Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 28
Posts 21 - 28

The five lessons I learned from breaking my smartphone

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 24.1.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | brain, research/study, smartphone, technology-free
Summary | After dropping her smartphone in the sink, the author lives without one for six weeks and discovers that she sleeps better without a smartphone, enjoys being unavailable, few things need to be tended to urgently, that she spends less money, and her memory suffers from having a smartphone. Studies have also confirmed that it is detrimental to one's sleep pattern to sleep next to a smartphone because notifications release dopamin in the brain similarly to a nicotine or recreational drug addiction. She values the time she now has to just not be available for messages from work because we tend to respond to any and all messages as if they were urgent when really they are not. The author reports to spend less money because she can no longer do online shopping on the go without a smartphone. She has also realized how dependent on Google she has become. Neurological studies confirm that our brains are adapting to the constant accessibility of all information by remembering how to find it and googling again if necessary rather than remembering the little snippets of information.
Image Description | Getty image of a woman's hands holding a smartphone.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), smartphone

Think millennials have it tough? For 'Generation K', life is even harsher

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 19.3.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | addiction, smartphone, youth
Summary | Today's teenagers talk about the struggles and fears they face nowadays (e.g. job insecurity, distrust in government). They think that life is tougher for them than for their parent's generation. The author of the article suggests that despite people's hyperconnectivity, today's teenagers are lonely. They also prefer hanging out with friends face-to-face even though virtual communication is the norm or standard. This generation is also very creative and active on social media; they want to make things and not only consume/buy things.
Image Description | Illustration of Katniss Everdeen (Hunger Games) with a smartphone, photograph of teenagers on their smartphones (their face is either cut off from the picture or blurred), photograph of Bernie Sanders' supporters, and portrait of Felix Kjellberg (famous on YouTube).
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone

‘We’ve grown up with some frightening events’: UK teenagers' hopes and fears

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 19.3.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | addiction, smartphone, social media, youth
Summary | Five teenagers and young adults talk about the society they live in (jobs, school, alcohol, social media, etc.). They blame social media for being a waste of time and for favoring bullying. Moreover, social media are responsible for spreading certain norms that young people are expected to follow (e.g. ideals of beauty for men and women). One teenage girl claims that social media make people competitive. Even though she agrees that smartphones are addictive, it would be hard for her to live without it because she wouldn't want to miss out on things.
Image Description | Series of six photographs: two teenage girls on their smartphone are sitting back to back, and portraits of the five interviewees.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone

'Everyone could know what I was doing': the millennials not using social media

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 17.3.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | smartphone, social media, technology-free, youth
Summary | The majority of millenials are active on social media; those who are not explain why they decided not to have a social media account. Although the young interviewees admit that social network sites are useful to stay in touch with people far away and to organize parties and other events, they also think that they can be detrimental. For example, some of the interviewees feel uncomfortable with the fact that people share intimate details about their lives online, and with the fact that everyone knows everything about other people. Also, some people think that it is a waste of time and that it is useless.
Image Description | Series of five photographs representing the interviewees.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

Oculus VR: ‘Classrooms are broken. Kids don’t learn the best by reading books’

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 3.11.2015
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | smartphone, virtual reality
Summary | Palmer Luckey thinks that virtual reality is going to be ubiquitous in the next decades, which is a good thing according to him. Not everyone can afford to travel to Washington D.C. or Paris, but virtual reality will give people the opportunity to experience things such as long trips overseas. Luckey also thinks that virtual reality will replace smartphones; we won't need them anymore. With virtual reality, we'll be able to experience physical intimacy with people far away, for instance. It will the change our relationships.
Image Description | Photograph of Palmer Luckey, and video of his talk.
Image Tags | male(s)

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

Always practise safe text: the German traffic light for smartphone zombies

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 29.4.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | smartphone, threat
Summary | The word "smombie" (smartphone + zombie) was recently added to the German vocabulary. It refers to a person walking in the street and using his/her phone. People who do that are oblivious and can cause accidents. As a result, a couple of German cities have invested money in the creation of new traffic lights. In the US, some cities have buses that "talk" and alert pedestrians. In China, you can also find streets with "phone lanes" (as opposed to bicycle lanes for example).
Image Description | Series of three photograph and one video: woman holding a phone next to a tram, tram stop with people, Chinese kids walking on a "phone lane", and street interview of several people in German.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone

"I worried people would forget me": can teenagers survive without social media?

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 18.6.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, smartphone, social media, technology-free, youth
Summary | Interview with several teenagers or "digital natives" that had to talk about their experience of living without social media for a few days. Were they able to do it? Teenagers spend a lot of time online everyday and are almost addicted to their digital devices; they often sleep with their smartphone. The experience was well received; the participants said that it was a positive experience (they felt happier, more productive, and slept better). Some were able to live without their phone for a couple days and some for a couple weeks. However, they wouldn't be able to do it longer. They like being available all the time, and without a phone they felt that they were missing out on a lot of things, especially with their friends.
Image Description | Series of seven photographs portraying the young interviewees doing some sort of non-digital activities (sports, cooking, music etc.)
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

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