Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 28
Posts 11 - 20

Quand le smartphone fait de l'ombre au bébé

(When smartphones eclipse babies)

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Newspaper | La Tribune de Genève
Date | 13.6.2017
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, childhood, smartphone, technology-free, threat
Summary | More and more parents take a lot of pictures of their newborn before holding him/her for the first time. As a result, a hospital in the Swiss German part of Switzerland decided to impose a new rule: no screen during mother-baby nap. The problem especially affects the younger generation (under 30). Parents seem to pay more attention to their smartphone, which is alarming. For instance, mothers post pictures of themselves in labor. There are no special rules in Geneva, but doctors and midwives are thinking about alternatives. An excessive use of smartphones can also have a negative impact on children's development.
Image Description | Photograph of a hand taking a picture of a newborn with a smartphone
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone

Smartphones können Spracherwerb bei Kindern behindern

(Smartphones can hinder the language learning of children)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 15.6.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | childhood, language threat, smartphone
Summary | Children learn language by being interacted with and spoken with. Smartphones can get in the way of that, say when a parent waits for the bus with their child. Before smartphones, the parent would comment on the surroundings and interact with the child. Now, the parent might check their messages and pass up a valuable learning opportunity for their child.
Image Description | A hand holding a smartphone.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone

Soll mein Kind mit dem Handy für die Schule lernen?

(Should my child use a smartphone to study for school?)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 19.3.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | childhood, digitized education, school, smartphone
Summary | Education is becoming increasingly digitized - even in primary school. There are many learning apps on offer that let students practice lessons from school, for instance from math or a foreign language. Educators agree that digitized education is the future but that learning apps cannot replace a personal tutor if children have perform poorly in school. Parents are worried that by letting children do schoolwork on their smartphones the children will spend too much time using digital devices over all.
Image Description | Illustration of a girl sitting at a school desk holding her arm up. The desk is placed on a huge smartphone.
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone

"Ich bin dein Sohn!"

("I am your son!")

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 6.4.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | childhood, emojis, texting, YouTube
Summary | It is interesting to watch children develop a texting personality. As they grow up with new media, they use them quite naturally. They easily incorporate emojis, use audio messages, or share YouTube videos. Texting humor is also learned quite automatically.
Image Description | Image of a boy holding a smartphone.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone

Einfach mal abschalten

(Just turn it off for a little)

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Newspaper | die Weltwoche
Date | 27.4.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, childhood, smartphone, threat
Summary | Lots of adults are virtually tied to their smartphones, even when crossing the street. The children, naturally, imitate this and for the "head-down generation". One cannot blame the children for becoming addicted to smartphones because they can only form into what they learn from their parents. No wonder that we are dealing with epidemic-like amounts of ADHD diagnoses: children are tranquilized with screens and later the developmental tolls of this are treated with drugs.
Image Description | A collage-like illustration of parents drifting off into the ocean on rafts made of giant smartphones and the children left behind on an island.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone

'They're collaborating all the time': the schools making the most of mobile

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 13.1.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | childhood, digitized education, school, smartphone, youth
Summary | Some schools are embracing the technological advancements influencing our everyday lives by incorporating them into their classes. Some classes have even become entirely paper-free! Not all, however, the learning tools are chosen so as to to help maximize students' learning. Students are already familiar and comfortable with most of the technology and it makes no sense to ban smartphones from classrooms if they can enhance learning.
Image Description | Two girls looking at a smartphone together.
Image Tags | female(s), school, smartphone

Sexting: A language our children must never learn

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Newspaper | Daily Telegraph
Date | 20.4.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | abbreviations, childhood, sexting, technology-free, threat, youth
Summary | Youths are using abbreviations to keep their parents out of the loop like LMIRL (let's meet in real life). The police have published a list of these to help parents monitor their children. It is sad that children and teenagers have such low self-esteem that they do anything to receive validation from their digital peers. This is not just youth culture or rap music's fault but rather the parent's fault. They are always busy and spend too much time on their smartphone rather than gracing their children with face-to-face attention and smartphone-free activities.
Image Description | Getty image of a teenage boy smirking at a smartphone.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone

5 Ways Parents Can Help Prevent Cyberbullying

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Newspaper | Huffington Post
Date | 11.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | childhood, cyberbullying, social media, threat, youth
Summary | Cyberbullying, i.e. when people are bullied textually or with images over a digital platform, can be detrimental to teenagers' psyche. Especially since they are always available for notifications on their smartphones and because these digital tracks never disappear. It is important that parents keep an open line of communication with their children about this issue.
Image Description | Image of two girls holding a smartphone and looking shocked.
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone

Ärger mit vermeintlich kostenfreien Apps

(Trouble with supposedly free apps)

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Newspaper | Bergische Morgenpost
Date | 15.3.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | addiction, childhood, game, youth
Summary | Parents need to be warned about the hidden costs of supposedly free games. They are hugely popular among children and youths and free at first, like drugs where the first dose is often free, and then they get very expensive very quickly. Experts discourage parents from sharing their credit card information with their children. Addiction experts also advise parents to set up rules of smartphone usage with their children and enforce them - that is the only way how we can keep ourselves from getting addicted to our smartphones in a world of constant availability: by setting the limits ourselves.
Image Description | Pixabay photograph of a woman holding a smartphone.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), smartphone

Should You Spy on Your Kids?

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 9.11.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | childhood, privacy, research/study, threat
Summary | Many parents now monitor their children's online and social media activity, regulate their internet access (or even texting abilities) through the night and school hours using sophisticated technology, a few even observe the movements of their children or partners by tracking their devices. While tracking each other's devices in a relationship can be useful to avoid texting while driving, such technology can also be exploited and result in an emotionally abusive relationship. This is especially risky when the monitoring is not mutual like when parents 'stalk' their children, danah boys says. It is impossible for children to learn media competency when they are constantly under surveillance, they become less reluctant to share social media passwords with their peers and can otherwise remain naïve when it comes to online safety because they have been shielded from everything growing up.
Image Description | A series of minimalistic illustrations of a woman with a smartphone leaving a trail (dotted line).
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone

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