580 research outputs found
Developing social media literacy: how children learn to interpret risky opportunities on social network sites
The widespread use of social network sites (SNSs) by children has significantly reconfigured how they communicate, with whom and with what consequences. This article analyzes cross-national interviews and focus groups to explore the risky opportunities children experience online. It introduces the notion of social media literacy and examines how children learn to interpret and engage with the technological and textual affordances and social dimensions of SNSs in determining what is risky and why. Informed by media literacy research, a social developmental pathway is proposed according to which children are first recipients, then participants, and finally actors in their social media worlds. The findings suggest that SNSs face children (aged approximately 9–11) with the fundamental question of what is real or fake. By around 11–13, they are more absorbed by the question of what is fun, even if it is transgressive or fake. By age 14–16, the increasing complexity of their social and emotional lives, as well as their greater maturity, contributes to a refocusing on what is valuable for them. Their changing orientation to social networking online (and offline) appears to be shaped by their changing peer and parental relations, and has implications for their perceptions of risk of harm
Hipsters, trendies and rebels: if fun is cool, is game design cool design?
Recent discussions within the HCI community around designing software and devices for “coolness” have identified the importance of playfulness as an aspect of cool products.
Game studies, as a field of inquiry, has long been occupied with understanding playfulness, so it stands to reason that findings from this field might also support playfulness and therefore coolness outside the context of games. In this paper, we briefly explore potential overlaps between the research into designing for coolness and that of designing for playfulness. An example of an overlap in terms of motivation is presented and potential future directions are discussed
Limit on the fermion masses in technicolor models
Recently it has been pointed out that no limits can be put on the scale of
fermion mass generation in technicolor models, because the relation
between the fermion masses and depends on the dimensionality of the
interaction responsible for generating the fermion mass. Depending on this
dimensionality it may happens that does not depend on at all. We show
that exactly in this case may reach its largest value, which is almost
saturated by the top quark mass. We make few comments on the question of how
large can be a dynamically generated fermion mass.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, RevTeX
A simple derivation and classification of common probability distributions based on information symmetry and measurement scale
Commonly observed patterns typically follow a few distinct families of
probability distributions. Over one hundred years ago, Karl Pearson provided a
systematic derivation and classification of the common continuous
distributions. His approach was phenomenological: a differential equation that
generated common distributions without any underlying conceptual basis for why
common distributions have particular forms and what explains the familial
relations. Pearson's system and its descendants remain the most popular
systematic classification of probability distributions. Here, we unify the
disparate forms of common distributions into a single system based on two
meaningful and justifiable propositions. First, distributions follow maximum
entropy subject to constraints, where maximum entropy is equivalent to minimum
information. Second, different problems associate magnitude to information in
different ways, an association we describe in terms of the relation between
information invariance and measurement scale. Our framework relates the
different continuous probability distributions through the variations in
measurement scale that change each family of maximum entropy distributions into
a distinct family.Comment: 17 pages, 0 figure
Demanding by Design: Supporting Effortful Communication Practices in Close Personal Relationships
The investment of effort into personal communication can be highly meaningful to people, and has particular significance for the mediation of close relationships. This paper presents qualities of effort investment that are seen to be valuable. Furthermore, we consider how these qualities might sensitise designers of communication technologies to the meaningfulness of effort. We report a qualitative study focusing on individual descriptions of meaningful effort invested into everyday correspondence. We encapsulate our findings in the form of five qualities that characterise valued effort: discretionary investment, personal craft, focused time, responsiveness to the recipient, and challenge to a sender’s capacities. Drawing on ideas generated in brainstorming sessions, we present two illustrative concepts for new communication technologies, highlighting how our findings can guide the creation of designed artefacts
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