The Perception of Love
Alessandro Bautista
COM 100-201 SPEECH
What is this indescribable phenomenon of feelings that it keeps you up at night? And after a few weeks, or months, that feeling slowly fades away. We see fairy tales which says: “and they lived happily ever after”, Well, in this modern time, it’s just a part of our daily lives. But what do we really know about love? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, love is a strong affection, warm attraction, and based on a sexual desire. Most people would agree with the meaning, because in this “modern society”, love is an individualized emotion. Emotion, as defined in Webster, is a very strong feeling. What about commitment? What about the effects of culture and media in our societal perception of love?
Love for the most part is assumed to be an experience that has remained same throughout time, and therefore, one has not often considered its history. According to University of Leeds sociological research, references to love that has been found in poetry is dated as far back as 1,000 BC, but does this mean that love, back then, is already outdated in our modern time? For most, love is innate in human nature, which is experienced by everyone from western and non-western cultures. And since love has remained constant, what changed was how society sees the way as it is now, and there are some factors that influenced it. In a recent Nielsen survey, the average American over the age of 2 spends more than 34 hours a week watching live television, plus another three to six hours watching taped programs. What do these figures imply? The media is powerful and influential in its nature. According to Jake and Melissa Kircher, writers for Relevant Magazine, “Romantic movies make you think your relationship is supposed to be so amazing, passionate and exciting all the time.” And so the problem, “movies usually end just as a relationship is beginning.” And as people continue to consume media’s view of love, it’s becoming more common
COM 100-201 SPEECH
What is this indescribable phenomenon of feelings that it keeps you up at night? And after a few weeks, or months, that feeling slowly fades away. We see fairy tales which says: “and they lived happily ever after”, Well, in this modern time, it’s just a part of our daily lives. But what do we really know about love? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, love is a strong affection, warm attraction, and based on a sexual desire. Most people would agree with the meaning, because in this “modern society”, love is an individualized emotion. Emotion, as defined in Webster, is a very strong feeling. What about commitment? What about the effects of culture and media in our societal perception of love?
Love for the most part is assumed to be an experience that has remained same throughout time, and therefore, one has not often considered its history. According to University of Leeds sociological research, references to love that has been found in poetry is dated as far back as 1,000 BC, but does this mean that love, back then, is already outdated in our modern time? For most, love is innate in human nature, which is experienced by everyone from western and non-western cultures. And since love has remained constant, what changed was how society sees the way as it is now, and there are some factors that influenced it. In a recent Nielsen survey, the average American over the age of 2 spends more than 34 hours a week watching live television, plus another three to six hours watching taped programs. What do these figures imply? The media is powerful and influential in its nature. According to Jake and Melissa Kircher, writers for Relevant Magazine, “Romantic movies make you think your relationship is supposed to be so amazing, passionate and exciting all the time.” And so the problem, “movies usually end just as a relationship is beginning.” And as people continue to consume media’s view of love, it’s becoming more common