Daily Reads-61 (Level-2)

Reading Suggestion-1

Article Name: Why you need emoji?
Author Name: Vyvyan Evans
Source: Nautilus
Category:Culture

Summary for this article :

In this simple and interesting article, the author talks about how emoji’s are helpful in digital communication. While some consider or blame the emoji’s for being the reason for the death of our language, the author contradicts this belief.

One estimate says that in our everyday communication with others, only 30-35 percent of the social dimensions of meaning comes from language with up to a staggering 70 percent deriving from nonverbal cues.

We also draw information from touch; a person’s handshake can determine his/her personality. Information can also be derived from self-touch. For example, an individual found fiddling with his/her hair can signal boredom or a romantic interest

Based on extensive research by an American anthropologist, Birdwhistell, we may be able to both produce and recognize as many as 250,000 distinct facial expressions. Hence emoji usage is perhaps no accident. It comes with its bewildering array of yellow faces ranging from the various permutations on a smile through to the various confused, unamused, sad, and angry faces and hence becomes so apt for visual communication in text speak.

Also much of the information relating to emotional expression and body language are missing in the digital texts. Hence emojis enable in filling the emotionally arid digital text with body language and emotional cue. In order words it adds life to an otherwise lifeless digital text.A research has also pointed out, that emoji usage has been helpful in the dating field. Women and men who use emojis end up being more fortunate in setting up a date for themselves.

The author concludes by saying that, while emoji’s can substitute for words in our text language one must be very careful in using the right emoji’s and at the right pace.

Words to learn from this article :

Quotidian: Things that happen every day, daily events
Prosody: Pattern of rhythm and sound s that is used in poetry
Kinesics: The study of body language
Lacuna: A gap
Causation: Causation means the process of causing something to happen

Reading Suggestion-1: Click to read full article

Reading Suggestion-2

Article Name: Tech has become another way for men to oppress women
Author name:Lizzie O’Shea
Source: The Guardian
Category: Technology

Summary for this article :

In this article, the author says how our society is male dominated even when it comes to technology. Following the revelation of sexual harassment case in uber and then a number of cases from the Silicon valley firms, the world had been shown a striking reality that the problem associated with women in workplaces is not because of their failure of lean in rather it is a culture of harassment and discrimination that makes their workplace unsafe and unpleasant to work at. The author says that the technological developments are undermining a women’s equality in other ways as well.

According to Melvin, technology is neither too good nor bad. It is not neutral as well; it just reflects the problems that exist in our society which includes the oppression of our women. The technology products not only reflect a backward view of the role of women but they also appear ignorant and indifferent to a women’s lived experience. Technology is used by abusers to harass women to a large extent.

Researchers have found that one of the word embedding models word2vev, a popular and freely available model trained on three million words from Google News is found to produce high gender analogies making this model racially biased. This model reflects the society as it is, rather than what it could or should be.

The author concludes by saying that we need to imagine a future without the oppression of the past. We need to enable the women to reach their potential in workplaces where they are not faced with discrimination and abuse and we also need to address the black side of technology that reflects the male dominated society.

Words to learn from this article:

Cosseted: Extreme care ; pampered
Vaunt: To praise about someone or something; to brag
Tepid: Lukewarm
Myriad: Indefinitely great number of people or things

Reading Suggestion-2: Click to read full article

Reading Suggestion-3

Article Name: The guilty pleasure of reading Hollywood memoirs
Author name:Carolyn Kellogg
Source: Los Angeles Times
Category: Literature

Summary for this article :

In this article, the writer shares her account of the guilty pleasures of reading Hollywood memoirs during the summer, providing her short and crisp review of the two memoirs she had read about two Hollywood actresses – Bette Davis and Colleen Moore. The former had written “The Lonely Life”while the latter “The Silent Star”.

The writer very elegantly describes these two actresses and a short account of their lives as presented in the memoir

Words to learn from this article :

Nadir: Reaching rock-bottom
Emasculate: When you emasculate someone or something you deprive them of their strength
Unctuous: Being excessively flattery
Bevvy: An alcoholic drink
Folderol: Rubbish; nonsense