JOURNALISM
What is love? (Baby don’t hurt me)

The Facts

Love. It’s a four letter word, a noun, the textbook definition being “an intense feeling of deep affection.” Love from a scientific standpoint is the body’s mix of dopamine and norepinephrine. There are many interpretations of love but, just like happiness, every living thing on earth would describe the process of lust, attraction, and companionship differently. The question is; does age impact people’s idea of love?

Too Young To Be in Love

No matter your age we bet you’ve heard this one before. “You’re too young to understand,” Maybe that’s true, but is the boy you cried over in college any more or less important than the football player you swooned over in the 9th grade? Even in adulthood you will still remember your first love. You’ll learn from it, make some more mistakes, and eventually find love again using the experience you’ve gained previously.
Kids these days know so much more than we think. When we asked our fellow students on their interpretations of love we soon realized that a lot of us in our few years of life have learned a lot about the subject. That being said, let’s take a quick look at the results from our interviews. One with a girl, Sasha L, and the other with a boy, Ethan B; in order to understand both sides of the spectrum.

Ethan’s Perspective
What Is Love?

E: “To me it’s when you truly enjoy spending time with the person you like and that when you do, you only want to stay with them and talk, be happy, enjoy yourself. When you aren’t with them you think about them and what they could be doing, how you wish you were with them. . .”
Do You Think Minors Can Really Feel/Understand Love?

E: “I’ve thought about that myself. I believe if they really find a person they truly connect to and love spending time with them, you feel love. I think minors can feel love, it’s just about finding the right person”

What Does Love Feel Like To You?

E: “For me it feels like true happiness and giddiness. Love makes me forget the bad things in life and focuses my mind on the good. It is a feeling of true and pure happiness and it’s honestly wonderful.”

Are There Qualifications for Love?

E: “I don’t think there are any qualifications…as long as you love every moment with them, then you are in love.”

Sasha’s Perspective
What Is Love?

S: “Love, in general, is the feeling that you can’t live without this person. .. You can’t see a world in which you aren’t with them in some sort of way”

Do You Think Minors Can Really Feel/Understand Love?

S: “Minors can definitely feel and understand love. But the idea of love changes as you get older. I think that love in teens, not just lust, but love, is love in its purest form. You aren’t under the same pressure of life as someone working three jobs, this allows your love to be free, and to just exist. As you get older, I think love changes. Love isn’t just a feeling anymore, it’s more of a promise. Love, in most cases, is stronger and more solid in adults. . .”
What Does Love Feel Like To You?

S: “Personally, love is really freeing and liberating. Knowing that there is someone there who truly cares for you is something so amazing. I know I’m in love when I don’t necessarily think romantically about other people. I’m just happy where I am and who I’m with”

Are There Qualifications for Love?

S: “For pure love, I think that the only qualification there is, is for the love not to be obsessive. There’s a big difference between love and infatuation. In most cases, love should be mutual between two people, not one sided. . .Love is a feeling; it can’t be measured. You can’t control when or how you experience it, it just happens.”

The connection between the younglings answers are that they both think that when you are in love, you would never want to be separated from the person you love. They both described love as being something almost magical, and they both talked a lot about pure love. For the next generation, we asked two middle aged adults, of both genders the same questions as Ethan and Sasha, and recorded their answers, did their idea of love differ from the teens? Or does love really have no age?

Many adults in their lives have a very defined feeling for love. Many in this age bracket are still in love and find it specifically one thing. Using the same questions as before, we asked one male and one female from Generation X (between 39 and 53 years old), William and Adowa. Does the way love feels change as you get older? Does it still remain youthful and magical?

Williams Perspective
What is Love?

W: “Depending on which perspective of thought you are defining, in pop culture you will see love as an emotion. When you study other cultures you can see that love is an intelligent decision made by mature people ,love is not a feeling. Over time we use love in way that does not have a deep meaning like a love for a certain type of food. When throwing the word around it is a selfish way of thinking because it benefits you and not the other person. Love is when one gives to the other by empowering them. Love is a decision that you make that you want to make someone’s life better, to make it more enjoyable, to be a part of the building process of somebody.”

Do you think Minors can really Understand/ Feel Love?

W: “Everybody is wired to know, feel the impact and project love. Everyone can feel love and its reciprocal nature in giving and receiving .The essence of love is giving and receiving . However, love has to be informed and educated. Contrary to most belief where love is a whirlwind of emotions it must be charted and worked on. So yes minor can feel love as long as they are properly educated and know what to look for when it comes to love and long term love by feeling the honesty and genuinity of love.”

What does love feel like to you?

