Things That Suck
"Digital" Vocabulary
Ethics Applied
Potpourri
"A" List
100

Having to talk to people in real life

Face-to-face communication

100

Messages transmitted through an infrastructure of digital software, hardware, and networked systems

What is digital communication?

100

Ahmed and Sarah share responsibility for the quality of messages in this balanced form of communication

Symmetrical communication
100

This term describes a medium in which messages are exchanged in real-time

What is synchronous?

100

These programs sort through data to determine which messages are relevant for you to receive

What are algorithms?

200

A digital story that deceives audiences by combining authentic emotion with inauthentic information

What is fake news?

200

When we are bombarded with too many digital information that we cannot keep up, we experience this phenomenon

What is digital communication overload?

200

This 2016 presidential candidate was criticized for using a personal email address to conduct official business as Secretary of State

Who is Hillary Clinton?

200

Feelings of closeness and trust develop faster, and more intensely in these mediated relationship than in their face-to-face counterparts

What are hyperpersonal relationships?

200

A digitally created icon that represents you online

What is an avatar?

300

These artificial intelligence programs simulate human interaction

What are chatterbots?

300

Strained by digital communication overload, we do this to manage the flow of information

What is digital filtering?

300

This 2016 presidential candidate was criticized for benefitting from fake news produced by "content farms" in Eastern Europe.

Who is Donald Trump?

300

The experience of, through digital communication, feeling physically close to those who are physically distant

What is virtual proximity?

300

This term describes a medium in which messages are exchanged at different times

What is asynchronous?

400

Collectives of homogenous persons targeted by algorithms, usually unaware of their being collected and targeted

What are calculated publics?

400

Monitoring by large-scale institutions and organizations of less powerful entities. Big Brother is watching

What is digital surveillance?

400

Citizens of Townsville vote "Yes" to require police officers to wear body cameras, enacting a form of this

What is sousveillance?

400

A community in which you can choose when to be a member and when to leave, as opposed to belonging by birth

What is a postmodern community?

400

The power to act in certain ways when the people with whom you're communicating don't know who you are in physical reality

What is (freedom of) anonymity?

500

The arguably unethical use of words like, "suck" in things like Jeopardy! categories

What is heteronormative language?

500

These uni-tasking advocates claim that distracted work decreases efficiency.

What are digital multi-tasking critics?

500

Bobby says, "That's crazy," in a half mumble as he glances down at his fantasy football score. Physically present, but not fully invested, Bobby embodies this phenomenon

What is continuous partial attention?

500

A digital form of postmodern community in which each person has greater freedom and flexibility than ever before

What is a virtual community?

500

Facilitated by intentional filtering, this unbalanced process reinforces the perceptual systems of the receivers

What is asymmetrical communication?