Wrapping Up: Case Study Report

While visiting teaching my Family Studies/Human Development friend last night, she was telling me about her favorite teachers. She mentioned Sarah Coyne and told me that Dr. Coyne teaches a media class. I had no idea! Allie and I were excited to share our case study with her, yes, but after hearing that, also looked forward to learning about what Dr. Coyne's students have been up to - had projects similar to ours been in the works all semester long?!

The beauuutiful Alexandra Crafton (we need to take group pictures, group ;))

We had a great meeting with Dr. Coyne.  Allie gave a good overview of our case study, including our main goal/ideal of reaching out to families with education and encouragement. We told her about the iterative process of the project development as well as the changes we made to our choice of format along the way.  She said she knows exactly how sometimes things don't go exactly as we initially planned or would have liked (I felt very validated). Dr. Coyne commended us on our project- though I think she must be partial to our particular choice of focus in digital culture! She thought interacting directly with real families is a GREAT idea- and she told us about some of the things her students have been up to this semester. Different class, different projects- but a little bit of overlapping subject matter. (And her students, too, are required to create a blog and post two entries each week as well as read and comment on others' blogs. The focus of their writing is the media content they are exposed to each week and its potential effects.)

"Media, Family, and Human Development" (SFL 358) all about the effects of media on development - body image, relationships, violence, potential for connection, etc. positive and negative. She told us about some of the various lectures, including a guest speaker stay-at-home-mom who started her own business because of opportunities her blog allowed. Dr. Coyne's students created an ad campaign promoting the family that they put on YouTube that I want to check out. They have a semester-long content analysis project coding media for content related to families. Sounds like a class I would have loved to take in conjunction with this one! I got the syllabus from her, so I  have the reading list, at least. :)

We discussed the importance of connection when it comes to family interactions online - how beneficial it can be for parents to be able to "speak their kids' language" in the digital world. She has given presentations at conferences about media and the family and it is always refreshing for her when she meets parents really interested in immersing themselves in their kids' world online.

I'm very glad that Dr. Coyne agreed to meet with us. As a parent, educator, and researcher, she is fully invested in the issues that we've been exploring this semester.

After our meeting, I stumbled upon Dr. Coyne's blog that she uses for her class...Check it out at http://coynemedia.blogspot.com/2012/10/is-liking-status-prosocial.html (as well as links to her students' blogs).

A Case Worth Studying

Digital Sweet Home came together because of a shared desire to learn and share how families can be strengthened through digital media use. And, as we've discovered this semester, there are many others who are making efforts toward the same goal.

Two of those individuals are professors here at BYU. One is Dr. Charles (Chuck) Knutson from the Computer Science department and the other is Dr. Sarah Coyne from the School of Family Life. Dr. Knutson founded the Internet Safety Project, a database dedicated to educating parents, teachers, and teens about the benefits and risks of technology. Dr. Coyne has participated in various studies researching media's impact on family relationships, including the effects of blogging, video games, and social media.

Dr. Knutson

Dr. Coyne

As we finalize our online family resource curating, video compilations, and project analysis, we plan to present our "case" to these professors. We are well aware of the limitations of our project and know that we've made just a small ripple of an impact with what we've done, so we are excited to share what we have and what we've learned as well as discuss what other efforts are being made - and what more we can each do individually - to promote family media use that strengthens and connects.

Audrey works for Dr. Knutson and he told her today that he'd love to meet with us and I'm waiting to hear back from Dr. Coyne about setting up a time for next week. We'll likely divide into two groups, with one or two going with Audrey and the other(s) with me. We've done a lot of "reflecting" on our learning process as a group and we're excited to do some more turning outward as we wrap things up...good practice for our interactions after this class, when we each take a part of Digital Sweet Home with us and continue to make small little ripples for good!

Hooks, Traps, and Minefields

I attended a paper presentation last Friday at the Mormon Media Studies Symposium and I'm glad I did. Here's what I took away from "Hooks, Traps, and Minefields: The Persuasive Power of Anti-Pornography Messages in LDS Priesthood Conference Talks" by Vauna Davis.

 

{Davis mentioned these two videos as using especially good metaphors}

Stay Within the Lines

 

The Sting of the Scorpion

According to Davis' analysis, there are eight basic strategies or suggestions that church leaders have used to persuade the men of the Church to avoid, or ditch, pornography use (Davis' sample was from 2006-2011). Additionally, social science theories shed light on additional approaches that could supplement the Church's overall anti-pornography message. Ultimately, church leaders' use of metaphors (such as hooks, traps, and minefields) are especially effective in illustrating how porn addictions work. Interestingly, hearing the stories of these metaphors, more so than reading them, has a bigger impact on the target audience.

