Final Reflections: Amanda DeBuse

My Self-directed Learning

During the first half of the semester, I focused a lot on the evolution of the book through history, starting with early church fathers hand-writing books, and so on. I read a lot in "The Discoverers", mainly in part IV, where it talks about geography, mainly the invention of the map. I read part XIII in this book as well. I said in my learning log regarding this chapter, "I learned about the first mediums of what people wrote on ... and the section also talked about book printing and the size and type of font for the books, and how these made carrying small books convenient." This helped me see one of the beginning stages of the evolution of the books, before the church fathers wrote their books, and after, when the printing press was making font font size, and how that rose to further inventions for the book. I also read various Wikipedia articles about the Protestant Reformation, the Age of Enlightenment, knowledge, literacy, the various time periods we were studying, as well as articles about the actual evolution of the book, and its products, like E-books and iBooks. This helped shape my thinking about how people were living during these time periods, and what needed to happen in order for them to create each step in the evolution of the book, especially in the 20-21st centuries when more people found it convenient to read from a screen.

My Evolving Project

For my individual project, my first (main) argument was that book evolution creates a social divide because it was book evolution that first started this slew of digital media that is hurtng relationships. This was my first post, and Jackson pointed out in a comment that reading books enhances his relationships, so I decided to tweak my argument a little. I made it not so broad and said that this digital media that came from this book evolution is not hurting relationships, but is hurting society/civilization as a whole--civilization is hurt because relationships make up society. In a later reconstruction of my post, I followed Dr. Burton's advice and broke it down just a little more by saying that this is hurting communication as well, bringing it down to a very personal level. This idea of media hurting communication in civilization was brought into Laycee, Tailor's, and my group project. Laycee said that screens are creating a barrier between people, and Tailor said that people are losing their identity because of our digital modern culture. These all shape the main argument that technology and media is making communication and relationships deteriorate.

Communication and History

Communication is central to history and society because it is communication that makes a society, be it books, physically speaking to people, or digitally. It is central to history because it pretty much makes up our history since communication has changed and developed throughout the course of history. For example, like what I studied the majority of this semester, the evolution of the book was something that happened as history went on, and the medium of books was the way people communicated during their period of time. It is this history, this evolution of the book, technology, sciences, and so forth that changed my understanding of the contemporary world (today). This is because the things that were invented or started in history was a foundation of what we have now today--the written book in the 1600s was a foundation that needed to be there for today's digital media (and the book inventions in between), working in the fields was a foundation to factory work during the Industrial Revolution, which was a foundation to manual and business work now, the Scientific theory was the foundation of many scientific discoveries now, and so on. Our means of communication affect society in the past because, like it was already said, communication in the past spring-boarded communication in the future; the past gave us something to work off of. It affects society in the present because we are always finding different ways to communicate, be it new inventions, or new lingo. It is mainly digital communication that people use now in the present, and those new inventions will most likely be a digital product, and people would be using that new lingo on those devices. Communication will continuously change, no matter the medium, and in turn will change society because communication keeps society together.

Digital Media Deteriorating Communication and Relationships - Final Version

Have you ever heard your parents complain that the internet is ruining their children? Have you listened? Technology and social digital media sites are hindering people's communication and personal relationships.

Enhancing Society by Enhancing Social Skills - Final Version

Digital media is hurting civilization, the world me and you live in. Our world is so absorbed in the media and technology that it is almost impossible to find a place on earth that has not been impacted by media. I think it is a good idea to not put put away technology completely, but put aside this digital media because it is hurting social relationships, and in turn, hurting the social skills that the younger generation needs to enhance our society.

These are the foundation of what makes a civilization. Karl Marx said that society is basically a sum of interpersonal relationships, and one great way to do that is to help the younger generation talk to each other face-to-face.

Enhancing Society by Enhancing Social Skills

Digital media is hindering communication skills and relationships. Pictured here is my boyfriend AJ and I "segregated" by all this technology that has come out, and me being distracted by it. Do your digital devices do this to a loved one like a family member, spouse, boy/girlfriend, or a friend? If so, change it! (click on the picture to read)

Digital media is hurting civilization, the world me and you live in. Our world is so absorbed in the media and technology that it is almost impossible to find a place on earth that has not been impacted by media. I think it is a good idea to not put put away technology completely, but put aside this digital media because it is hurting social relationships, and in turn, hurting the social skills that the younger generation needs to enhance our society. These are the foundation of what makes a civilization. Karl Marx said that society is basically a sum of interpersonal relationships, and one great way to do that is to help the younger generation talk to each other face-to-face.

Digital Media Deteriorating Communication and Relationships

Here is our group project about how technology/digital media is hindering people's communication and personal relationships. This short video just presents our individual ideas, me, Laycee, and Tailor.

Digital Media Deteriorating Communication and Relationships

Here is the video that our group made about how technology/digital media is hindering people's communication and personal relationships. This short video just presents our individual ideas, me, Laycee, and Tailor.

Digital Media Hinders Relationships and Civilization - A Video Claim

This is a 15-second long video presenting my argument about the effects of digital media. I hope I get some good comments from my Facebook friends and others.

Facebook feedback below:

A 21st Century Perception of Women

If men and women work together, our current digital society can be a force to empower women.

My wife has always planned on becoming a speech pathologist. Her older sister had speech impediments as a young girl, and my wife saw the benefits of the therapy her sister received. When she came to Brigham Young University, other girls thought her desire to graduate quickly and pursue her masters degree was odd and unconventional. "Don't you want to get married and have kids?" Obviously she did, but why do women feel the need to choose one or the other? The answer is not so simple.

Is Digital Media Hurting Civilization?

This is Amanda DeBuse, and I decided to re-work my original argument to one that is not so broad. My original argument was that we should put aside digital media, not completely put it away, but to a point where we are not hurting our personal relationships. I outlined the evolution of the book, starting with how early church leaders wrote religious books to teach from, how the printing press came about because these books were in high demand, and how the new technologies came out that allowed people to read from devices, and how that started this huge influx of mass media that we have today, and how said mass media is hurting personal relationships. I still want to keep the evolution element to my presentation, but say that while the digital/mass media is hurting personal relationships, it is also hurting civilization because of relationships are dwindling.

Communication now is largely given by means of mass media, be it Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, text message, phones, etc., and that is pretty much how our culture works and communicates now. Civilization has changed in that we now communicate with all this mass media mostly, and face-to-face pretty much when we want to step out of the comforts of media and look people in the face. History has allowed this, with the inventions and books evolution that I explained above, and was the foundation of what we have now.

Interpersonal relationships and relations with people is what makes up a society, community, and civilization. When this mass digital culture came in, these relationships were hindered because it is on the personal level that a civilization starts, and with that foundation being hurt, civilization is hurt. I think digital media is a great thing, but it should not get in the way of these forming face-to-face personal relationships that make that solid foundation for a great community and civilization.

Creating a Social Divide through Book Evolution

"I'm Amanda DeBuse, and book evolution and how that creates a social divide matters to me because the world today is so focused on the digital media, and I have seen how it can effect personal interactions with other people. I have seen, literally everywhere I go, people on their personal device, especially in public areas. I myself have at times segregated myself from family and friends to do something on my laptop or phone, and I saw my relationships with them dwindle. When I put those things away, I was able to strengthen my relationship with my friends and family.
Here is my idea: