New Media M.A. Research Blog | Media Studies, University of Amsterdam

Like, swipe, match… “you vaxxed?”

How Hinge and Tinder have adapted their affordances to the COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic caused a spike in dating app usage while simultaneously altering the standard dating practices. To analyze how dating apps have responded to this change,...

By Simran Tamber on 10/27/21 Comments Off

Extend the Flawless Beauty: Facetune Video Further Goes against Beauty Activism

With TikTok becoming increasingly popular in people’s daily life, such global prevalence of applications that focus on instant short video feeds indicates that people’s quest for a flawless face and a well-proportioned body shape no longer stops at still...

By on 09/28/20 Comments Off

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...

By Alexandra Hagedorn on 09/28/20 Comments Off

Health Code, a tool to tackle COVID-19 or automatize social control?

“Please show your Health Code.” A few months since the COVID-19 pandemic started, almost all public places in China have posted such requests at the entrances. Health Code, a color-based application, is rolled out to control people’s movements and...

By on 09/28/20 Comments Off

Have You Gone Green? INFRAWARE as a Digital Intervention for Environmental Awareness

INFRAWARE (composed of the words infrastructure, awareness and hard/software) is a browser plug-in that displays how your personal use of technology is deeply entangled with the planet’s resources and the environmental crisis we are currently experiencing. Go green. Paperless...

By on 10/23/19 Comments Off

EcoScanner: Self-tracking Sustainability

Piloting the EcoScanner: A Self-tracking Solution to Sustainability Annika Heinemeyer, Daniel Jurg, Molly Doell, Ziwen Tang Abstract Modern consumers are using apps to track all types of behavior (sleep, running, eating etc.). But while there are some...

By Annika Heinemeyer on 10/22/18 Comments Off

Online to Offline, Customers Have Nowhere to Hide —A New Targeting Technology via Wifi on Mobile Devices

Have you ever received the promotion advertisements from some brands? The answer for most of us probably is: yes. Based on customers’ preferences, retailers offer the information of their upcoming products by the eye-catching advertisements. However, have you ever...

By Jing Shi on 09/24/18 Comments Off

Are we compromising our privacy and safety for comfort and ease?

We are becoming more and more used to the idea of new technology being embedded, into our everyday lives and activities. Marshall McLuhan believes that we treat “technologies as extended bodily organs.” (Durham Peters) We are continuously experimenting...

By Cecilie Overgaard on 09/24/18 Comments Off

I’m a good person…seriously…just check my Kinditude!

My phone noisily vibrates on the empty train seat beside me, snapping me out of my daydream. A notification on my locked screen says “Remind to be kind!”. The grammar needs work, but the message is clear: I need...

By Rae Alexander on 09/23/18 Comments Off

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,...

By Clara Bläser on 09/23/18 Comments Off

ArtPassport: A Digitalized and Democratized Experience of Art

As media technologies and practices continue to advance, the art world is simultaneously facing a metamorphosis that presents new challenges to not only what constitutes art—but how art should be experienced. ArtPassport is one such example of an app...

By Anya Doshi on 09/23/18 Comments Off

SleepScore Max: Are Big Data the New Digital Doctors?

In the present media landscape, big data has revolutionized the way in which we regulate, analyse and influence data across several industries — one of which is healthcare. With the ability to monitor patients based on sensors embedded in...

By Anika Doshi on 09/23/18 Comments Off

The clever dispenser that nobody asked for

A young Silicon Valley start-up just launched a product of arguable novelty. This product is a dispenser customized with some edgy additional features such as the Wi-Fi, several cameras and an app. The start-up, named Bodega, created...

By Elodie Mugrefya on 09/25/17 Comments Off

“One More Thing…” – A critical approach to the Apple 2017 Keynote Presentation

But there is “One more thing.” There it was again. These famous words, first introduced by Steve Jobs, where presented at the 2017 Keynote Presentation. It was the first presentation in the official Steve Jobs Theater and the “One...

By Tijs Koops on 09/25/17 Comments Off

The Kakao Empire: The South Korean Example of a Digitalized Lifestyle

In South Korea, you can do everything with Kakao. You can send an ice cream cake to your friends, get updates about new mobile games, manage a bank account, call a taxi and much, much more. Although it may...

By Trisha Lee on 09/24/17 Comments Off

Neural Networks: The Technology Behind FaceApp

There are countless photo editing apps available online, with dozens, if not hundreds, letting you change your face through the use of filters. So what is different about FaceApp? Well, this application does not use filters as we know...

By Andy on 09/24/17 Comments Off

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...

By David Molloy on 09/24/17 Comments Off

Authenticating Authenticity: Entrupy’s Use of Crowdsourcing and Data Mining to Authenticating Designer Bags

Alibaba’s Jack Ma caused quite the stir in 2016 when he noted that, “The problem is the fake products today are of better quality and better price than the real names… They are exactly the same factories, exactly the...

By Krista Agbayani on 09/24/17 Comments Off

Breaking the illusion of Control: “Home -1.0”

Introduction: Idea and Aim of the Project A recent innovation towards ultimate control is Apple’s “Home” app, which can command all smart devices in a house, from lamps to locks. But who gains power with this app? Is it...

By Michel Blonk on 10/21/16 Comments Off

Paprika: From Anonymity and Self-presentation to the True Self

Applications such as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, LinkedIn and Twitter are known by most smartphone users. When looking at someone else’s smartphone, you will most likely see at least one of those applications and it even gets suspicious when someone...

By Elsemieke Vermijs on 10/21/16 Comments Off

New Digital Ink: The Terms and Conditions of Tech Tats

A future with chips implanted under your skin which track your health and makes bankcards and keys unnecessary might seem distant, but with the development of the newest generation of wearables – the so called Tech Tat – it...

By Arabella Memdouh on 10/21/16 Comments Off

The Rise of the Emoji’s. Final goal: World Domination.

It seems almost impossible, a life without these creative, colourful and sometimes confusing characters. There is no easier way of texting – even for those who aren’t used to modern smartphones – and it seems like...

By Mintsje deWitte on 09/22/16 Comments Off

#CopyPaste – The battle between Instagram and Snapchat

There is a battle going on between Instagram and Snapchat.. but who is on the winning hand? A-team Instagram is a mobile phone photo-sharing, video-sharing and social network service. It enables users to take pictures and videos and...

By Arabella Memdouh on 09/21/16 Comments Off

YY Inc.- China’s trending live-streaming app

Live- streaming has been many tech- enthusiasts’ dreams, and it was once a struggle to make this peer-to-peer, one-to- many online interactions come true. However, YY, starting as a live- gaming application, has recently reached a billion registered users...

By Joanne Lin on 09/20/16 Comments Off