After reading this text, I want to talk about my thoughts with respect to the real and reel. The real and reel complement each other. We can take the lens as an example of the reel. In the movie Rear Window, although the monitor behavior replaces most of the social life of Jeff with other neighbors, it also creates a new kind of connection between Jeff and others. Even though it’s only visual contact, they indeed facilitate interaction between people who might never be in touch, which also enables the rise in levels of social interaction. However, can we use the lens to replace all social activities between people? The answer is no; the lens is more like a flavor of social life. They are a tool for mediating and managing social interactions and empowering individuals who control them, which can never replace the actual contact in the real world.
Liya Lin, 3035952018
Talking about voyeurism vs. actual contact between people, these days societies are mostly dominated by social media, and it could be described as a new lens to look into people’s lives. Under the pandemic situation in which face-to-face interaction is not possible, how are our lives enhanced or changed by the lens of social media?