Infrastructure
Discussing infrastructure is an underlying theme throughout the thesis. Infrastructure is
ubiquitous, its present at all times and can be found in every part of our life. Infrastructure is
addressed as something that builds relationships between things, and it goes beyond perceived
static things such as roads, buildings, and piping systems that other things flow through
(Appel, 2015). It is a built network that facilitates the flow of projects and can expand, float,
standardize distributions and extend political rationalities. Appel argues towards a new view
on how to think of infrastructures with tools that allow us to think of infrastructures
metaphorical capacity through its materialistic form. Infrastructure works on different levels
and with other infrastructures that depend on each other to function properly. With a
conversation on infrastructure’s accretion, they argue that infrastructure will seldom be a
system of total power. Instead, they are fragile forms made as much of modernity’s ruination
as its promises (Appel, 2015, p. accretion).1
One of the main messages they give us is that we should aim to give our senses more space.
When opening up the floor to the sensual spectrum, we can, potentially, gain a better
understanding of how people make sense of their social, technical and infrastructural world
(Appel, 2015, p. sense). Through the complex infrastructure that one can argue that Facebook
is, the thesis will discuss and work towards a broader understanding of how young adults in
Yangon live and make sense of their life and surroundings. Furthermore, how this comes forth
in the use of Facebook and their smartphone, looking deeper into interpretations of emotions
and Facebooks own position in society.
Emotions
Alongside discussing the technologies, themselves, I will aim to address how emotions and
feelings can come across as more than just a feeling amongst young adults in Yangon. I will
show how, with the arrival of Facebook, feelings and affection have now one more platform
to be expressed and that Facebook is used as a tool to communicate them. Further, the thesis
will look at how emotion can be used as a compass to navigate the internet, or Facebook, and
1
When referring to Appel (2015), the page number is given as the name of the given article,
since this infrastructure literature is a web page created as a "toolbox" with small articles.
There is therefore no number to provide.
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