2022 – 2023
Illustration
Study project at
Holon Institute of Technology
The Social Media Sucker
A “contemporary adaptation” of Struwwelpeter
"The Social Media Sucker" is based on the story of the thumb-sucker from "Struwwelpeter" by physician and psychiatrist Heinrich Hoffmann, who wrote the tales in 1844 for his three-year-old son. Once praised as a book of children's pedagogy, today it tends to leave children somewhat disturbed — including myself. With this illustration project, the thumb-sucker is transported into the present day and depicted as I perceived him in my childhood: as a nightmare. Next, you’ll read a modern interpretation by ChatGPT, imagining how the story of the thumb-sucker might be written today (as macabre as an AI can manage).
In a village, so small and unknown,
there lived Konrad – not alone.
Always finger-tapping on his phone,
lost himself in social media's renown.
His mother, Mrs. Grimmhart, full of worry,
warned him of the digital flurry.
But Konrad didn't heed her advice,
fell to phone addiction, paid the price.
One day, in her desperation great,
Mrs. Grimmhart grabbed the blade, no debate.
She severed Konrad's thumbs with might,
a drastic act in darkest night.
Blood flowed and pain coursed through his frame,
Konrad now recognized the bitter shame.
The phone he could no longer use,
had to learn to grasp and choose
true life.
The zine comes with a cardboard cover featuring the title of the illustrated story: “The Social Media Sucker.”
The back of the zine depicts the dramatic, bloody scene of the thumb being cut off. Thanks to its A3 size, the illustration can also be used as a poster.
