Thursday, August 30, 2012

Orwell vs. Huxley

The two conflicting arguments that are made in the webcomic are ones of extremes. Orwell’s fantasy world is one where the average person is deprived of the information that lets us thrive, such as books and the right to an opinion. On the other hand, Huxley’s “World State” has made citizens passive and apathetic based on the idea that everything we care about is superficial. That is to say that we care more about how many Facebook friends we have than why the stock market has recently been failing. All the new social media sites are fantastic and keep us in touch with one another, but what do they do to better us as people? Truthfully, I cannot think of one way the social media era has improved our society. Yes, we know what Sally did 2 hours ago and who’s cheering for the Cats this weekend but who the hell cares? There is so much more to life than your social identity. I believe the social media aspect of our generation has resulted in social awkwardness and dependence on technology. As technology advances we need to become aware of the consequences that it is having on our mentalities. If we can recognize that more attention needs to be paid to bigger issues in the world than Facebook and Twitter, then we can successfully use this incredible technology to our advantage, not let it distract us.
The presentation of this argument in a webcomic lets the author illustrate his or her point and make the argument clear. The comic begins with a broad comparison of the two conflicting ideals and then sums up the entire claim in a single statement with two pictures. The pictures really add to what the author is trying to say; they show what the statement above the illustration means and why it’s important. I personally would not have chosen to use this form of persuasion, but the idea of the comic comes across very strongly at the end. He or she could have used a video or essay, but in this case the webcomic does more than either of these forms of presentation could have. Although I wouldn’t have chosen to use a webcomic, the author does an excellent job in showing how both the deprivation and indulgence of information has and/or will affect or society.

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