Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 70
Posts 31 - 40

Bulletin! The 'Internet' Is About to Get Smaller

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 25.5.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | spelling, youth
Summary | The Associated Press' writing style board have decided to spell "internet" with a lowecase i. The word had been capitalized before, no one really knows why since it is not a brand name. Some speculate that "Internet" was capitalized because it was seen as so special and specific, like a physical place with a name. Now, however, the internet has become part of everyday life. Younger generations could not imagine a world without it. ''For younger people, it's always been there; it's like water.''
Image Description | Image of text: "Goodbye, Internet. Hello, internet!"
Image Tags | text

Pling, Pling, Doppel-Pling

(Ding, Ding, Double-Ding)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Süddeutsche Zeitung
Date | 30.9.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | addiction, smartphone, social media, WhatsApp, youth, YouTube
Summary | A day in the life of a 13 year old who receives 200 messages a day. Lina uses her smartphone first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Though her father does not necessarily like her constant use of the smartphone and the notifications all the time, he is not worried about an addicion. Parents were taught about the risks on parent-teacher meetings. Lina is in a ton of group chats and is beginning to use Musical.ly. YouTube is a staple entertainment source for her.
Image Description | Lina with the smartphone on her bed and a hand holding a smartphone.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), smartphone

«Jpp», «wtf», «oklm»... maîtrisez-vous le parler jeune?

("Jpp", "wtf", "oklm"... do you master teenagers' language?)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Le Figaro
Date | 25.8.2016
Language | French
Country | France
Topic Tags | abbreviations, language threat, texting, youth
Summary | Young people tend to use a lot of words and abbreviations that are unintelligible, according to many parents and professors. Their language is very creative and is influenced by our ancestors' language. Writer Stéphane Ribeiro claims that young people's language is a melting pot; it is a mix of American and historical expressions. Moreover, the language used by today's youth has been influenced by new technologies and the texting culture. It is not a threat to the French language; language is constantly changing and evolving
Image Description | Photograph of five young people looking happy, screenshots of two tweets depicting the use of abbreviations, and "Top Wesh" video.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), text, Twitter

Abusar de los "Emojis": ¿el nuevo enemigo del lenguaje?

(Abusing emojis: the new enemy of language?)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | infobae
Date | 13.1.2016
Language | Spanish
Country | Argentina
Topic Tags | emojis, language threat, youth
Summary | An Instagram study revealed that emojis are becoming more popular and are replacing words in messages. Linguist Silvia Ramirez Gelbes claims that using emojis allows users to say something very precise in one click -whereas using words would take longer. Are emojis detrimental to written language? According to the linguist, emojis are not harmful and they are not a "youth phenomenon".
Image Description | Photograph of a man (head cut off) holding a selfie stick and taking a selfie; he is also wearing five emoji medals around his neck.
Image Tags | emojis, male(s), selfie stick, smartphone

Jungbürger verzweifelt gesucht

(Young citizen seeked out desperately)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Tagblatt (Thurgau)
Date | 15.1.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | WhatsApp, youth
Summary | Swiss towns traditionally invite all of their citizens who turn 18 to a young citizens’ celebration to initiate them into the life of their town, meet the town council, find out about their right, and to mingle with fellow young citizens during some fun activities. Less and less youths however responded to such invites and so the town of Sirnach decided to send their invites via text message and WhatsApp. This is meant to create a group dynamic so that young citizens would animate fellow young citizens to attend the celebration.
Image Description | Photograph of a group of teenagers playing curling.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

Das eigene Verhalten überdenken

(Reflect one’s own behavior)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | St. Galler Tagblatt
Date | 17.2.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | school, technology-free, texting, WhatsApp, youth
Summary | A Sunday school teacher reports that more and more younger people give up part of their multi-media consumption for lent instead of food. Many will for instance give up their use of WhatsApp, text messaging, or video games rather than food. This shows that youths think very critically about their consumption habits.
Image Description | N/A

Love Machine

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Sonntagszeitung
Date | 27.3.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, youth
Summary | Chinese chat robot Xiaoice is gaining popularity among teenagers. Many admit their love to the robot despite knowing that they are communicating with a machine. Xiaoice has even done the weather forecast on TV and achieved a score of 4.32 (out of 5) in linguistic naturalism. This example shows how far the development of AI has come. While robots still cannot think or are intelligent in the human sense, they can recognize patterns very quickly and can observe huge amounts of data. The robot thus compares language input to data from online chat forums to construct an appropriate answer.
Image Description | Screenshot of a scene from the movie 'Ex Machina'.

Wer nicht snapt, ist out

(Who doesn’t snap is out)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | B.Z. (Berlin)
Date | 1.5.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | Facebook, Snapchat, WhatsApp, youth
Summary | Snapchat is the new hot social media channel for the German youth. Now that the parent generation is uding Facebook and WhatsApp, teenagers are looking for digital spaces free of parental supervision. Snapchat is more aimed at visual rather than verbal communication, though now audio and video calls can be made. The article lists three new (not necessarily messaging) apps that are gaining popularity amongst young people: Miitomo, musical.ly, WeMesh.
Image Description | Screenshots of two snaps, and digital image of the Snapchat logo.
Image Tags | female(s), logo, Snapchat

La cure de Selena Gomez: décrocher du smartphone

(Selena Gomez's therapy: hanging up her smartphone)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | 20 minutes
Date | 2.12.2016
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, smartphone, youth
Summary | Selena Gomez has been suffering from depression. She got off her smartphone for 90 days and felt much better. The experience was relaxing and invigorating. Even though Selena Gomez is trying to limit her time online, she is still very popular on Instagram.
Image Description | Photograph of Selena Gomez and screenshot of one of her Instagram posts.
Image Tags | female(s), Instagram

Les jeunes passent plus de temps sur le net

(Young people spend more time online)

Hyperlink

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

Page 4 of 7
Back | Next