The Church's Eight Points of Counsel
1. Recognize porn's harmful effects (addiction, harm to relationships, loss of spiritual capacity and divine guidance, failure to fulfill Priesthood responsibilities)
2. Resist the natural man
3. Counteract contemporary moral standards
4. Beware of the power of Satan
5. Exercise agency
6. Live virtuously
7. Repent of using pornography
8. Anticipate the rewards of abstaining from porn

Davis' Additional Recommendations for Delivering an Anti-Porn Message
-Give concrete suggestions for overcoming porn addictions (such as talking to a friend or attending a 12 step group)
-Show successful behavioral models (such as a video of a man sharing his story of finding healing)
-Further emphasize the negative effects porn use can have on families (damage to relationships, lack of respect, etc.)

This stuff matters. A lot. Sometimes it may feel like pornography use and immorality in general are too big of a problem for us to tackle as families and as disciples of Christ and it can get discouraging to feel like we're fighting such a beast. But if we don't continue to talk about the problem and offer people a way out of this trap, the silence will continue to stifle those who desperately want to be freed from addiction.

I hope this documentary comes to fruition...

menagerie submission draft

Here is something I've been working on today. Critiques welcome! Now on to my novel segment...:)

no title yet
Two roads diverged

In the springtime.

Through all the seasons I stand at the fork

If I take this left road
Surely it will converge with the right again!
This way
I’ll have it all
Exotic blue lakes
Pearls of great price
Smell the roses, gather popcorn balls
Pin a butterfly to the wall
Catch a falling star and put it in my pocket for
Another day.

But since diverged, this one road has changed to
Two

Even if rejoined in some future
Highway.
A road isn’t like any other
A road isn’t even like
Itself
Because springtime turns into
Summer into
Fall reminds me that the trees along the road are
Ever changing

Okay, then what if  

I run down this road
Then run back really fast and
Take that one
Outsmarting
Time and space and Nature

More traveled?

Less traveled?
It takes me awhile to realize
That all of these other travelers passing me by are
Curiously
Irrelevant.
(No offense.)
“This road is more traveled by” advises one over her shoulder
“This one less” boasts another
That's not something
I particularly care about.

The melting snow forms a puddle beneath me

Reflecting
Someone
With a bird’s eye view
Knows me better

Springtime again

I took a road
And sometime soon
It will make all the difference in
My Piece of
Foreign sky.

Meeting Polly

After writing about virtual worlds last week, this week I have the opportunity to write inside a virtual world. Well, sort of. I've decided to take on a segment of a collaborative novel whose plot very much centers around the theme of virtual worlds and the issues they raise about identity. It's been quite awhile since I wrote fiction, so I'm very glad I have lots of context for my section - I just have to put my scenario into words! I figured I would organize my thoughts and start the writing process here on my blog. 

My chapter segment synopsis, 7.1:  
-Polly cleans up the spaghetti dinner, feeling a little dissatisfied, thinking about Dr. Herrod’s kind demeanor, at least until he left abruptly. She feels lost as to how she could finally get him to invite her over.
-She’s in a foul mood when she finally goes back to her regular apartment, to find Jenny thoroughly occupied in her avatar game. Polly tries talking with her, but it’s like talking to herself. Giving up, Polly joins the game and finds James.

I chose this section because I think it will be fun to explore and explain Polly's thoughts as she is in solitude at the sink, musing on what just happened at dinner. I think I'll be good at describing her "foul mood" by using my own feelings/behaviors of moodiness as a model :). Finally, I'll get to illustrate the unique phenomenon of being lost in a virtual world, oblivious to those in the real world trying to get one's attention. I'm planning to start writing tomorrow afternoon. Below, I've included some notes and points I'd like to keep in mind as I write.

Important Traits about Polly from the Character Bio:
-She doesn’t really have any close friends, especially because she worries that the groups she is hunting will discover and harm them
-Polly has found that it allows her to be free from constraint. She is not the orphaned girl with no set identity, but a normal, educated woman of 25 who teaches at an elementary school. She has dates at least once a month and is just such a down-to-earth person online, that her severely limited dating experience is somewhat forgotten, or at least set aside. 
-She has made cyber friends and has a cyber parrot, so she feels almost more at home there than in her own apartment, which she shares with Jenna. They haven’t become best friends yet, but Polly is learning to open up to people
-She and Jenna sometimes go into "digilife" together since they both happen to enjoy it.

