Liking is for Cowards. Go for what hurts free essay sample

Having heard the terrible news, we realized these things could have happened to anybody. Forklaring: Fejl i verbalbojning. S? tningen er i pluskvamperfektum/perfektum(? ) og indeholder modalverbet ’could’. Modalverber skal altid folges af infinitiv uden ’to’, i denne s? tning infinitiv af verbet ’to have’, og nar man danner pluskvamperfektum skal man bruge en form af ’have’ + perfektum participium – her ’happened’. Derfor skal det v? re ’have happened’. 2. Rettelse: She has for the last couple of years tried to bring in new colours into their living room. Forklaring: Fejl I stavning. ‘Living room’ skrives i 2 ord. 3. Rettelse: There are many things to be done in the house before they can move in. Forklaring: Kongruensfejl. Der er ikke verbalkongruens, og det skal rettes saledes at verbet har samme tal som subjektet. ‘There’ har ental i verbet, hvis det efterfolgende egentlige subjekt er i ental, og flertal hvis det efterfolgende egentlige subjekt er i flertal. We will write a custom essay sample on Liking is for Cowards. Go for what hurts or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Da det egentlige subjekt i denne s? tning er ‘many things’, som er flertal, skal verbet ogsa v? re i flertal og rettes derfor til ‘are’. 4. Rettelse: Peter’s mother gave her son (some) good advice, but he did not take it. Jonathan Franzen directs his focus of the essay on the creation of narcissists by technological devices and what to do about this problem. He has many points as to why a lot of teenagers and adults have developed narcissistic tendencies because of this. The first point, which is crucial to the creation of this problem, is that with the technological advances in today’s society, many people have an excessive amount of devices that are created with the one purpose of satisfying our social needs and demands within seconds. When our devices can no longer fulfill this purpose, we simply replace them with some new ones. Second of all he explains how the way of communicating and making friends on social medias are much simpler and with less risks of rejection involved. We simply send a friend request and within a very short amount of time, we have added a new ‘friend’ to our big ‘collection’ of friends on Facebook. Another problematic feature on Facebook, according to Franzen, is the fact that we can ‘like’ each other’s photos and statuses. He says it is problematic because as he says: â€Å"Liking, in general, is commercial culture’s substitute of loving. † We substitute the more important and risky parts of life with ‘liking’. All these parts of the problematic behavior of many people, boils down to one problematic concept; narcissism. The narcissistic behavior is all about self-presentation and our technological devices are what is making it possible for people to present themselves in exactly the way they want to. This is also the reason as to why Franzen calls our technological devices for â€Å"enablers of narcissism†. This excessive use of social media and technological devices causes a feeling of self-sufficiency when receiving the wanted attention, on Facebook it could be in the form of ‘likes’ on ones profile picture. As Facebook, and other social media platforms, create a feeling of self-sufficiency for the narcissist and is the perfect platform for creating an appealing version of oneself without the risks of real life rejections, many people stick to the Facebook version of themselves instead of having to face rejections in real life, especially when it comes to love. As it says in the text: â€Å"The prospect of pain generally, the pain of loss, of breakup, of death, is what makes it so tempting to avoid love and stay safely in the world of liking. † He states that the ‘liking’ and other prospects of social media create a false perception of safety. He sees this as extremely problematic and therefore he has an important message to the readers: â€Å"Pain hurts but it doesn’t kill. When you consider the alternative – an anesthetized dream of self-sufficiency, abetted by technology – pain emerges as the natural product and natural indicator of being alive in a resistant world. † To take these risks and feeling the pain and troubles that are a natural part of life, is to live. To express his ideas and messages to the readers, he has made use of informal language. The language in the text can be considered colloquial language, as there is a frequent use of contractions. By being this informal he may be able to reach a broader variety of readers, maybe especially teenagers, whom he want to reach with his message. With his use of words he also directs his speech towards younger people, as he uses words like ‘Facebook’, ‘Liking’ and so on. He wants to reach young people and make them think about their use of social media. If he had just criticized the young people, he probably would not have reached any of the young people’s minds. Instead he identifies with the younger generations, which enables the readers to put themselves in his place and maybe give their use of social media some thought. He is actually even more specific in his message to the readers than just wanting to make them think. He has a clear opinion about this, which already is visible in the title: â€Å"Liking is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts. † Besides making the young people think about their use of Facebook, he wants to change their mindsets and make them take some chances and risks in life. Franzen is very concrete in his wishes for the excessive users of Facebook and other social media platforms and in his definition of the ‘narcissistic’ users. He is very subjective and one-sided in his speech. Therefore you might want to take a look at some of the positive sides of this case before making up your mind. Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph. D.  in Fullfillment at Any Age has a different opinion than Franzen. She is aware of the fact that narcissism can be a big issue, but in her contribution to this discussion in â€Å"Psychology Today†, she proposes the thought about narcissism, in small doses, having a positive influence on people’s lives. One of the many potential positive sides of narcissism she mentions is: â€Å"They seem better able to cope with anxiety, particularly in social situations. † Besides this point she mentions a lot of positive things about narcissism in small doses, like more confidence. And even though Susan Krauss may not be right about the positive sides of narcissism, you have to be careful with only viewing the negative sides of our progress in technology. We have endless ways of communicating and keeping in touch with family and friends even though we are on the other side of the globe, which is essential for a lot of people. Though social media may affect some people to the extreme, where they may develop narcissism, there can still be endless of positive sides of social media, and it should not be discarded.