Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 47
Posts 41 - 47

Jamais sans mon portable!

(Never without my cell phone!)

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Newspaper | 24 heures
Date | 21.2.2016
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | addiction, smartphone
Summary | Are people addicted to their smartphone? Is it bad or dangerous? Experts claims it is not a real addiction; doctors don't talk about "cell phone addictions". It is also a bad idea to use pathological terms when talking about new media uses (a selfie is narcissistic, Facebook is exhibitionist etc.). Why are people afraid to lose their phone or forget it at home? People are not attached to the object, but to its functionalities. Smartphones replace a lot of everyday objects (agenda, newspaper, etc.). Therefore, people can be anxious if they don't have their smartphone with them.
Image Description | Photograph of a young woman in bed using her smartphone.
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone

Des camps de désintox pour pour accros au smartphone

(Rehab camps for smartphone addicts)

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Newspaper | 24 heures
Date | 12.3.2016
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | addiction, brain, childhood, smartphone, technology-free, youth
Summary | South Korea is one of the most digitally connected countries. As a consequence, 1 out of 10 children is addicted to internet and other digital devices. Rehab camps for young internet addicts is supposed to help children live without digital devices. In those camps, children go hiking, play guitar, and read paper books. Rehab can be tough; it is almost the same process as for alcoholics or drug addicts. At the end of the camp, those young people know how to appreciate real life and have to find out what the causes of their escape to the virtual world are.
Image Description | Photograph of young people in South Korea playing video games in a room full of computers.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, game, male(s)

Le téléphone pleure de joie

(The phone is crying of joy)

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Newspaper | Le Matin
Date | 2.7.2016
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | addiction, smartphone
Summary | An American man and a smartphone became "husband and smartphone" in a chapel in Las Vegas. The man did that to condemn our society's addiction to digital devices such as smartphones.
Image Description | N/A

Un festival bannit les téléphones portables

(A festival banned cell phones)

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Newspaper | 20 minutes
Date | 27.5.2016
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | addiction, smartphone, technology-free, youth
Summary | A small festival in Zug decided to ban cell phones so that people can enjoy the festival and live the "present". Smartphones are useful, but it is annoying when people spend most of their time on them. This new rule is a good marketing strategy; it allows the festival to be noticed. However, the restriction couldn't be applied to other big festival such as Paleo Festival or Montreux Jazz Festival.
Image Description | Series of four photographs portraying young people and shots of the festival layout.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone

Gemeinsam einsam: Wir können das Rad nicht zurückdrehen

(Together alone: We can’t turn the clock back)

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Newspaper | Beobachter
Date | 1.4.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | addiction, brain, smartphone, technology-free
Summary | ETH Neuroscientist Arko Ghosh has found out that smartphone use increases the size of the sensory/motoric front cortex of the brain. While many news media have reported his findings, few deeply engaged with his study. They rather just wanted to know from him whether that meant that smartphones were good or bad for the brain. One hotel in the Bernese Alps even advertises their location as particularly attractive because there is no cell phone reception or internet connection. Multiple apps to keep track of one’s smartphone use already exist.
Image Description | A group of four young people are staring at their phones.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone

Der Mann zieht seine Nummer ab

(A man takes off his number)

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Newspaper | Sonntagszeitung
Date | 14.8.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, research/study, smartphone, technology-free
Summary | A 29-year old man has decided to live without a cell phone because it causes anxiety and is not as necessary as everybody thinks. Recent studies have shown that many smartphone users can effectively be labeled as addicts because they check their phones more than 60 times a day. This obsession, paired with the fact that push notifications effect the release of dopamine, confirm the claim that smartphones increase anxiety.
Image Description | Photograph of the 29-year old man, crouching.
Image Tags | male(s)

Der Punk des neuen Jahrtausends

(The punk of the new millennium)

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Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 5.1.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | addiction, school, smartphone, youth
Summary | In the light of statistics saying that people who look at their smartphones more than 60 times a day are at risk of being addicted, teacher Claudia Senn consciously incorporates smartphone use in her class. She lets students research things on their smartphones in class and lets them listen to music while doing individual exercises in class. While she cannot fully control how students use their devices, she thinks it is important to learn about all the affordances of this new omnipresent technology.
Image Description | Photograph of a teenage girl taking a selfie while doing the hand-horns (rock-on sign).
Image Tags | female(s), selfie, smartphone

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