Analysis Of Joseph Franzen's Liking Is For Cowards

When describing the word love, millennials tend to think along the lines of caring, nurturing, belonging, one-true-pair: all words that encompass it. However, the word vulnerability is often left out of the mix. Joseph Franzen (2011) in “Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts.” shares his thoughts to the reader on his journey to finding love. He collects multiple thoughts into an idea that there are multitude of factors. In summary, modern technology has unhinged the real-life experience when developing loving relationships and deprive us of confidence in human interaction. Opening with a story about his “much more powerful BlackBerry Bold”, Franzen describes his obsession with the newly purchased phone. He elaborates on the direction of the technology market and how late-model gadgets are engineered to capture the desire of consumers. Expanding on the idea of consumerism, he states that technology satisfies the ideal fantasy of an erotic relationship: devices that give us their everything for nothing in return. The perversion continues in an endless cycle: affectionate love disrupts such relationships just as affectionate love is affected by consumerism. Shifting the topic to social media, Franzen outlines the mindset behind Facebook’s “Like” culture and how people shape their self-image into one that is generally liked. He claims that those who do so fear a non-acceptance of their true personality. The topic behind technological warfare against love is précis into the

“Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts.” is littered with his own wisdom, but lacks any external evidence, especially for the broad claims that he makes. Furthermore, his admittance to overstating his opinion on the technological market’s effect on love contributes to discrediting half of his statements made in the first section of his