When Using Your Cell Phone Gets Out of Control
In today’s society, technology has become a very prevalent part of people’s lives. One can walk down a crowded street and see people with some sort of technology in their hands, usually a cell phone. Cell phones have come a long way since they were invented. Not only are they used for talking, but now they can be used to text, check networking sites, surf the internet, and even play games. It does not seem uncommon that people have become addicted to their cell phones, being the only thing that makes people feel safe and taking away so much of their time. A website article and a cartoon, two different genres which will be analyzed in this essay, showing evidence that confirm cell phone addiction is a real thing, and its effects on people. The creator of the cartoon is Andy Davey and from the tabloid newspaper The Sun. The author of the article found in digitaltrends.com is Nick Mokey. Similarities and differences in intended audience, rhetorical issues, structure and style is what make both of these genres talk about cell phone addiction, but in their own way.
When reading the article that states the Top 10 Signs of Cell Phone Addiction, one can say that the intended audience is people who are computer literate, since the article was found on the internet. Since the website features various articles that pertain to technology, it can be speculated that this website has avid readers that check it on a daily, even weekly basis. This would mean that people who are interested in technology based information would be the intended audience of this article. The article gives 10 signs of cell phone addiction with a brief summary. The reader may not take more than ten minutes to read the whole article, but it can vary depending on how fast it is read. This would mean that the reader must have some leisure time when reading this and not be in a hurry. The purpose of this online article is to inform the reader about the signs of cell phone addiction. By further inspecting the article, it was found that the author does this in a humorous manner. For example, the author states that someone might be buying accessories for a cell phone in excess and says, “You realize that it’s just a phone, not a kid, right?” (Mokey, 2010). When looking at the newspaper cartoon, one can say that the intended audience is people who read The Sun tabloid newspaper. The audience is likely to be avid readers of The Sun tabloid newspaper, which is published daily in the United Kingdom. Mr. Andy Davey most likely created this cartoon to entertain his audience. Once read, the reader might want to know more about cell phone addiction, exploring the issue further. The significant difference between these two genres is that the article was written to inform the reader about the signs of cell phone addiction, but with a humorous tone. The cartoon was created for mainly entertainment purposes. A similarity between the two genres is that both acknowledge that cell phone addiction is a prevalent issue in our society. For the reader, it is important to know where the information is coming from, and that is where credibility comes in.
To establish credibility, one can look at where the work was published. The online article, which was published on the website digitaltrends.com, boasts about providing the latest news to users with” hi-tech lifestyles”. When reading the About section of the website, nowhere did it say the website was the online version of a magazine. This section of the website talks about how many viewers the website has, “Digital Trends is one of the fastest growing tech lifestyle sites on the web with more than 4 million monthly unique visitors world-wide…” (Digital Trends). This enhances the article’s credibility because it can be inferred that people are pleased with the articles that Digital Trends puts out for their readers. Pathos can also be found in this online article. On top of the page, before the article starts, there is a photograph of four teenagers who look transfixed, looking at their phones without having eye contact with each other. If a parent is looking at this picture and they have a son/daughter who’s suffering from cell phone addiction, this photograph might evoke concern. When observing the cartoon, evidence of credibility can be obtained by researching Davey’s background. When going through Davey’s website, andydavey.com, it can be seen that he is a well-known cartoonist whose work has been published in different newspapers, not just The Sun. Evidence of pathos can also be found when observing the cartoon. Since the cartoon was created for the purpose of entertainment, amusement is one emotion that people reading the cartoon might experience. When comparing both genres, they both come from credible sources, but they do not evoke the same emotion when observing both of them. Logic can also be found in these two genres, and it mostly has to be because of their structure and layout.
Both the online article and the cartoon are expressing that cell phone addiction affects people, but the way that they are expressing the message is very different. The online article has much more space to give the ten signs of cell phone addiction with a brief description of each of them. The cartoon does not have the space to give much information about cell phone addiction, but the dialogue between the two characters talking to each other on their cell phones expresses the same idea, in an entertaining manner. The layout of the cartoon is logically placed because the two main characters are placed front and center, attracting the audience’s attention. The characters in the background are there to further prove the point about cell phone addiction. When observing the online article’s layout, we can see that each sign about cell phone addiction is numbered logically in descending order. This organizational method provides the audience with sense of expectation, which makes them want to read on and on until they reach the number one reason for cell phone addiction. Both genres convey the message effectively although their language and style are things that further separate them.
When it comes to comparing the language of both genres, it is clear which is formal and which is informal just by reading them. The online article is written in a formal manner which maybe a way to attract a broader audience, since many people who surf the web are accustomed to read this type of language style. It is said that the article is written in a formal language because there are no abbreviations to words, there is good sentence structure, meaning there are no run-on sentences and punctuation is used correctly. When analyzing the cartoon’s style of language, it can be seen that it is written in an informal style, which help the cartoonist to get the message across to the audience who use those abbreviations while texting. For example, people who do not text or use the computer to communicate might not know the definition of “OMG”, and “LOL”. It can also be noted that those two words, including “ADDICTED”, “LAUGH”, and “TWEETED” are capitalized, which stresses their importance to the cartoon. The significant difference in the style of language is something that portrays what type of audience both genres wanted to attract the most.
When comparing both genres, the online article would have to be the one that conveys the message about cell phone addiction most effectively because it is the one that gives more information out of the two. The cartoon has limitations where not so many words can be on it, since it was created for entertainment purposes. The style of language in the online article has its advantage as well because of it being formal and more common, which results in a bigger discourse community when compared to the cartoon. Both genres can impact people who are researching about cell phone addiction, but the one that may be more helpful than the other is the online article.
References
Davey, Andy, Cartoon: Mobile Phone Addiction; Retrieved from http://www.englishblog.com/2011/08/cartoon-mobile-phone-addiction.html
Davey, Andy, Andy Davey. Cartoons and Caricatures; Retrieved from http://www.andydavey.com/
Mokey, Nick (2010, January 25) Top 10 Signs of Cell Phone Addiction; Retrieved from http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/top-10-signs-of-cell-phone-addiction/
