Visual Analysis In 2015, Instagram, which is a popular social media platform where users gain followers and likes by posting pictures had an average of 34 likes per picture and Instagram users had an average of 174 followers. In addition to this, 21 percent of Instagram users in 2015 were under the age of 18. Banksy is a well-known anonymous graffiti artist whose work has been seen by thousands among his young audience. Banksy, which is not his real name, is from London, England and is infamous for curating controversial graffiti pieces on the sides of buildings that provoke audiences to look at society in a deeper aspect. Through familiarity and color, pathos, and logos; Banksy creates an image that shows that society, young people in particular, are obsessed with social media recognition and have real feelings towards a virtual universe. In Banksy’s image titled “Nobody likes me”, a young boy with an Instagram HUD above his head is seen crying to the sky the sky in distress. The Instagram HUD has zero comments, zero likes, and zero new followers. The young boy, who appears to be Caucasian, has grey skin and is wearing a long sleeve blue …show more content…
The boy is seen crying and the audience can assume he is crying because of his lack of Instagram likes. Typically, when a child is seen crying it evokes a feeling of pity on whoever sees the child crying. The audience may also be able to feel pity for the child because of the child’s lack of social media recognition which may be relatable to some. Banksy uses a young child in his image to get a stronger reaction from his audience. If the individual in the image was a grown man or woman crying because of social media, the audience would have had a completely different reaction. Most likely instead of pity they would feel embarrassed that a grown adult valued social media so greatly that they cried because of