Visual Literacy Final Project Material
This campaign aims to promote healthy social interaction between students and their loved ones by giving them the attention they deserve. Our goal is to persuade students to drop their smartphones and instead, get in touch with the world around them. Balancing the adverse impacts of smartphone addiction with positive benefits of social interaction, our campaign seeks to empower students with the motivation they need to reduce unnecessary phone usage.
VIDEO COMMENTARY
This video was created to demonstrate how people can counteract mobile-phone addiction by casting their phones aside and choosing to engage in meaningful social interactions.
For a start, our disclaimer calls for the attention of mobile-phone users. As the video progresses, the scene freezes momentarily and flashes a red stop sign each time someone uses their smartphones. The use of freeze frame and colour desaturation here complement our clause of inviting people to disconnect from their phones and reconnect with reality.
With our target audiences (youths) in mind, we adopted a softer approach with an underlying subtle message without heavy emphasis on excessive smartphone use and its harmful effects. This helps to prevent straight rejection of ideas right from the start of the video.
Relatability remains one of our key approaches. Firstly, words in the video are expressed in the form of hashtags (#). This symbol can be recognised by most users who use popular social-networking sites such as Instagram on their smartphones. Secondly, the video discusses common examples of mobile-phone usage such as posting on Facebook wall, tagging of friends in photos etc. With a twist of humour, these actions were compared to desirable social interactions such as writing encouraging post-it-notes for your family and playing a game of “tag” with friends. Such content are highly relatable to target audience, who will gain a deeper understanding and react more favorably to the clause.
Pathos approach is another dominant persuasion technique employed. The use of cheerful background music and light-hearted humour evoke positive emotion in viewers after watching the video. The portrayal of characters in a joyful and positive manner encourages viewers to emulate suggested solutions provided to curb mobile-phone addictions. The suggested solutions empower audiences with self-efficacy, who in turn are more likely to take action against the problem.
PHOTO ESSAYS
1. THE OLD TIMES
Modern smartphones are packed with functions ranging from the fundamental to entertainment and social-networking. Smartphone users are commonly fixated on their screens even in social settings, withdrawing from real-life interactions. Through this photo, we seek to remind viewers of the genuine interactions we used to enjoy before the advent of smartphones.
As depicted, a group of friends are engaging in a pleasant conversation in the background with a classic Nokia mobile-phone placed at the edge of the table in the foreground. Viewers’ attention is drawn to the mobile-phone where the point of focus lies while subjects in the background are blurred. The darker colour of the mobile-phone stands in contrast with the white background, making it appear even closer to the viewers. The manipulation of visual cue, depth is used to emphasize how we used to keep our mobile-phones aside during social interactions.
From a historical perspective, we have chosen the classic Nokia mobile-phone to represent the era before smartphones were introduced. This increases the relatability as most mobile-phone users would be familiar with this model which carries only primary functions such as texts, calls, and minimal games. A sepia filter is also applied to complement the vintage theme.
2. COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION
This photo was composed to emphasize the absurdity of mobile-phone usage. As communication are largely dominated by mobile-phone texts conversation today (computer-mediated communication), we hope to convey the idea of a lack of social interaction through an exaggerated example. The caption, with “Speak” emphasized in red, urges viewers to drop their phones and engage in real-life conversations.
From the exchange of texts on the mobile screen, viewers can infer that both family members are in the same house at that point of time — but they chose to interact via CMC instead of calling out to one another. This forms our central argument of mobile-phone addiction and visual cues are applied to ensure that viewers are attracted to the mobile screen.
Apart from being the only object in focus, the placement of the mobile screen adheres to the Rule of Thirds, allowing viewers to be attracted to it naturally at first glance. Lighting complements this visual effect as the upper half of the image is dimly-lit in comparison to the lower half. Thus, viewers shift their eyes to the brightly lit hand holding the phone. Furthermore, interposition also suggests depth with the mobile-phone being closest to viewers than the background.
3. DANGER
This photo brings out the physical danger of being hooked onto your mobile phone while crossing the road. The car’s movement is emphasized by motion blur, while the person is portrayed as unknowing of her surroundings because of her focus on the phone screen, which we can tell by her eyeline. Although the photo shows a fixed point in time, we know from implied movement that a collision is imminent.
The constant usage of mobile phones in everyday life results in habituation, such that the average person is likely to view it as not a big deal and possibly not even consider it an “addiction”. Consequently, they do not see the risks of having one’s eyes glued to the phone screen, causing them to be oblivious to their surroundings. The photo highlights and brings to the audience’s attention that this is a problem and should not be a norm.
The familiar setting under the block of a HDB flat and the simple scenario of heading out allows the audience to relate to the portrayal, making it even more impactful as it helps them realize that such an accident can happen to anyone, at anytime, even in engaging with mundane activities.
4. LACK OF PHYSICAL PRESENCE
We have become so accustomed to seeing others on their mobile phones everywhere that it has become a habit to simply blank out our surroundings, ignore everyone else, and pay attention to only our smartphones.
The photo was composed in such a way that you see the girl’s image on her mobile screen, but only a floating phone in the mirror — contrary to expectations to see her reflection there. Post-processing was done to produce a dramatic portrayal of ‘a lack of physical presence’ as she engages in her smartphone activities — seemingly disconnected from the world; to capture viewer attention by way of absurdity. This builds on the fact that people are generally so absorbed in their mobile activities that they don’t interact with their surroundings anymore — disconnection from reality.
The reflection of the white wall and steel gray door in the background gives the impression of her being confined in an enclosed area — representing a sense of detachment from the outside world — though she appears to be unaware of that fact as she focuses on taking her selfie — people not aware of the consequences of their own actions. This emphasizes our message of making your presence known.