Context Surrounding Polly from the Final Chapter Outline:
(ch. 1) Karate
(ch. 2) Polly acts differently depending on whom she's with, which comes from having to constantly change who she is as a spy
(ch. 3) She has been talking to James for a couple months at this point. She confides in him about Grant
(ch. 4) She's used to jobs taking a long time (Dr. Herron won't let her in his house)
(ch. 5) Secretly commutes back to her real apartment so Jenna doesn't get suspicious. She still likes Grant, but he doesn't respond to her flirts
(ch. 6) Weeks pass, and Polly continues trying to get Dr. Herron to trust her. She talks to him every day just a little bit, then finally invites him for dinner at her place and he comes. She can tell he's beginning to see her as a friend, but when she offers to come to his house to look at a plumbing problem he mentions, he declines, saying he can figure it out. 
(ch. 7) She goes to the computer to unwind and talk to James. This time she realizes she's falling for him and that she is conflicted between James and Grant. 
(ch. 8) Goes to ask for a cup of sugar, realizes Dr. Herron and James are the same person
(ch. 9) Now she's conflicted between fondness for James and duty to work against Dr. Herron
(ch. 10) Polly knows she needs to know what Dr. Herron's plot is before she can figure out who he really is...
 

Virtual Worlds: Part 2

I spent a little time today on the Second Life website as well as searching for articles/blogs with the search phrase "merits of virtual worlds."

On the Second Life site, I clicked on a link labeled "Real Life" and was brought to pages and pages of real places with the tag line "Travel the virtual world without leaving home!" I have to admit, some of these look kinda cool (some of them look kinda weird). I wouldn't mind having a sneak peak at some of these places, though I don't intend to create an account, even for that purpose. Here are a few of the thousands of places/events residents can visit...


Beautiful French art exhibit



Dia de los Muertos celebration

Inside a hurricane

Fantasy pets

Space planetarium

Mormon community

 

In order to seek the potential good of virtual worlds read this article, "Avatars Help People Develop Real-World Skills" and a couple others like it on Science Daily. I am kind of skeptical of these studies, even though they are supposedly based in research- but I definitely need to do some more reading. I'd like to find testimonials via Second Life users' blogs or articles backing these claims up. Let me know if/how you have benefited from a second life or if you have a link I should check out as I continue to learn more about this stuff!

My Doubts "As They Really Are"

I've given "Second Life" the time of day only twice, ever. Once was three years ago, when Elder Bednar told me about it during a CES fireside. The other was today in class as I watched Dr. Burton's avatar fly over green meadows and explore virtual art and architecture.


Remember this scene from "The Truman Show?"
image from here

Three years ago, I was creeped out by the stories that were shared about virtual romantic relationships. Today, I was entranced by the novelty of the parallel universe that exists- for the opportunities it allows people who can't experience certain things in "real" life, whether it's because of geographic or financial limitations or simply the law of gravity. But I'm still very skeptical about whether good can really come from it. And that's even after taking away the "sketchy" stuff we've specifically been counseled to avoid...

After class, I decided to listen to the talk again. (Read the Ensign article here,)

I need to do my own reading/watching/researching about "Second Life" before I completely dismiss it as "just a techno-utopian time suck." But, though it may seem unfair, I'm using my first exposure to it, Elder Bednar's talk, as a reference point. So perhaps tomorrow I'll delve back into that other world. But for now, here are some notes I jotted down as I listened to "Things As They Really Are." (I know many of my classmates have already referenced this talk, or at least the Mormon message. But I still want to include some pertinent parts here.)

About to experience things as they really are...
image from here

Our physical bodies are important in our progression in that they provide a breadth, depth, and intensity of experience that wasn't possible in the pre-mortal existence- these are experiences we must have "according to the flesh."

body + spirit = OUR REALITY & IDENTITY 
 
If Satan can't get us to misuse our physical bodies, he will try to minimize the importance of them by beguiling us to disconnnect gradually and physically from "things as they really are." One of these ways is to entice us to "neglect eternal relationships for digital distractions, diversions, and detours that have no lasting value."

To replicate, augment, or create virtual realities is good if it saves lives or improves the quality of life (ex. flight simulations for pilots, temple design, etc.).

"I raise an apostolic warning about the potentially stifling, suffocating, suppressing and constraining impact of some kinds of cyberspace interactions and experiences upon our souls."

I want to experience "light and truth so discernable they can be tasted"

"O then, is not this real?"

Don't substitute "the monotony of virtual repetition for the infinite variety of God's creations and convince us we are mortal things to be acted upon instead of eternal souls with agency to act for ourselves"

Two questions for my personal pondering and study:

1. Does the use of various technology and media invite or impede the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost in my life?
2. Does the time I spend using various technology and media enlarge or restrict my capacity to live, to love and to serve in meaningful ways?

"I promise you will receive answers, inspiration and instruction from the Holy Ghost suited to your individual circumstances and needs."