The digital age

Luddites

Individuals opposed to industrialisation

Data smog / information glut

The overwhelming amount of data available on the internet that may hinder adequate processing.

Information overload / infobesity / infoxication

The state of being overwhelmed by excessive information

Information fatigue syndrome

A condition characterized by paralysis of analytical capacity

Doomscrolling

The act of spending an excessive amount of time reading large quantities of negative news online.

IoT (Internet of Things)

A system of interconnected devices that can exchange data without requiring human intervention.

Smart home (domotics)

Products and systems related to home automation

Doxxing

The practice of researching and publicly broadcasting private information about an individual or organization.

Net neutrality

The principle that Internet service providers must treat all data equally without discrimination.

Consolidation of the internet

The trend where a decreasing number of websites account for a growing percentage of internet traffic.

Confirmation bias

The tendency to search for

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)

A regulation implemented by the EU in 2018 governing the collection and processing of personal data.

Privacy laws in the EU

Stronger regulations compared to the US regarding the protection of individuals' privacy and data rights.

Valladolid Debate

A historical debate that examined Indigenous peoples' rights and humanity.

AI moral consideration

The current questioning about whether advanced AI systems deserve to be treated as individuals.

Information revolution

The significant changes brought about by the increase in information availability through digital means.

Paralysis of analytical capacity

A state where an individual is unable to make decisions due to overwhelming information.

Anxiety and self-doubt

Emotional responses that can result from information overload.

Flawed conclusions

Incorrect decisions or judgments made as a result of poor information processing.

Data collection

The process of gathering information

Data security

Measures taken to protect data from unauthorized access or corruption.

Surveillance

The monitoring of behavior and activities

Echo chamber

A social environment or online space in which individuals are primarily exposed to information

Luddism

A secret organisation of English textile workers in the 19th century who formed a radical faction which destroyed textile machinery.

Algorithmic bias

When trained on man-made data

Infinite scrolling technique

A technique developed by Aza Raskin in 2006

Dumbphones

Phones like flip phones that have no internet access

No-smartphone code

A voluntary initiative adopted by parents and schools across Greystones

The Facebook Papers

An internal document leak from Facebook in 2021 that proved the company was aware of the negative impact of Instagram on teenage users.

Anxious Generation

A term used by Jonathan Haidt in 2024 to describe the rise of smartphones and overprotective parenting.

Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024

A law prohibiting individuals under the age of 16 from creating accounts on certain social media platforms

AlphaZero

A machine that learned chess by playing against itself for only four hours

Tay

A chatbot tested by Microsoft in 2016 that learned from Twitter and quickly picked up racist and sexist language.

SolarWind hack

A major cyberattack in 2020 suspected to have been committed by a group backed by the Russian government

Mental illness rise

A phenomenon linked to the increase in smartphone usage and social media engagement.

41 years on the device

The estimated time for the 4 percent of students who spend nine hours or more on their phone every day.

Creative mastery in chess

The unconventional winning moves and strategies developed by AlphaZero

Data breaches

Incidents resulting from cyberattacks that compromise sensitive information from organizations.

Whistleblower

An individual who exposes information or activity within an organization that is deemed illegal or unethical.

Teenage users of Instagram

A demographic group highlighted in the Facebook Papers as being negatively impacted by the platform.

Searches for dumbphones

An increase in consumer interest in phones with limited internet access

Radical faction

A group within the Luddites that took extreme measures against the use of machinery in the textile industry.

Self-reinforcing feedback loop

A cycle in which individuals interact with like-minded people

Affected organizations

Organizations worldwide affected include the U.S. Treasury Department

SolarWinds's Orion software

A supply chain attack on SolarWinds's Orion software

Ai-Da

The first ultra-realistic humanoid robot artist that makes drawings

DALL·E

An image generation model developed by OpenAI

Pegasus spyware

A private spyware developed by NSO Group

Democracy

Some question whether tech giants have become too powerful

Facebook's market share

Facebook has 77% of mobile social networking traffic in the US

Section 230

A section of US law that generally provides immunity for online computer services regarding content generated by its users.

Chatbot bias

Most chatbots have a liberal bias

Social Credit Score

A national reputation system developed by the Chinese government to assess citizens' and businesses' economic and social reputation.

Mass surveillance

The Social Credit Score system uses facial recognition and big data analysis technology for mass surveillance.

Consequences of low social credit

Millions of tickets have been denied to people deemed 'untrustworthy'

Benefits of high social credit

People with high credit ratings may wait less time at hospitals

Black Mirror episode 'Nosedive'

An episode that evokes a dystopian application of the Social Credit Score concept.

Fake news prevalence

In the run-up to the 2016 US presidential election

Fake news statistics

Fake news made up an estimated 6 percent of the total news articles visited by Donald Trump's supporters.

TikTok ban in India

In 2020

US Congress action on TikTok

In January 2025

Operation Narwhal

Obama's 2012 campaign that involved data and digital strategy tailored to specific audiences.

Cambridge Analytica

Trump's 2016 campaign that analyzed data harvested from Facebook without user consent.

computer science / information technology

l'informatique

domotics

la domotique

computer scientist/engineer

un informaticien

to digitise / computerise

numériser / digitaliser

to circumvent / bypass

contourner

to hack into a system

s'introduire dans un système

to automate

automatiser

harassment

le harcèlement

automation

automatisation