Jonathan Franzen, author of the novel "The Corrections" and the recent novel "Freedom", examines the nature of relationships that people can have with their devices and with "real" people in an Op-ed piece in the NY Times. It is based on a commencement address he gave at Kenyon college. The article can be read here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/opinion/29franzen.html?src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB&pagewanted=all
There are some things he says about the difference between being "liked" or "liking" vs "loving" or being "loved" which, I think, may apply to teachers. Quoting from the article: |If you dedicate your existence to being likable, however, and if you |adopt whatever cool persona is necessary to make it happen, it |suggests that you’ve despaired of being loved for who you really are. |And if you succeed in manipulating other people into liking you, it |will be hard not to feel, at some level, contempt for those people, |because they’ve fallen for your shtick. You may find yourself becoming |depressed, or alcoholic, or, if you’re Donald Trump, running for |president (and then quitting). | |Consumer technology products would never do anything this |unattractive, because they aren’t people. They are, however, great |allies and enablers of narcissism. Alongside their built-in eagerness |to be liked is a built-in eagerness to reflect well on us. Our lives look |a lot more interesting when they’re filtered through the sexy Facebook |interface. We star in our own movies, we photograph ourselves |incessantly, we click the mouse and a machine confirms our sense |of mastery. | |And, since our technology is really just an extension of ourselves, we |don’t have to have contempt for its manipulability in the way we might |with actual people. It’s all one big endless loop. We like the mirror and |the mirror likes us. To friend a person is merely to include the person |in our private hall of flattering mirrors. When we teach do we want to be liked or do we want to be loved (I'm assuming that there's a certain percentage of students who will think of us a terrible teachers and horrible human beings or are utterly indifferent to us, but what is the effect that we are striving for)? Read Franzen's article before you answer the question. Busy, busy, busy. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=10785 or send a blank email to leave-10785-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
