When I was in 7th grade, my science teacher read Kurt Vonnegut's famous short story Harrison Bergeron to our class. I remember being haunted by its depiction of a totally equal society, where everyone was reduced to the lowest common denominator of beauty, intelligence, and skill. I was especially fascinated by the concept of people wearing radio-alarms that would go off periodically, to prevent the wearer from concentrating on any one thing for too long.

So I drew this comic to highlight the irony of how many people use their cell phones today — receiving instant notifications every time any of their friends posts anything online, whether important or trivial. The interrupt-driven dystopia described by Vonnegut has come to pass in our time, but rather than being mandated by the government as in the story, we have voluntarily done it to ourselves, for our own amusement.

If you enjoy this cartoon, you might like this music video as well.


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