Liking is for cowards
Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts
“Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts” is an essay by Jonathan Franzen.
It is based on his speech at Kenyon College, Ohio, USA. And the essay was published in The New York Times, May, 2011. “Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts” deals with the differences between peoples care and love for consumer technology and real life, such as love and nature.
Jonathan Franzen starts by talking about his relationship to his smartphone. He is impressed how far the technology had advanced over years.
Jonathan Franzen mentions that the social websites, like Facebook, has substituted the way to live the real life. It represents the obsession with the internet, smartphones and other things that contribute to the construction of our façades. People are afraid of their emotions and feelings and being hurt, scares them. Therefore they want to stay behind their computer screen, where they can be safe and keep a distance from the real world. He thinks that people have a desire for consumer technology, because this technology gives them other things which purpose is to make them happy without asking for anything, but instead gives them all they need. All the hating comes from love, it’s not the technology which is the problem, it’s the human reaction which is the real problem. We personify objects to make them likeable, they give us much without we’re giving back, as many see like a perfect relationship. As Jonathan Franzen mention, the primary purpose with technology is to replace the natural world: “is to replace a natural world that is indifferent to our wishes - a world of hurricanes and hardships and breakable hearts, a world of resistance - with a world so responsive to our wished as to be effectively, a mere extension of the self.” (page 9, lines 55-61) many people are afraid of being hurt and mother earth and they see the technology as something that can protect them from all the things that can hurt them. But we are all
“Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts” is an essay by Jonathan Franzen.
It is based on his speech at Kenyon College, Ohio, USA. And the essay was published in The New York Times, May, 2011. “Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts” deals with the differences between peoples care and love for consumer technology and real life, such as love and nature.
Jonathan Franzen starts by talking about his relationship to his smartphone. He is impressed how far the technology had advanced over years.
Jonathan Franzen mentions that the social websites, like Facebook, has substituted the way to live the real life. It represents the obsession with the internet, smartphones and other things that contribute to the construction of our façades. People are afraid of their emotions and feelings and being hurt, scares them. Therefore they want to stay behind their computer screen, where they can be safe and keep a distance from the real world. He thinks that people have a desire for consumer technology, because this technology gives them other things which purpose is to make them happy without asking for anything, but instead gives them all they need. All the hating comes from love, it’s not the technology which is the problem, it’s the human reaction which is the real problem. We personify objects to make them likeable, they give us much without we’re giving back, as many see like a perfect relationship. As Jonathan Franzen mention, the primary purpose with technology is to replace the natural world: “is to replace a natural world that is indifferent to our wishes - a world of hurricanes and hardships and breakable hearts, a world of resistance - with a world so responsive to our wished as to be effectively, a mere extension of the self.” (page 9, lines 55-61) many people are afraid of being hurt and mother earth and they see the technology as something that can protect them from all the things that can hurt them. But we are all