adds glitter and a rosy hue to the selfie. The app however suspiciously asks for permission to a lot of user data which does not seem to be necessary for an image editing app. The app likely collects all this data about their users so that they can sell their information to advertizers who want to target specific groups. All free apps have a hidden price.
Image Description | Selfie with the Meitu beautification filter.
Image Tags | female(s), selfie

Ruhe, bitte!

(Silence, please!)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 26.1.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | (mental) health, research/study, smartphone, threat
Summary | New technology is likely contributing to insomnia. One third of adults suffer insomnia. All our internet devices make it difficult for us to let go of what is happening in the world because we can access it at all times. Sleep experts advise people who suffer from insomnia to stop looking at notifications before one goes to sleep and to ban all electronic devices from the bedroom.
Image Description | Image of a woman sleeping on a skyscraper and images of men (experts) mentioned in the article.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

Warum wir nie wieder Smalltalk machen müssen

(Why we never have to do smalltalk again)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 4.10.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Google, threat
Summary | Chatbots operated with artificial intelligence like Google's Allo will soon obliterate our need to engage in smalltalk. It can suggest appropriate or social expected responses to generic messages and other content. It can for example recognize an image of food and suggest to respond "yummy!". This can be convenient but it can also result in chatbots essential talking to other chatbots in the name of their human users.
Image Description | Getty image illustration showing a man and a microchip.
Image Tags | male(s)

Ausprobieren statt Null-Eins-Angst

(Experimenting instead of zero-one-anxiety)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 25.8.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | computer programming, digitized education, school, threat, youth
Summary | A school in Britain is now teaching 7th grade students simple programming in order to advance computer literacy - an important cause for future generations. Some newspapers have however seen the end of the world as we know it in these news. If students are taught to think in the binary scheme of computer programming, how will they understand human emotions and complex critique? Clearly, this concern is disproportionate.
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"Wie ist das bei dir?"

("How is that for you?")

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 14.7.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | misunderstanding, online dating, politeness, threat, WhatsApp
Summary | We are more connected than ever nowadays. There should be no room for alienation in relationships with all those media available to us to communicate. WhatsApp even lets us know when our loved ones were last online and when they read a message. This may sound good at first but it can cause a lot of misunderstandings and jealousy when partners do not respond to messages right away.
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