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A MEDICAL DOSE ON TIKTOK: AN ANALYSIS OF THE GROWING EDUCATIONAL SUB-GENRE

A MEDICAL DOSE ON TIKTOK: AN ANALYSIS OF THE GROWING EDUCATIONAL SUB-GENRE

New Media Research Practices WG5-A2 Final Project  Carla Roman, Lynn Kastalio, Alexia Miehm ABSTRACT As of September 2021 popular video-sharing app TikTok has reported more than one billion users (TikTok Newsroom 2021). This “global community” presents itself as an...
“Hey Siri, are you sharing my private data”: A commentary on the impact virtual personal assistants have on surveillance capitalism and user information consumption

“Hey Siri, are you sharing my private data”: A commentary on the impact virtual personal assistants have on surveillance capitalism and user information consumption

For a digitally immersed society driven by technological developments and innovations, personal voice-controlled virtual assistants such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple Siri have become a crucial component to task completion, user interaction, and information consumption. Virtual personal...
Signal – Speaking with no one listening

Signal – Speaking with no one listening

Signal is a messaging app that has been around since 2013. It is said to be one of the most secure messaging apps on the market. Whistleblower Edward Snowden uses it daily and describes Signal as the safest messaging...
Designing identities with Memojis – Apple’s animated avatars

Designing identities with Memojis – Apple’s animated avatars

Apple's new feature - Memoji - allows its users to design animated versions of their digital characters, which can be later shared with other iOS device owners. What does an introduction of this affordance entail for human practices of...
A Rhetoric of WeWalk-ing. Smart Canes and “feeling of freedom” in the urban environment

A Rhetoric of WeWalk-ing. Smart Canes and “feeling of freedom” in the urban environment

The new uses of smart technology are being constantly introduced, and unlike a cat selfie device or a cute planter that aim to add some fun to our humdrum existence, WeWALK smart cane attempt to make a difference. This...
Mission Control: The changing boundaries of control and ownership in the world’s biggest crowd funding success.

Mission Control: The changing boundaries of control and ownership in the world’s biggest crowd funding success.

The latest controversy surrounding the in development game Star Citizen, struck me as illustrative of the pitfalls and complexities of new forms of financing, and how they manifest the sunk cost fallacy in new, unexpected ways. It isn’t just...
Plastic never goes away – Can apps contribute to avoid plastic pollution?

Plastic never goes away – Can apps contribute to avoid plastic pollution?

Video: Plastic Pollution Coalition – OPEN YOUR EYES   The Plastic Age There is more plastic in the sea, than stars in the galaxy. Each year, 13 million tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans, and by 2050,...
You Snooze, You Lose? Temporary Time-Out from Friends on Facebook

You Snooze, You Lose? Temporary Time-Out from Friends on Facebook

  Brace yourselves! Facebook is testing out a ‘snooze’ button that reportedly mutes people on your feed for up to 30 days. With the help of the emerging feature, you could (and hopefully will very soon) walk away from...
Silicone Robotic Mask: Making Computed Emotions Physical

Silicone Robotic Mask: Making Computed Emotions Physical

An important aid in computing our emotions since the digital revolution is the use of emoticons. But our emotions could be captured and communicated better, by moving away from mimicking facial expressions to having roots in real physical functions....
Goalpost in the Ozone: The Deceptively Good Intentions of #Climate

Goalpost in the Ozone: The Deceptively Good Intentions of #Climate

As far as scientific consensus goes, it’s tempting to label the ‘debate’ around climate change as being over. However, to do so invites complacency, a willingness to delegate responsibility to a far-off unknown authority. News organisations, politicians and activists...
Le Flâneur: let him take you on a journey through Amsterdam…

Le Flâneur: let him take you on a journey through Amsterdam…

Le Flâneur is a mobile application that aims at improving users’ orientation skills by making them explore Amsterdam in a “smart way”. Making users learn the names of the streets and enable them to situate themselves without looking at wayfinding...
AI: is it just buzz or is it really changing the web design world?

