Technological advancements have changed the way people live and interact with each other. Although many people seem to appreciate the current technology we have now that was not available before, some people are able to find flaws in newer technologies. According to some people, like essayist Jonathan Franzen, technology has had a negative impact on the way members of a society behave toward each other. Franzen shares many opinions on various topics in Farther Away; however, he addresses the subject of technology and its flaws in two separate essays, both included in the book. In the book, Franzen reveals why and how technological advances, such as cell phones and social media, have tarnished society's behaviors and interactions toward others. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The first essay, “Pain Won't Kill You,” which also begins the book, discusses false relationships and the need for sympathy and acceptance that has been created and emphasized by social media. Franzen states that in reality, a person cannot love everything about another individual; however, one person can love pieces of everything the other has to offer. “There is no such thing as a person whose every particle you love. This is why a world of taste is ultimately a lie. But there is one person whose every particle you love. And this is why love poses such an existential threat to the technoconsumerist order: it exposes the lie. Franzen's point here is that the person you show yourself to be on social media sites, like Facebook, is not you. Users of Facebook (and similar websites) feel the need to constantly act like someone they are not in order to appear more likeable to other users. This becomes a problem as people end up becoming obsessed with their virtual reality. Individuals will need to continue to maintain an online facade in order to maintain their likable personality. “Our lives seem much more interesting when filtered through Facebook's sexy interface. We act in our own films, we constantly photograph ourselves, we click the mouse and a machine confirms our sense of control… We love the mirror and the mirror loves us. Becoming friends with a person is simply including them in our private room of flattering mirrors. By this Franzen means that people only reveal what makes them beautiful in order to deceive others into liking them; However, deceiving others into liking your personality or fake virtual life will not give that person any satisfaction in the long run because they are not experiencing authentic love. They just like the fake version of someone and not the real person they would actually see. This kind of situation causes individuals to forget what it means to feel real, raw love in the real world. “Sooner or later, for example, you're going to find yourself in a nasty, screaming fight, and you'll hear things come out of your mouth that you don't like at all, things that shatter your self-image- even. as a fair, kind, cool, attractive, in control, funny and friendly person. Something more real than sympathy has appeared in you, and suddenly you have a real life. There is suddenly a real choice to make, and not a false consumer choice. In this passage, Franzen explains to the audience that there will be a time when aindividual will no longer be able to maintain their sympathetic personality and will eventually expose their true self and return to reality. Anyone who goes through all this trouble just to appear nicer on social media is essentially being blocked from being able to experience true love and friendship in the real world. This is why Franzen believes that social media has negatively changed the way society. thinks and acts when dealing with others. Franzen's second essay addressing the negative factors of technology, "I Just Called to Say I Love You," details how cell phones negatively affect individuals, especially when in spaces public or crowded. Franzen believes that cell phones are an invasion of privacy because they allow individuals to have private conversations in public places, while being surrounded by random people. "I just don't want, while buying socks at Gap, or standing in a queue and pursuing my private thoughts, or trying to read a novel on a boarding plane, to letting myself be drawn by my imagination into the sticky world of a human being's family life The very essence of the horror of the cell phone, as a social phenomenon – bad news that remains bad news. – is that it enables and encourages the infliction of the personal and the individual on the public and the community I just don't want to, buying socks at Gap, standing in a queue. waiting and pursuing my private thoughts, or trying to read a novel on a boarding plane, being drawn by my imagination into the sticky world of a human being's close family life. he very essence of the horror of the cell phone as a social phenomenon – the bad news that remains bad news – is that it enables and encourages the infliction of the personal and the individual on the public and the community. He explains that when he is out in public, trying to read a book or just running errands, he overhears conversations that he feels like he wouldn't hear in the first place, because usually the things that others around him say of him are conversations or information that must be treated privately between the two people who speak on the phone. Franzen doesn't want to be exposed to the personal lives of others around him, who are people he probably doesn't even know. Although privacy is not the only negative aspect associated with cell phone use, there is also a loss of meaning of words and phrases, which Franzen notes in the same essay: "But the phrase 'I t 'like' is too important. and charged, and its use as a signature is too awkward for me to believe that I am being made to hear it accidentally. If the mother's declaration of love had genuine, private emotional weight, wouldn't she take at least some care to keep it shielded from public view? If she said it from the bottom of her heart, wouldn't she have to say it quietly? Hearing it, as a foreigner, I feel like I am part of an aggressive assertion of my right. Franzen believes that when phrases that are meant to be said sincerely, such as "I love you", are said in public, it takes away from the authenticity of the phrase and the phrase simply loses all meaning. He also believes that it is such a common practice in our society to say "I love you" to everyone on the phone in public that people don't really mean it - they just say it because it has become a habit, a bit like how we say “goodbye” at the end of a phone call. This type of event puts.