Roz Chast, who is a political cartoonist for the New Yorker published a cartoon titled The I.M.s of Romeo and Juliet in the year 2002. This cartoon depicts two teenagers, each in their own room, sitting and typing on a computer. In the center of the cartoon is a box, where their conversation is printed. In the background, one can see that both bedrooms are extremely messy.
Reading the text is difficult at first, because of all of the abbreviations that Romeo and Juliet use. While these abbreviations are meant to save time, it can be seen that the time teenagers 'save' by using texting lingo is wasted online, instead of being used more productively. Scattered around the room are test papers with poor grades on them, to show how little of their time is spent off of the computer. Thus it can be seen that technology is a distraction for teens and that they are losing sight of other things in their lives that should be important, such as grades and family.
One of the topics of conversation, between Romeo and Juliet, is their parents. Both Romeo and Juliet express that their parents do not like their son/daughter hanging out with that particular friend. However, Romeo and Juliet do not think that it's a big deal. Through the breezy way that this conversation happens between Romeo and Juliet, it is apparent that technology is bringing about distance in families. Neither of the two teens in the cartoon care to find out way they are disliked, which shows that they do not understand their parents' viewpoint. From this depiction of modern teenagers, it can be inferred that Roz disagrees with this teenage lifestyle, because technology is distracting teens from important aspects of their lives.
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