TOW #13: "The More You Connect, the Less You Connect"

"The More You Connect, the Less You Connect" by the Huffington Post

Included in a Huffington post article entitled “Is Your Phone Seeing a Lot More of You than Your Child?” this picture speaks volumes about how technology is effecting families poorly. While the father is looking at his phone, he is being completely blocked off from his child on the other side. To many young parents, this is a message that needs to be listened to because they are not aware of the effects some of their actions have on their children. Smartphones and other portable screens can be taken anywhere so a person is constantly connected, something that young adults have gotten used to over the past decade or so. But now that this generation is beginning to have families to take care of, they need to change their habits in order to be good parents. This picture employs hyperbole in making the phone much larger than it really is. By exaggerating the size, it can be more clearly seen how phones create a physical barrier between a user and those around them. The hyperbole and symbol of the phone acting as a wall captures how much technology separates people even if they are sitting right next to each other. Other details included in the picture also illustrate how big the problem is. The child’s side of the table is a bit darker because the back side of the phone blocks some of the light, leaving him alone in a small space. The father’s expression is a happy one, showing that he is completely ignorant of the fact that he is blocking out his own son and fails to notice how being on his phone is a problem. The placement of the phone, at the center of the picture, helps draw an invisible line down the middle to emphasize how separate the two family members are. The creator of this image did an amazing job summing up the negative effects of technology in a single image. By using eye catching symbolism, this photo sends a message that is hard to forget and may make some parents rethink the way they act around their children.