情感转向不仅关涉知识议程的变动，还提示了情感在当代社会生活中的突显。莱克维茨在构建诊断当代社会的理论时，将互联网称为情感机器，但并未详细论证。本文以莱克维茨的实践理论和独异性理论为主线，试图分析互联网何以成为情感机器。现代社会自20世纪80年代以来便开始成为一个以情动人的独异性社会，而互联网是不同社会事物竞争独异性的关键场所，社会事物能否在竞争中脱颖而出并被承认为独异之物，则取决于能否在情感层面触动他人。因此，互联网的核心不在于作为信息媒介就事论事地传播信息，而在于作为情感机器通过叙事化、审美化等方式撩拨情感，其产物便是情感公众。这有助于我们从另一个视角理解，为何打破回音室（也即“晓之以理”）无法有效解决依靠“动之以情”驱动的网络极化现象。

The emotional/affective turn represents not only a shift in the knowledge agenda but also highlights the prominence of emotions in contemporary social life. Reckwitz refers to the internet as an “affect machine” in his theoretical diagnostics of contemporary society, yet he does not elaborate on this concept in detail. This article draws on Reckwitz’s theories of practice and the society of singularities to analyze how the internet becomes an affect machine. Since the 1980s, modern society has been evolving into a society of singularities, characterized by the significant role of affect. The internet serves as a crucial arena where social entities compete for singularity. Whether these entities are recognized and acknowledged for their singularity depends on their ability to affect others. Therefore, the core function of the internet is not to impartially disseminate news as an information medium, but rather to affect others through narrativization, aestheticization, and other means as an affect machine, producing what is known as affective publics. This provides an alternative perspective on why breaking out of echo chambers fails to make the affectively-driven platform less polarizing.