Analyse af Jonathan Franzens essay 'Liking Is for Cowards'

Today’s society is extremely affected by the media and social devices, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter etc. Many people measure their popularity and look solely on how many “likes” and positive comments they attract on these media sites. Especially a lot of the young people who grow up in a world, where they see this phenomenon as completely normal, even though it’s far from the real one.

“Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts” is an essay by Jonathan Franzen, an acclaimed American novelist and essayist. The essay is based on his speech at Kenyon College, Ohio, USA, and was published in The New York Times, May 28, 2011.

Whit this essay Franzen tries to remind people of the true meaning of love and not being so terrified of rejection. Even though technology might be at its peak and has features “Like a magician’s incantations” (p. 1. L. 38). Besides the newest technology including fancy gadgets, materialism in general seems to be taking over the entire western world. According to Franzen you don’t show love to another person by showing interest in their life and have regular conversations. Not even the words “I love you”, measure up to actually receiving something material. “… if you love somebody you should by stuff” (p. 2. Ll. 76-77). However there is one thing that in today’s society battles out even giving or receiving material things: the “like” you give, or receive, while sitting in front of your computer or being on your smartphone. People are willing to change who they really are in order to achieve “likes”. They create a person online which is somewhat idealistic to the one society creates. They give themselves an image, which might not really be them. This leads to loss of interaction in social matters and confusion and difficulties in real relationships. These are all things that cannot be done online behind a computer screen. According to Franzen, this won’t give a person satisfaction, but instead it will make you depressed, because you fooled people into liking you. And as a matter of fact, it wasn’t even you they liked.