AI: is it just buzz or is it really changing the web design world?

“A.I. Websites. Build for Humans.”   It has been quite a while since the non-stop futuristic flashy banners began showing up on my browser. The Grid is an AI web-builder that will build a website for you in a couple...
Mobile Apps as a New Level of Reality

Mobile Apps as a New Level of Reality

“New Media”. This collocation is used so often nowadays (and not just by researchers or practitioners, but by journalists, self-proclaimed experts and general populace) that it takes a conscious effort to take a step back and ask “What’s new...
rMA Thesis Conference 2015: (pre)Cyberspace Perspectives on Information Technologies

rMA Thesis Conference 2015: (pre)Cyberspace Perspectives on Information Technologies

The following is a modified transcript of my research presentation for the 2015 Research Master in Media Studies Thesis Conference. My thesis is an exploration of magical writing practices in contemporary digital culture. This was too much to talk...
The posthuman cyborg: Technological telepathy

The posthuman cyborg: Technological telepathy

Researches have recently published an article where they have done an experiment with some kind of technological telepathy. A man in India wearing a BCI (Brain-Computer Interface), has successfully transmitted different kind of words through thoughts to a man’s...
“SOMEBODY”.  Because “Texting is tacky. Calling is awkward. Email is old.”

“SOMEBODY”. Because “Texting is tacky. Calling is awkward. Email is old.”

By encouraging real-life interactions between strangers, Somebody is one of the most interesting apps launched lately. While messaging becomes an ordinary activity incorporated in most people’s lives nowadays, the artist Miranda July, in a partnership with the fashion brand...
Could Snapchat’s new feature challenge Facebook’s dominance in terms of trust and privacy?

Could Snapchat’s new feature challenge Facebook’s dominance in terms of trust and privacy?

What’s the next Facebook or is there one? Ask many, including John D. Sutter (2012), who suggests that this question is not only wishful thinking, but an increasingly likely reality. Jamie Turner argues that although Facebook is still “king...
Twitter’s “buy” button creates one-click shopping

Twitter’s “buy” button creates one-click shopping

Twitter, a microblogging platform with 271 million monthly active users began beta testing a “buy” button, allowing users to purchase exclusive merchandise from within the Twitter app. According to Twitter’s blog post, released September 8, 2014: “Today we are...
The Apple Watch: Fashionable and Tangible

The Apple Watch: Fashionable and Tangible

Images of wearable computers range from 1940s detective Dick Tracy through to Michael Knight’s 80s wrist watch. The cartoon detective’s watch, in particular, has reached iconic status in the electronics community. As perhaps one of the strips most recognizable...
Deliver the Letter, the Sooner the Better…?

Deliver the Letter, the Sooner the Better…?

Having a letter in the post box? Always a surprise … and a daily process to manage. Step into slippers, take the key, get out of house, open the box, grab the insides, get back into house, ideally use...
White noise; an ancient ruin?

White noise; an ancient ruin?

There are some different perspectives on white noise. Looking at white noise from the engineer perspective is like watching an infinite vortex that produces randomness in its purest way; the mean of 0 and variance of ∞. On the...
Garry Trotter and the Interactive Hallows

Garry Trotter and the Interactive Hallows

Gray Trotter, Donald Measely and Sermoine Ranger are best friends and study at the RowBards School of Storytelling & Fictionry.   Our story opens on a day, when the 3 of them are travelling to school by the RowBards...
Smart phones and Digital Inclusion in the developing world

Smart phones and Digital Inclusion in the developing world

The Digital Divide is a socio-economic inequality defined by ones access, use or knowledge of Internet and Communications Technology. This can be defined within a country or on a global scale. The later shows that ICT has developed unevenly...
The reason Heisenberg doesn’t miss not having a smartphone

The reason Heisenberg doesn’t miss not having a smartphone

Season one, Episode two. Walter White supplies his yet to be developed alter ego Heisenberg with an extra cellular phone. Contrary to his possibilities he doesn’t go for fancy, doesn’t go for state of the art, doesn’t go for...