Lexi's Semester Recap

When this class first started, I was extremely worried because I had no experience with digital writing. I thought I might be in over my head this time. Thankfully, through each portion of the semester—timelines, audio essays, Humans of…, the space essay—we’ve taken the time to get to know our platforms and how to create a digital work that fits the medium. Much to my surprise, I’ve actually enjoyed transforming my writing from words on a page to experiences. Adding in sights and sounds through imagery and audio allows a writer to engage the reader in a more nuanced way.

The readings that we’ve completed throughout the semester allowed me to step into this form of writing with a little less worry. Readings, like Far Away from Far Away, Motto, Un/Tied Shoes, and How to Ruin Everything, taught me a lot about the different avenues in which you can take your writing to a new level. Each of these have unique immersive elements that I found very engaging and inspirational.

Much like Chris Milk claimed about virtual reality, the various forms of digital writing could each serve as an empathy machine. I think it will become much more common to see digital writing in the future. One recent example in journalism was a video timeline of the storming of the U.S. Capitol building on January 6th. One of the news outlets posted a video with scenes from the riots lined up with both a timeline of the events and the audio from the Capitol police’s radio channel. This video allowed people to get a clearer idea of the events of that day and certainly elicits a stronger reaction that one might have just reading about the events.

As we’ve discussed in class, I think that digital writing and virtual reality will both have important roles within my own field of psychology and psychotherapy. In fact, I think there is a great potential for digital writing to help break the stigma surrounding receiving mental healthcare. If people share their own experiences through this form of writing, it may elicit similar reactions as the pieces Clouds over Sidra and Bashir’s Dream—pieces which allowed us to see what life is like for people on a different side of the globe. The largest hurdle that we face in breaking that stigma is allowing people to see what the process of therapy is truly like and how transformative it can be for a person’s life. There are a million other ways that virtual reality and digital media can improve the field of psychotherapy as well.

I am extremely grateful I signed up for this class. I believe that I have learned skills that will be highly applicable in both graduate school and my career as a marriage and family therapist. As I mentioned before, I learned a lot through the assigned readings. What I haven’t yet mentioned is how much I learned through reading and listening to my fellow classmate’s projects. I’m astounded by the skill level of each of the students in this class and their creativity. It was exciting to see the various ways we each interpreted an assignment. So, to Professor White and to the other students, thank you for everything you all taught me this semester.