Comic strips often mock and satire. Comic artists use their canvas to make a statement, either
a political or a non-political one, about reality and the cultural norms that they feel strongly
about or against. In “The 21st Century”, Gabby Schulz attempts to provide her insight and
view into the effect that technology, more specifically smartphones, has on our lives. The
overall context of the comic strip, as the title suggests, is the recent years of the 21st century
with fast-paced advancements of technology and the general realisation of the public of the
negative impacts that technology may have had and may still be having on our well-being and
safety. The comic strip is published on Schulz’ website, which most likely contains her other
comics regarding similar topics. The audience of this particular comic is, therefore, likely to be
Schulz’ loyal fanbase and subscribers, or regular patrons of the website. This audience is
primarily well-educated, well-off and perhaps shares similar views of the world as Schulz (with
regards to technology as well as other issues). As such, the purpose of this comic is not only
to entertain the readers but also to reinforce the reader’s views of popular culture and to
establish a brand identity for Schulz as a writer and entertainer.
Due to the nature of the text, the primary purpose of the comic strip is to entertain the reader.
This is achieved by Schulz through the use of various comic features and humour. From the
top panel, Schulz employs situational irony and characterisation to create humour and
entertainment for the reader. In the first panel, the main “character” of the comic is presented
as a scruffy, disheveled-looking man. The enamata around him read “special” and
“unemployed” - this perhaps supports the fact that the character is an outcast of the society,
distant from popular culture. This is almost caricature, which sets him apart from the people in
the background. The people in the background are depicted to have a yellowish face with
featureless bodies. In a sense, they all look very sickly and alien-like, in contrast, ironically, to
the main character who is looking up with pride and glee in his eyes. This is ironic as despite
being the more “civilised”, more “cultured” people who use phones, the people in the
background look more unhappy and unhealthy than the main character who does not own a
smartphone (despite his messy look). This speaks volumes about the fact that smartphones
have made us perhaps more distant from each other, perhaps we have lost our human nature
and are becoming more like the aliens that we see in movies. As such, this situational ironic
imagery takes the audience aback and piques their interest. The humour continues in the
second and third panel. In these panels, the main character is shown to have received his old
“dumbphone” and new “smartphone” as hand-me-downs from his “teenage sister” and “adult
friend with a job”. This is ironic and humorous as the main character is an adult, yet he still
has to have his things passed down to him from other people, as if he was still a child. This
self-deprecating humour causes the reader to laugh and jeer at the man for not being able to
obtain these “basic” things on his own, using his own money. However, in this way, the reader
is also laughing at themselves as later they would realise the negative effects of the
smartphones that they deem to be such a “basic” necessity. In the fourth panel, the humour is
reinforced by the series of questions that the main character is faced with as he is invited to
“join the hive”. “The hive” can be interpreted as a metaphor for our current cultural norm of
having a phone and being part of interconnected networks. Here, the series of questions that
the man asks himself - “everyone else already has one right?”, “don’t I wanna be normal?”,
etc. - is reflective of the larger public’s herd mentality. We often find ourselves buzzing towards
the fads and passing trends without realising and considering thoroughly the risks that come
with it. The ownership of smartphones is just one of such things. Therefore, the reader laughs
at themselves, as they find themselves identifying with the main character. This selfdeprecating humour will further engage the audience and cause them to read on. Finally, in
the later panels, the writer demonstrates how the main character uses his “smartphones” in a
not so smart manner, which contributes to the element of humour in the comic. For instance,
he used his new “smartphone” to take pictures of mundane-looking mushrooms. This shows
that despite the label of being a ‘smartphone”, it does not serve many intricate functions, but
only provides us with the limited number of uses, minimal such that we would continue to use
and get addicted to our phones. As such, we become so engrossed in our phones and carry
them around everywhere we go, making it easier for the authorities, the invisible eyes of the
government to monitor our every action. Through this, the reader realises that they are also
using their phones to serve all these shallow, superficial needs of their own and risking their
safety and privacy. This utilisation of dark humour and dramatic irony, hence, has created not
only entertainment value but also awareness that can be linked to the secondary purpose of
the comic strip - to highlight and reinforce the risks of using smartphones.
Through the comic strip, Schulz does not purely provide the audience with entertainment, but
she also raises up and reinforces the issue with the risks of using smartphones. This is done
via the use of many comic features and critical language. All characters and illustrations in the
comic are drawn in rather simplistic strokes, but are able to provide us with sufficient details
to demonstrate what the author is trying to convey. For instance, the facial features of the main
character are simplified and overgeneralized, but still carry enough details that tell us of his
age and state of mind. This simplistic way of drawing is effective as it suggests that the man
can be anyone of us. We all can become like the man at the end of the comic - addicted,
downcast, distant. Thus, this further emphasizes the point that the author attempts to put
across. In addition to the rudimentary way of drawing, the use of hot colours, especially
towards the end of the comic highlights the urgency of this problem. The issue with
smartphones is that it gets us engrossed without us even realising. This is demonstrated as
the colour of the speech bubble of the main character gradually changes from white to hot
pink. The change in colour perhaps signifies the state of mind of the character - there is a part
of him that is angry at himself for becoming so “normal” and so addicted, but he cannot help it
but to continue being distracted by his smartphone. This is a sentiment that many readers will
agree and identify with, thus reflecting a state of our current culture of indulgence and
inertness. The critical tone of the comic is further accentuated through the use of many
enamata that read “tweeting”. Tweeting has become such a common action in today’s world
that we have even created a word for it. Therefore, the fact that the man has himself become
indulged in the world of the interweb and social media reflects the truth in our world that anyone
could be addicted, because these things are so addictive. Moreover, phones are not only
addicting, but they are the tools through which the government, the authorities watch over our
every action. This is depicted through the use of multiple symbols throughout the comic.
