21st Century Addiction
2022

     21st Century Addiction was mainly inspired by my internship with MEDIAGIRLS, an organization that educates young women and girls about safe social media practices. Every day we walk around and see people on their phones. If we don’t, then we’re the ones on our phones, not paying attention and not living in the real world. Since phones have advanced over the years, they have become more and more addictive. Some might even say they are an addictive drug or that they’ve become part of our everyday clothing.
     I wanted to capture this addiction to emphasize how we are no longer able to connect with one another without having this connection through technology, and to show some side effects of social media damaging our mental health. I tried to capture some emotion in most of my photos or a lack of emotion as though we have become the robots or automatons that our phones are.
     Throughout the portfolio I try to capture the chiaroscuro art style. Chiaroscuro is the contrast between light and dark. Most paintings in the chiaroscuro genre have a candle as the light source. I’ve switched my light source to the cell phone screen. We use that screen as a main light source, including as a flashlight, every day.
     My photos are of young adults. I'm trying to show how our generation is the first generation that grew up with this addictive technology, which is why we seem to be hit the hardest by this addiction. I also wanted to include a young man because we tend to see this phone and social media addiction as connected to women. Constant phone use is not really highlighted in men, when really it can grip men equally as hard as women.
     I hope to show people who view this portfolio that cellphone dependence is a serious thing.  We should start to combat it so that we don’t become robots that rely on technology to survive. I also want people to see how addictive phones are. My photos emphasize this addiction. Many of us have been in these addictive situations. We need to find a way to unplug, be human and look up at the real world.