Could these gentlemen be early pioneers of textspeak? Council Flat Holm Project/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY Long before ‘sup’ and ‘hwu’ there was ‘Hw r u ts mng?’ By Dr. Lauren Collister / 09.01.2015 Sociolinguist Director, Office of Scholarly Communication & Publishing University of Pittsburgh From “lol” to “brb,” the internet and text messaging gave rise to a unique[…]
Using social media can be a masochistic means of escaping the self By Rob Horning / 05.15.2016 When I read anthropologist Natasha Dow Schüll’s book on gambling, Addiction by Design, it started me thinking of how machine gambling works as an analogue for social media: Both facilitate an escapism through engagement, an immersion in immediate risk-taking routines that obscures[…]
Is this the future of human identity? Luke James Ritchie/Shutterstock.com By Dr. Jungwoo Ryoo / 11.08.2017 Professor of Information Sciences and Technology Pennsylvania State University Proving identity is a routine part of modern daily life. Many people must show a driver’s license to buy alcohol at a store, flash an ID card to security guards at work, enter[…]
Photos retrieved from a simple search of Instagram for “Human Skulls”, collected July 10, 2017 By Dr. Damien Huffer (left) and Dr. Shawn Graham (right) / 07.12.2017 Huffer: Postdoctoral Researcher, Stockholm University Graham: Associate Professor, Carleton University ‘The Insta-Dead: the rhetoric of the human remains trade on Instagram’ https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.546132 Issue 45 Abstract There is a[…]
The behavior of consistent liberals and consistent conservatives is the topic of a Pew study. (Photo: Oli Dunkley/Creative Commons) By Dr. Daniel Miller Professor of Anthropology University College of London 7:1 (2017) Abstract This article suggests that while anthropologists have developed a highly nuanced analysis of kinship and friendship under a more general comparative study[…]
Could scanning a QR code be an invitation to malware? Zapp2Photo/Shutterstock.com By Dr. Jeremy Straub / 10.11.2017 Assistant Professor of Computer Science North Dakota State University You’ve probably been told it’s dangerous to open unexpected attachment files in your email – just like you shouldn’t open suspicious packages in your mailbox. But have you been warned[…]
Is this our relationship to tech companies now? Queen Mary Master By Joshua A.T. Fairfield, J.D. / 09.05.2017 Professor of Law Washington and Lee University Internet-enabled devices are so common, and so vulnerable, that hackers recently broke into a casino through its fish tank. The tank had internet-connected sensors measuring its temperature and cleanliness. The hackers got[…]
An artist’s depiction of the ‘shibboleth incident.’ Detail from art by H. de Blois, from The Bible and Its Story Taught by One Thousand Picture Lessons, vol. 3, edited by Charles F. Horne and Julius A. Bewer, 1908 By Dr. Brian Lennon / 05.03.2017 Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature Director, Digital Culture and[…]
By Dr. Roderick S. Graham / 01.25.2017 Associate Professor of Sociology Old Dominion University The internet is much more than just the publicly available, Google-able web services most online users frequent – and that’s good for free expression. Companies frequently create private networks to enable employees to use secure corporate servers, for example. And free[…]
Defoe in the pillory. Pioneering 18th century British pamphleteer Daniel Defoe was persecuted for his anonymously published critique of a royal campaign. / James Charles Armytage engraving via Wikimedia By Dr. Susan Park, J.D. / 06.07.2015 Associate Professor of Business and Marketing Boise State University “Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority,”[…]
This image shows crystals used for storing entangled photons, which behave as though they are part of the same whole. Scientists use crystals like these in quantum teleportation experiments. / Credits: Félix Bussières/University of Geneva Quantum physics is a field that appears to give scientists superpowers. Those who understand the world of extremely small or[…]
A keynote talk is given by Brenna Berman, Chicago Department of Innovation and Technology CIO during “Engineering and Entrepreneurship: The Internet of Things,” in which everyday objects possess network connectivity that allows them to send and receive data, radically transforming the way we live and work. / Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer HUBweek session examines the[…]
Snowden and others react to new allegations that Yahoo scanned all of its customers incoming emails last year on behalf of the government. (Image: Esther Vargas/flickr/cc) Rights groups said the news proves “the failure of U.S. government reforms to curb NSA’s tendency to try and indiscriminately vacuum up the world’s data.” By Lauren McCauley /[…]
In art that defines itself by what it withholds from public view lies the challenge for us to do the same By American Artist / 09.13.2016 An image that is not shared publicly on social media platforms, a dignity image provides the means by which Internet users may gain some measure of control over their[…]