Symbolism is employed from the second panel, where the “dumbphone” of the main character
“broke”. The symbol used here is the white skull against a black background. I believe this
symbolises not only the fact that his phone was dead, but also the truth about phones - they
are in fact poisonous, leading to fatalistic consequences. Thus, this symbol creates a sense
of danger and unease in the reader, synthesising a sense of distrust in the reader with phones.
This is further emphasized by the symbol of a smiley face and caption “Trust Us”. The smiley
face is traditionally thought of as a sign of friendliness, but popular culture has branded it to
be the signal of fakeness and deceit. As such, the author is trying to establish here the truth
that phones are dangerous and they cannot be fully relied on. The reason for this danger of
phones is explained through the use of yet another symbole - the eye in the sky in the last
panel. The eye detached from the body is a grotesque imagery that is meant to create a sense
of unease and disgust from the reader. This is exactly the feeling towards phones that the
author is trying to elicit from the audience. The eye represents the authorities, watching over
the public wherever they go. Hence, the symbol once again reinforces the idea that phones
are often employed by the government as the tool to control the behaviour of their people, so
much so that the privacy of each individual is violated. All in all, the comic is conveying the
message that phones, and thus, technology have become so advanced that we should no
longer trust them in an absolute manner. If we did, we would be at risk of exposing ourselves
in harm’s way.
Finally, I believe that the comic strip is a means for Schulz to establish her brand as a comic
artist. Judging from her critical tone in the comic, Schulz can be said to have a rather antitechnology view. This is demonstrated most clearly by the many symbols and stylistic comic
features that she utilises in this comic. For example, from the top, the first two panels present
a wordplay and juxtaposition in “smartphone” and “dumbphone”. Here, Schulz is criticizing the
colloquial way of saying “smartphone”, suggesting through her many arguments of the risks
of phones that the “smartphone” does not make us as “smart” as its name appears to suggest.
In fact, Schulz mocks the people who use smartphones to be ignorant and to have bad
judgment. Next, the adoption of the title “The 21st century” is critical and satirical. It is as if
Schulz is challenging our vision of the current time and age - do we really want future
generations to look back at our years and see all of us engrossed in our phones and not trying
to make changes and fix our problems? As such, I believe that the title that Schulz sets for the
comic is apt and effective, provoking thoughts in the reader. In addition, the splash that
extends throughout the last row of the comic is a stylistic choice that the author uses to capture
attention and notify the reader of the message of this last panel. In this panel, the main
character is portrayed to be looking down at this phone, which strikes a contrast with the first
panel, where he is standing up looking full of pride and joy to be “special”. This effectively
conveys the message that smartphones have all made us the victim of our own addiction,
causing us our mental and physical health. Also, in the thought bubble of the main character,
Schulz uses the images of a “panopticon hive” and a “chorizo” to describe the urgent problem
of privacy intrusion and censorship that involves heavily the government and other authorities.
A panopticon is a room that is structured in such a way that a person can see all of its space
at any spot of the room. Schulz perhaps uses this concept to transmit the idea that all users
of smartphones are exposed to all kinds of risks from surveillance and monitoring by
authorities. Schulz also adopts the image of “chorizo” to describe how our “brains” are
“chopped up” into pieces and served up to the government. This is a metaphor for how the
government is able to obtain all types of information about each one of us in a very detailed
manner, knowing and understanding every corner of our minds. Therefore, I believe Schulz is
taking an extremely negative stance in view of smartphones, criticizing the abuse of
technology by the government to surveillance our behaviour. The last image that Schulz uses
to end off her argument against the use of smartphones is the road to “hell” that the man is
walking in the last panel. The illustration is a physical demonstration of the fact that the more
we use our smartphones, the faster we are killing ourselves, not only from the health
implications of overusing our phones, but also from exposing our sensitive and personal
information to the public. The “hell” image is extremely critical and, therefore, consolidates
Schulz’s argument against the “smartphone culture” in our world today. As such, through this
comic strip, Schulz has successfully branded herself as an opponent and a challenger of
technological advancements and our addiction to them.
To conclude, I believe that this comic strip adopts an effective and engaging use of comic
features and a balanced blend of literary devices that put the message across in a lighthearted, fun yet profound and serious manner. This has the effect of leaving the message
linger in the reader, reinforcing their belief that technology has perhaps done more harm than
good. Thus, through this, Schulz is able to increase readership and, at the same time, effect
a change in the current culture of a fraction of the population that read her comics.