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Satire: The Negative Influence Of Editorial Cartoons

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“Satire is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues” (Oxford Dictionaries). Satire is used in many works of literature. For example, we can witness satires in magazines, newspapers, TV shows, and even in editorial cartoons. The importance of editorial cartoons is that they are type of nonverbal communication and are very important to the countries because they help with conversation and debate over tough problems. For instance, the editorial cartoons can discuss the negative impact of technology. Technology was invented to make our lives easier, but ironically it causes us great harm. The three cartoons …show more content…

A quote from Nicholas Carr summarizes the problem of addiction, he says “The smartphone, more than any other gadget, steals from us the opportunity to maintain our attention, to engage in contemplation and reflection, or even to be alone with our thoughts” (Carr, The Shallows). Similar to the Tom Purcell’s cartoon, the children are being criticized for becoming addicted to their smartphones. In the cartoon, we can see children are sitting on their chairs, hooked to their devices without noticing the child standing in the middle with a soccer ball. This addiction can cause a major disease called nomophobia. According to Psychology Today, “Many suffer from anxiety if they lose their phone, even if only for a few minutes. We rely on it to do everything from saying ‘I love you’ to breaking up, from checking bank balances to investing, from sharing photos of the grandchild to sexting” (Psychology Today). Furthermore, the smartphones addiction has been a curse especially to the school children. Technology affects children in many different ways. For example, the children who don’t take their eyes off the phones are decreasing their contact to the real world and are raising fears about the future generations and their lack of ability to interact in societies. In this editorial cartoon, all kinds of rhetorical devices are shown to bring out this criticism. The youngster standing between all other children is a true example of symbolism. He is presented as an “old” generation kid. He is shown to have a good attitude towards playing outside like kids used to. Also, he is willing to make a change by standing between all other kids, who are around his age and expressing his feeling towards playing. The cartoonist intentionally lightens the child with a ball in the middle and darkens all other children that are hooked to their devices show that negative side of technology. In addition, the use of imagery in

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