W: “To me love is empowering and in an decision and in adding value to somebody. For me love feels great when it is empowering and building up each other. If I can be around someone who can give me the right empowerment and environment then it is love. Love is an important part of our lives and if done in the right way it can embellish the value of the receiver of love”

Are there qualifications for love?

W:”Yes, there must be a giving environment, there must be an empowering environment and the willingness to add value to another person’s life. Love must be when you’re around someone to know that you are loved. The idea of the wanting of a person is lust and is not true love, at the end of the day you may call it love but you are missing the key concepts of love.When the basic ideas of giving, empowering and value are combined then you will know that it is a true environment of love”

Adwoa’s Perspective
What is love

A:“Love is an intense feeling deep affection for someone or for yourself. Love if a feeling that you have in you everyday. The affection you feel on the inside is warm and love is expressing that warmness to other people.”

Do you think Minors can really understand love?

A:”yes, but at times minors can get confused. Sometimes, what minors feel for another person is agape love rather than eros. They can perceive love more like a friendship. Despite this, everyone has the ability to love, I think you just need to grow to get a better understanding of it. “

What does love feel like to you?

A: “love for me is everything, but in order to show others love you need to love yourself. Love is something you can never get tired with and grows over time. As long as you have a deep love for yourself you can have a deep love for other.”

Are there qualifications for love?

A: “I believe that in love you need to know the other person and know how to care for them and let them care for you. People are very different and you need to understand before embarking so that there are no issues.”

Adults in this age bracket believe love is more about empowerment whether it is empowering yourself or another people. They believe that as long as minors understand what love is and not the misconception of it then they can feel love. In their stage of life, love is more technical and less romantic or magical, it has value. For our next question we asked two elderly adults. Does love change overtime for them or does it stay the same?
It takes many years for someone to find their true love. Whether you meet in high school or many years out of college, love is special to everyone. To help us answer our question we interviewed one male(Larry) and one female(Debbe) from the “Boomers” generation(ages 54-72) who have been married together for over fifty years. We asked Larry and Debbe the same questions that we have asked the previous generations, in order to achieve an accurate comparison. Will Larry and Debbe have different responses than the previous generations or will they share the same beliefs as the younglings?

Larry’s perspective

What is love?

L:”I think love is caring about someone more than you care about yourself… love is able to forgive. Love to me is when someone can overlook all your faults and still care about you and love you for the person you are.”

Do You Think Minors Can Really Feel/ Understand Love?

L:“Can minors feel love? I believe so…love is different to every person and every age can feel love in some sort of way. I was very lucky to find love many years ago in high school and now I get to live everyday with the love of my life.”

“What Does Love Feel Like to You?”

L:“Love is something I feel very lucky to have for so many years now. Love is all about being there for that person. To me love feels like magic…like a miracle and a blessing all in one.”

Are There Qualifications For Love?

“Love is unconditional with no strings attached…as long as you have that true unconditional love it’s easy to continue to love that person for the rest of your life. For me, I fell in love at a young age which was unusual for people back then but, my love was real and has lasted for over fifty years and that’s all that matters.”

Debbe’s Perspective

What Is Love?

D:“I believe that the Bible gives us a wonderful definition on love. It is not boastful or selfish. True love means that you are with them in good times and bad…the two of you vow to always be there for each other. “

Do You Think Minors Can Really Feel/Understand Love?

D:“ Minors can feel love…it could be true love..it could be “puppy love.” Most minors aren’t mature enough to know true love but there are exceptions…just look at my husband and I. We fell in love as teenagers and still love each other so much. At the end of the day, as you mature so does your love”

What does Love feel like to you?

D: “Love to me feels like you have to be with that person…you think about that person and look forward to being with that person whether you are doing something exciting or mundane. When your in love you care deeply about that person and want them to be happy. The best love is true love which my husband and I share. I love my husband, my kids, my kids spouses and my grandkids.”

Are There Qualifications For Love?

“True love is without qualifications. Love can be on many different levels. You can love your mom, dad, pet…you can love your friend. All of these are different and importaint and can clearly
be without qualifications. True love remains strong”

Both Debbe and Larry believe love is a precious thing and it is to be cherished
forever. While most minors are too immature to feel true love, there are exceptions. Love is different to everyone and we can feel it in many different ways, as time pases on, our knowledge of love will be questioned but, if our love is strong enough nothing can get in
the way.

In all, love changes over generations of time. People view love as empowerment, joy, a selfless feeling to care for another. Love has many definitions but consistently across all age groups people say that love is something that everyone can feel regardless of their age. If one things for certain, everyone one has a view of love but at the end of the day, love is love.