Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 80
Posts 71 - 80

"Viele empfinden Freude, wenn sie Angst verbreiten"

("Many feel joy when they spread fear")

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Newspaper | Tagesspiegel
Date | 30.10.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | law, social media, threat
Summary | The Munich police are present on social media because that is where most of the population regularly checks in. In order to counteract fake news, they make sure to notify the public in case of a dangerous situation and be available for information. Many people share sensationalist stories to spread fear and that is dangerous. While it cannot be prosecuted by the law, a public moral code should be developed to push back such fear-spreaders.
Image Description | Portrait of the interviewee (police officer).
Image Tags | male(s)

Was mit dem iPhone begann, wird mit gläsernen Menschen enden

(What started with the iPhone will end with glass humans)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 9.1.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | smartphone, social media, threat
Summary | Exactly ten years ago Steve Jobs presented the first iPhone - a pioneer among smartphones. In the past ten years we saw an unprecedented change in communication. With technological innovation our digital communication has become more and more multimodal. The general tone has become quicker, more informal, and contains emojis. Social media are taking over what used to be social hobbies like sports clubs and such. It remains to be seen whether future generations will consider the broad surveillance and big data as boon or bane.
Image Description | Getty image of Steve Jobs with the first iPhone.
Image Tags | smartphone

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

Les jeunes passent plus de temps sur le net

(Young people spend more time online)

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Newspaper | 20 minutes
Date | 9.11.2016
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | addiction, research/study, smartphone, social media, threat, youth
Summary | According to a study, young people spend an average of 2 hours and 30 minutes online during the week, and 3 hours and 40 minutes on the weekend. Also, young people cannot live without their smartphone. They don't usually use their phone to make phone calls or text; they rather use their phone for social media (e.g. Snapchat, Instagram). Even though young people spend a lot of time on their phone, they still meet with friends face-to-face. Smartphones do not replace physical relationships. Finally, families should have rules for new media use at home.
Image Description | Photograph of a group of teenagers (their faces are cut off from the picture); they are sitting next to each other using their phones.
Image Tags | smartphone

Los jóvenes se sienten incompletos sin internet y las redes sociales

(Young people feel incomplete without internet and social media)

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Newspaper | El Mundo
Date | 9.4.2014
Language | Spanish
Country | Spain
Topic Tags | addiction, research/study, smartphone, social media, threat, youth
Summary | A lot of young people wouldn't be able to live without new technologies (internet, social media, etc.). According to a study, they feel isolated and incomplete without them, and they wouldn't know how to socialize. Young people are aware of the advantages of internet and social media (e.g. possibility to have many relationships) as well as the risks of such new technologies (e.g. loss of privacy). They also know they can become dependent on their digital devices. However, they are not so worried; they think such disadvantages are normal and part of today's society. The survey also showed contradictory results; 74% of the respondents thought that social media facilitate new friendships, but about 72% of them thought that social media isolate people more.
Image Description | Video: interview of young people about their online practices, and two charts showing statistics about online practices.
Image Tags | chart, computer/laptop, female(s), male(s), smartphone

La letra, con ‘smartphone’, entra

(The letter enters with smartphone (pun with "la letra con sangre entra"))

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Newspaper | El País
Date | 27.10.2014
Language | Spanish
Country | Spain
Topic Tags | grammar, research/study, social media, spelling, texting, threat, youth
Summary | Spelling and grammar are having a hard time in today's society; there seems to be too much lenience with regards to writing rules, which may be due to an incorrect use of new technologies. People should know when it is appropriate to use a specific register. It is okay to write a text message with abbreviations as long as users are able to change register and adapt their writing in an exam for example. A professor in Valladolid claims that handwriting as opposed to digital writing can be the solution to spelling and grammar mistakes. Social media and the way we write on those networks have a major impact on our writing skills. A study showed that the mistakes young people make in their writing assignments come from our habit to constantly write quickly and be spontaneous on social media. Those mistakes are mostly due to a lack of attention. The study also showed a positive aspect: with social media, we write more.
Image Description | Photograph of a group of four young people using their smartphone.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), male(s), smartphone

It may be shallow and salacious, but don’t blame Tinder for online misogyny

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 8.4.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | gender, online dating, research/study, social media, threat
Summary | A new study revealed that the dating app Tinder spreads sexism and ideals of beauty; however, according to the author of the article, such behavior is not new. The media tends to portray new technologies and new apps as responsible for numerous societal ills, thus being dangerous. This new research follows a similar discourse while blaming the dating app Tinder of misogyny. However, sexism and beauty standards also existed before the age of social media. Thus, sexist comments are not the result of new technologies/apps; they go well beyond our digital devices.
Image Description | Photograph of a smartphone with the Tinder app open; we can see parts of a woman's face and a big LIKE in green.
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone, Tinder

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

Facebook 'makes users lonely and angry as they compare themselves to other people's seemingly perfect lives'

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Newspaper | Mirror
Date | 10.11.2015
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | Facebook, research/study, social media, threat
Summary | The Happiness Research Institute conducted a study about social media and the portrayal of users' seemingly perfect and beautiful lives. Users think that other people's lives are better, and they consequently feel sad and angry. In the study, the people who had to quit Facebook saw their happiness level rise, and those who had to continue using the social network didn't see any change. Facebook users seem to be lonely and angry because they constantly compare their life to others', but the seemingly perfect life that other users portray is fake. Although there are advantages in using Facebook, it is important to keep in mind that it also gives people a wrong perception of reality.
Image Description | Series of five photographs: teenage girl looking at her laptop, another teenage girl looking at the laptop, Facebook logo, photograph of Mark Zuckerberg with the dislike button, and another teenage girl with a phone in her hand, looking at her laptop.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, Facebook, female(s), smartphone

How Silicon Valley's parents keep their children safe online

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 2.3.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | childhood, smartphone, social media, technology-free, threat
Summary | Silicon Valley's parents explain how they deal with their children's use of internet. Since parents cannot control everything or spy on their kids, they talk to them and teach them how to use the internet. Some parents have more restrictions; for example, no screens from Friday night to Saturday night. As a result, parents and children spend more time together and do fun activities. Other parents only let ther children go online with an adult's supervision. A psychologist claims that social media have a negative impact on children; they drive them away from family and school.
Image Description | Photograph of a female child sitting on her bed and looking at a tablet.
Image Tags | female(s), tablet

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