Love and like are two emotions that every human has. Even though it is a neurological activity, but these emotions increase compassion, kindness, and desire in the heart. Activities of these two emotions motivate a person to care about his loveable things and encourage him to get the things that he desires.
Both of these emotions are very strong and many people often believe that he falls in love with the thing that he likes. However, the reality is not that simple. Love and likes are completely two different types of emotion and they drive people in different ways.
Love vs Like
The main difference between love and like is that love is a personal affection that derives from positive sublime virtue and a type of unconditional form of emotion which grows stronger with time; while like is an emotional attraction that anyone feels for another person, object, or ideology and a type of conditional form of emotion which erode with time.
Comparison Table Between Love and Like (in Tabular Form)
| Parameter of Comparison | Love | Like |
|---|---|---|
| What is it | Love is a personal affection which derives from positive sublime virtue. | Like is an emotional attraction that anyone feels for another person, object, or ideology. |
| Types | Companionate love, infatuated love, consummate love, unrequited love, courtly love, empty love, and self-love. | Visual likes, logical likes, and emotional likes. |
| With time | Love grows stronger | Likes erode away |
| Value | Unconditional form of emotion | conditional form of emotion |
| Separation | Cause deep trauma and depression | Cause sadness |
What is Love?
Love is a personal affection which derives from positive sublime virtue. According to various physiologists, a human must have kindness, compassion, and affection to feel the emotion of love. Love is an emotion that can affect anyone at any time. There is no specific time when anyone falls in love with something. Even with modern technological advancement, scientists haven’t found any specific reason behind love.
However, modern philosophers have segmented different types of love. These are companionate love, infatuated love, consummate love, unrequited love, courtly love, empty love, and self-love. The love parents feel for their children and love for the spouse are one of the strongest forms of love. This type of love remains with a person for a long time and grows stronger over time.
Love is one type of emotion that does not depend on perfection. When anyone loves anything, they look beyond their material value. Any perfection or imperfection doesn’t change its value for the lover. In many examples, it has been found that a person might love an imperfect thing more than anything else. Love is truly an unconditional form of emotion.
Separation or departure from a loveable person or object may cause deep trauma and depression. It may take a person a long time to recover from this depression. This behavior is commonly seen when anyone loses their spouse or a mother loses her children.
What is Like?
Like is an emotional attraction that anyone feels for another person, object, or ideology. It is a deep form of desire. Even though like is a personal inclination but various social influences may affect this preference. For this reason, various companies choose attractive marketing and advertisement tactics to influence public liking.
According to various philosophers, likes can be divided into three types. These are visual likes, logical likes, and emotional likes. Visual likes come from the attractiveness of an object or a person. Most commodities are available in the market fall in this category. Logical liking derives from acceptable reasoning. Most ideology anyone prefers falls in this category. However, emotional likes depend on passionate attachments. A romantic relationship falls in this category.
Time plays a crucial role in this emotional attraction. Linking for an object or a person may erode with time. Someone like anything may not like it in the future. For this reason, with time many people quickly change their affection for movie stars and sports stars.
Likes compare one object with another and constantly look for perfection. Most people do not like any object or a person with imperfection. Like is a type of conditional form of emotion. Most people feel sadness when departed form a likable object or a person. However, they recover quickly. As many people recover from their breakups and move on with their life.
Main Differences Between Love and Like
- On one hand, love is a personal affection which derives from positive sublime virtue. On the other hand, like is an emotional attraction that anyone feels for another person, object, or ideology.
- There are multiple types of love, such as companionate love, infatuated love, consummate love, unrequited love, courtly love, empty love, and self-love. While there are three types of like, these are visual likes, logical likes, and emotional likes.
- With the passage of time love grows stronger. However, with the passage of time likes erode away.
- Love is an unconditional form of emotion, which looks beyond the level of perfection and imperfection. But, like is a conditional form of emotion that always looks for perfection.
- Any separation from a loveable object or person causes deep trauma and depression. It may take a long time to recover from this separation. However, any separation from a likable object or person only causes sadness and the person recovers quickly.
Conclusion
Love and like are both critical emotional state for a human being. The emotion of love gives human compassion and kindness. It drives them to take care of loveable things. A love between a mother and her children is a perfect example of love, where she takes all possible care for the better development of her children.
On the other hand, Likes give the motivation to get any specific something. Like depends on personal preferences and it changes with time. A certain brand of clothing that anyone likes today may not remain the same in the future. Along with updated fashion trends, the liking for new brands of clothing may change in the future.