Volume V Special Issue V November 2025

Name of Author : Ms. Vishnu Priya S R, Ms. Swapna Dedun

Title of the paper : Love in the Time of Likes: A Study of Digital Culture, Alienation, and the Search for Meaning in Gary Shteyngarts Super Sad True Love Story

Abstract: In the digital age, human life is increasingly mediated by technology, altering relationships, identity, and perceptions of love. Gary Shteyngarts Super Sad True Love Story offers a satirical yet deeply emotional critique of this condition, dramatizing the entanglement of technology, consumerism, and emotional alienation in a near future dystopia. This study analyzes the intersections of digital culture, alienation, and the human search for authenticity, focusing on how the novels protagonist, Lenny Abramov, navigates superficiality, mediated intimacy, and existential longing. Drawing upon theories of digital culture, postmodern alienation, and consumerist identity, this paper argues that Super Sad True Love Story captures the contradiction between technological connectivity and moral isolation in modern society. Through close textual analysis and engagement with cultural theorists such as Jean Baudrillard, Sherry Turkle, and Shoshana Zuboff, the essay demonstrates that Shteyngarts work functions as a mirror for contemporary anxieties about selfhood and connection in the age of constant digital presence.

Keywords : Digital Culture, Alienation, Consumerism, Social Media, Postmodern Identity, Shteyngart, Intimacy, Technology

DOI :

Page Number : 21-25