The headline states the simple shocking fact children spend a massive ‘7 hours’ online or on computers. This must be almost their entire free time. When the headline says ‘electronic life’ it’s as if these kids don’t have any real life at all.
Words like ‘slavish’ in the sub-headline suggest the kids have become enslaved, they’re not free, and it’s a frightening image, which has ‘alarmed’ experts, which means it must be really bad, as an ‘alarm’ is sounded when there’s danger and experts ought to know how serious this must be.
The image shows someone … yawning, or reaching up in excitement and the laptop is almost as big as she is, which suggests it is more important than her, or it’s taking her over. Her red top makes us think of danger. She’s got no shoes as if she’s going nowhere, and is trapped by the weight of this huge laptop.
The caption highlights the problem of kids being good at texting but not so good in the real world, ‘face to face’, as if they can’t face reality. The cartoon at the end shows a tiny baby, which is kind of shocking especially as the parents look so proud and his first word is written on a computer. He’s not looking at his parents and his teddy is thrown away, in a worrying picture of people who can’t relate to people even at a young age.