No One Knows You’re a Dog

New Yorker cartoons may not always get a belly laugh, but they often encapsulate social anxieties. To help explore attitudes about the Internet, Nancy Baym, an associate professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas, analyzed New Yorker cartoons that involved computers and networks. With the help of a recently released CD-ROM published by the magazine that contains some 68,000 cartoons, she located 126 about the Internet and analyzed 51 of those that dealt with interpersonal communication. The cartoons depicted several common positive ideas and fears about computers and the information superhighway, she said.

According to some cartoons, the computer network promises new chances to form relationships, a freedom to explore one’s identity, and easy access to information and commerce. Others show that the Internet can lead to miscommunication, a risk of identity theft, and a loss of face-to-face contact. In Ms. Baym’s favorite cartoon, a wife is shown rushing into her living room, where her husband sits on the couch reading a book. The caption: "Here you are -– I’ve been all over the Internet looking for you." Several also express concern that the network gives too much power to young people. In one cartoon, two parents are talking to their young son, saying, "It’s very important that you try very, very hard to remember where you electronically transferred mommy and daddy’s assets."

The most famous example is the 1993 cartoon depicting a dog sitting at a keyboard with the caption, "On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog." Ms. Baym points out that the cartoon has been used as a symbol for both utopian and darker views of the new technology’s influence.