New Yorker Cartoon - Support Group

Cartoons in The New Yorker magazine have become a staple in it, since the magazine was started in the 1920s.

Their cartoons are almost always shorter stories, told in one frame, and often have just one quote from one person in the cartoon which describes the entire action.

This cartoon by New Yorker cartoonist David Sipress strikes a nerve, I believe, with many of the millions of people who work in front of a computer screen for some or most of their day.

Email has become relied upon so heavily by so many officer workers--like the ones depicted here--that it seems almost like an addiction...hence the "Alcoholics Anonymous" setting for the cartoon.

And the time between email checks is getting shorter and shorter in the past few years with smart phones and 3G networks that basically keep you connected wherever you go, short of the center of the Earth.

What's worse is that every couple of years a new internet social networking tool is developed, which gives you just one more thing to compulsively check throughout the day. Now, one could spend a good 15-20 minutes between email, Facebook, Twitter, etc...just checking up, not only on themselves, but their friends too. Multiply that by a realistic five, 10 or maybe 20 times per day, and you're talking hours.

The more in touch with are with each other, the more we are addicted to the technology that keeps us in touch.




Laughasaurus worthiness:

The kicker: this cartoon was published in The New Yorker on May 28, 2001.

I know, right?