Liking is For Cowards

Jonathan Franzen in the New York Times…

Suddenly there’s a real choice to be made, not a fake consumer choice between a BlackBerry and an iPhone, but a question: Do I love this person? And, for the other person, does this person love me?

There is no such thing as a person whose real self you like every particle of. This is why a world of liking is ultimately a lie. But there is such a thing as a person whose real self you love every particle of. And this is why love is such an existential threat to the techno-consumerist order: it exposes the lie.

The full article is much more than any pulled quotes could express. If you like it, you’ll probably love Franzen’s most recent book: Freedom.

Filed under: social media  technology  jonathan franzen