Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 47
Posts 41 - 47

Keine Chance für WhatsApp-Konkurrenz

(No chance for WhatsApp competition)

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Newspaper | Der Bund
Date | 16.2.2015
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | Facebook, privacy, WhatsApp
Summary | When Facebook bought WhatsApp for $22 mio in 2014, many users feared that their data privacy would be exploited. App store sales for secure messaging apps increased, particularly the Swiss app Threema. Now, Facebook and WhatsApp still have the highest user numbers which shows that people do not seem to care very much about their data privacy in the long run. While WhatsApp did introduce end-to-end encryption, Facebook also broke their promise of never connecting WhatsApp and Facebook user data.
Image Description | Photograph of a smartphone screen with different icons.
Image Tags | logo, smartphone

Facebook und WhatsApp in der EU erst mit 16 Jahren

(Facebook and WhatsApp only after 16 years of age in the EU)

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Newspaper | Der Bund
Date | 16.12.2015
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | law, Facebook, privacy, social media, youth
Summary | The EU has renewed the laws tied to data privacy originally made in 1995. The new laws now enable users of online platforms such as Facebook to sue these companies in their home country rather than having to travel. Also, some countries lift the legal age required to join social media from 13 to 16 years old. Young people under the age of 16 are legally not allowed to enter into a contract around data privacy with Facebook.
Image Description | Photograph of a hand holding a smartphone.
Image Tags | hand(s), logo, smartphone

Hey, du Mensch!

(Hey, you human! )

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 15.4.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Facebook, texting
Summary | Facebook has recently followed the footsteps of other large companies and implemented a chatbot in its messenger. Chatbots as conversational user interfaces are increasingly popular because smartphone users are reported to grow tired of having to download so many different apps. By enriching a social media service such as Facebook with a chatbot, users can enquire about things (e.g the weather) without changing platforms and using a mode that is familiar and comfortable for users: casual texting. The article however criticizes that chatbot technology is not very advanced and that it does not resemble human interaction yet.
Image Description | Photograph of a man texting in front of the Facebook Messenger logo, and screenshot of a Messenger chat.
Image Tags | Facebook, logo, male(s), smartphone, text

Field studies of the offspring

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 31.5.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Facebook, smartphone, Snapchat, technology-free, youth
Summary | The research center conducts in depth interviews with today’s teenagers, the so-called Generation Z or digital natives, on behalf of various corporations. The aim of the study is to find out about this generation’s relationship with new technologies. They all value mobile/digital communication very highly, to the extent that many choose online colleges, online shopping, and home office work over actually having to physically go somewhere to study, work, or shop. They report of the abundance of messages each day and that they also highly value their offline hobbies, such as reading or knitting.
Image Description | Collage-like illustration of youths and online and offline activities.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone, social media

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

Does quitting social media make you happier? Yes, say young people doing it

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 21.9.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, Facebook, social media, technology-free, youth
Summary | Interview with young people who decided to quit social media; they explain why. They mostly talk about deleting their Facebook account and how better they feel now. Some of them report feeling less depressed, happier, free, more productive, and enjoying meeting their friends face-to-face. Having a Facebook account was a lot of pressure for them; they didn't like the idea of having to report everything on the platform, to read articles they were not interested in, or to wait for other people's approval or "like".
Image Description | Series of three photographs: close up shot of hands holding smartphones, Snapchat icon, and Twitter app.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone, Snapchat, Twitter

Wer nur auf Facebook lebt, stirbt früher

(Those who only live on Facebook die sooner)

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Newspaper | 20 Minuten
Date | 21.10.2015
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | Facebook, threat
Summary | Canadian psychologist Susan Pinker says that people who spend more time on Facebook than actually interacting with people face-to-face do not live as long. Face-to-face interaction enables us to develop intimate relationships and friendships that significantly increase our happiness, which in turn increases our life expectancy. New media can create a disparity between how many friends and social interactions one has online versus offline. Offline social interactions are however much richer and more important for a good psychological health.
Image Description | Photograph of a woman looking at her smartphone.
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone

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