Smartphone - Dumbphone → Comedic effect

Irony: The protagonist has turned into what he once mocked

“In the forest tweeting”- Effects of a smartphone

Change in the protagonist's face as he obsesses over this new technology

Change in background from a pleasant one in the first panel to a dark and grim one in the final panel

Introspection as the readers know the protagonist’s thoughts

M- The effects of a smartphone and what it can do to an individual

A- Primary audience: Those who may spend extended periods of time on their smartphones to educate them about what being dependent on a smartphone looks like

Secondary audience: The general public

P- To show people what it looks like to rely heavily on a smartphone as it causes a disconnection from reality

S- Comedic effects, change in illustration (background as well as the expressions of the protagonist), absence of gutters and introspection

A: Primary is people who read webcomics secondary is people who use mobile phones

P: To highlight the problem of phone addiction in the 21^st century

S: Two-page multimodal webcomic, colored

Color:

®    First page: Warmer colors (initial usefulness of the phone)

®    Second page: Cooler colors (sense of gloom and spiraling into addiction)

®    First panel, everyone has black-colored phones. In the second panel, the protagonist gets a phone that is red in color, so he still has his own autonomy. In the third panel, he receives a black-colored phone which could indicate that he is doomed to have the same fate as the others.

®    Phone emits yellow light all the time - gives a sense of happiness but because its common to everyone – a sense of conformity

®    Negative space and gutters are not there: Fast paced-mirrors how easy it is to get addicted to your phone

®    Text boxes start as white and eventually become red, contrast

Language:

®    Casual, mainly uses narration

®    Highlights his progression into the phone addiction: starts as special and having experienced unfragmented reality to curious about the device and eventually accepting it into his life.

®     Text in box when he takes a photo ‘Authentic fake camera shutter sound’ oxymoron

®    Radio emissions, blanket surveillance are distorted: underlying side effects that he agreed to

®    Undergoes an internal conflict of his identity because of his new use of smartphone, compensates by something trivial like knowing the weather forecast (ironic because it is raining)

®    He is self-aware about his spiral into phone addiction but he ignores it

Symbolism:

®    Skull: As soon as he gets the phone, shows the effect of the phone on people’s lives

®    The ‘Trust us’ emoji, green color, ironic because he is not smiling

®    Forest: he is nature and yet using his phone (bird sounds like tweet and chirp contrast the technology in his hand)

®    Eye ball: Shows the surveillance he is under due to his online presence

®    Fire: Hell, the path he is walking on is leading him to hell because of the phone addiction

Even the senator of his town/city is addicted to his phone

-the comic strip uses a range of colors to visually appeal the reader.

-The yellow color has been used to symbolize the dawn of the 21st century which is - irony

-Yellow signifies a new beginning and positivity or optimism which is very ironic as a smartphone is also making people very anxious. It has been used in words like '21st century', 'join the hive' and even the background color changes to yellow when the character holds the 'smart phone'

-Having a smartphone is depicted as a symbol of being normal or being a human. The character thinks that he is abnormal if in today's world he does not own a smartphone.

-The comic strip does not use any gutter spaces and has excessive text. This is done to keep the reader engrossed in the comic.

-Some pauses have been given between words like "bit......excessive" and "eternal new dawn...." to let the readers anticipate about what is going to happen further. It also helps to slow down the pace of the text

-The use of colloquial words like 'dumbphone' brings a sense of humor which makes the reader enthusiastic. Humour makes the audience want to keep reading the comic

-Vocabulary from other languages has been used to increase the curiosity of the readers.

-the eye and the dark clouds show how dull and depressive life is when one has a smartphone.

A - phone, technology users

P - to warn the audience to be more wary of how they use their phone

S - color, text, negative space

Color:

• black in 2nd panel emphasizes on loss of the dumb phone, but it also foreshadows the move towards the new phone

• pale green in 3rd panel is sickening to the reader, but is inviting to the man and paints the phone in a bad light

Text:

• "ominously....smartphone" signifies that consumers and the audience don't know who made the phone and that they should be skeptical.

• "JOIN THE HIVE" panel is very ironic as the consumer did the exact same thing, but over here, it is presented like a indoctrinating or ominous choice from the big corporations that made the phone as well as the government

The illustrations portray how the character and his world change as he becomes addicted to his phone.

• At the beginning of the comic, the main character is seen to be smiling with rosy cheeks. However, in the comic's last panel, we see him frowning with sagging cheeks and dark under eyes.

• In the beginning, the background is painted with bright colors but in the last panel, the background of the comic is very dull and gray.

Humor and Sarcasm

• The thought bubble saying "trust us" is sarcastic. Both the main character and the friends sending the message know that what he is doing will harm him in the long run.

• The sarcasm in "authentic fake camera shutter sound" shows that much of what happens on smartphones is not real and shows how it is harmful.

  
  

Symbol of the Hive

• The main character receives a message that says "Join the Hive". The hive symbolizes society's collective addiction to smartphones.

• In the last panel, the main character says that he is stuck in the hive where he is addicted to his phone.

Symbol of Surviellance

• The text states that what pictures are taken on the phone are sent to the government.

• The eye is surveilling him in the end.

I. Image:

• Visual narrative: Weaves a story using images to create a strong visual impact on the reader. Uses protagonist's emotions/caricatures to convey character's story/journey with smartphones.

• Visual Irony: Panel 7- walking into the forest while texting, looking at the phone in the storm, conveying the reality of how phones impact people's lives.

• Colour: As the protagonist starts off sans phone- saturated, neon, bold colours. As he's sucked into the phone world- natural elements and colours. Shows how protagonist initially feels out of place and then becomes detached from the world. Neon yellow- light of the phone symbolizes fakeness/ artificial which is sth protagonist falls into. Use of blues/grays give "doomsday" effect

  
  

  II. Text:  

• Colloquial language- resembles one's thoughts/casual parlance of people today

• Voice overs and text featured in panels are in first person. It gives an insight into protagonist's, thoughts experiences and ideas.

• Satire- highlights the harmful effects of smartphone by using humour and satire. "smartphone- dumbphone", "take pictures-send them straight to the authorities", "weather forecast".

• Speech bubbles and thought bubbles: They add context to visual grammar "hey why not", "tentative curiosity", "so here I am now...".

III. Layout

• Comic strip on a web page.

• Smaller panels with barely any gutter space accelerates pace, larger panels with gutter space wind down the comic book and give audiences time for reflection and digestion (of the content of the comic book)

• No voiceover in the last panel- until then, voiceovers were his observations into the 'digital world', now he has become too absorbed in that world that he cannot reflect or observe.

• Features a combination of styles- hand drawn animations supported by technological features- showing a dichotomy of two worlds and how one is being lost in favour of the other.