Y.Q Thesis Outline

First Draft

I think this article will be academic or a script-based text with some theoretical analysis.

Here I would like to give a relatively clear introduction towards the main topic of my thesis and project: I'm working a topic which mainly about the identity disguise on social media. I was inspired by the growing political propaganda ads and spam on social media platforms. Although we often choose to ignore them, they will inevitably stay in the subconscious and subtly affect the way we think. I am also experiencing these effects myself. For example, when I am browsing the comments below some news reports, my consciousness will gradually be pulled by the opinions of those anonymous commenters. Some comments with intense emotions seem to be a kind of irresponsible 'democratic' catharsis without taking any risks, so how can I define the “authenticity”through the huge amount of commenters, and their attitudes and consciousness without knowing who they are and their position. So I was interested in this kind of new interaction which is invisible, lack of real communication and interactivity. How does this new way of virtual interaction and socialisation affect the development of the real world?

Here’s a short essayistic text about my research (a little bit abstract): When you look at the screen while rubbing your sullen eyes, you experience subtle visual differences, perceived weightlessness, and déjà vu in the blink of an eye due to the turbulence caused by the dimension switching. No matter where you turn in life, you cannot avoid staring at the screen. The unfolding virtual world is as common as eating and sleeping. Scenes and situations replaced by screens and networks, and there is no longer any transcendence, only an ever-expanding surface, which has become smooth and fragile under the pulling of countless disguised consciousnesses. The world built across the screen keeps bringing back the impulse of imagination and emotion to the origin. How can we find a crack in this smooth and fragile surface to escape?

I think I will start from a basic analysis about the script. A story based on a real experience of friend of mine. (which you can trace it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uZKf4i8QpAcVBRxEdinB5ocY9Tq9Ccq_/view ) I think most of my research has also been taken from what were mentioned in this story. This is a story about using the dating app to chat with strangers, there were some keywords mentioned in the story. For example, the annoying functions of the social software, like once you click on the chat window, the platform will automatically prompt a “READ" sign. I feel like a feature like this can somehow be associated with "monitoring" and "information leakage", i.e. remote exposure of your state (are you watching your phone right now?) . So when we add our comments under the videos or reports we browsed, does it mean that our speech and state are also being observed and monitored by others (platform mangers/ governments/ nobodies)? I think these key points will bring the story to some larger context, a sociopolitical context.

On the other hands, in the story, two strangers talked about some current social issues, for instance, air pollution. So from this part, I was thinking about the “Second-order Observation”, which about a new way of thinking and observing in the online world. It includes knowing each other through their profiles, posts; clarify their social position through the mainstream opinions appeared online. But we are not sure about the accuracy of these voices, so when we are talking about real affairs anonymously, where is the “real protesters”in these comments and analysis. Or most of us just follow the endless emotions and attitudes led by someone blindly. Are these serious discussions or conscious and emotional orgies?

And then I will based on these questions and keywords to find some theoretical references to support. And give an objective analysis in this article. And all the three key issues will be the three different chapters maybe. 🤔