Portfolio Assignment #9

Part 1: Write 2 paragraphs on what you learned from our guest lecturer and other presentations and readings this week.

This week, we talked about “feeling fails — mediated sentiment and social change”, and “privacy in the digital age”. “Affect” is definitely a new terminology to me as I usually used feelings and emotions instead while the guest lecture taught me the difference between affect and those terms. There are two dimension of definitions, namely psychology and philosophy. As for the former one, affect refers to the feelings which predate speech and are therefore more bodily and co-social. As for the latter one, affects is something that which precedes the potential for activity. Both of them may be slight different in terms of wordings but I have found the common ground: affects potentially lead to actions while feelings may not include these underlying meanings. I think that’s a precise vocabulary for me to better interpret in my academic future. Another thing that drew my attention is that the notion that our mind (which signifies our thoughts) is superior to our body (which signifies our emotions) are somehow fuelled by the horrors of colonialism by placing the west and global north above the east and global south and, men above women, whites above people of colour. Mind and body are just too neutral and objective to me. That’s something I have never thought about. I just can’t help wondering what else that I may seem normal to be prioritized are also based on such a historical hierarchy.

I personally feel so linked with these two topics given the situation of the anti-extradition-law protests the in Hong Kong in the past 10 months. From my experience, I did see a lot of art works reposted on social media for example, Lennon Wall made up of memos with all the voices from the people written on them. During the period, you will be really emotionally affected by the artwork because of empathy as what the lecture mentioned in the lecturer so I totally understand the situation. Somehow, you need to visualize the politics to make it easier to take in and spread to the international society. When it comes to privacy in the digital age, I am really devastated to see the privacy of democrats fighting for freedom, democracy that essentially are universal values are invaded. Some of the founder of self-initiated chatrooms on an app called “telegram” which is to sharing some materials about the protests like posters are charged.

Part 2: Write at least one paragraph on how the topics from this week relate your final project case study.

My final project case study focuses on dating apps used for sex and one-night stand. I think privacy in the digital age would be more relevant to my topic as dating apps usually request users to turn on the geolocation function which enables them to reach to people near them. However, this may also cause another privacy issue as disclosing your own location may seem a bit risky and it will expose yourself in danger if someone use illegal technology to get your exact location.