Date of Award
6-27-2025
Date Published
August 2025
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Film and Media Arts
Advisor(s)
Cooper Battersby
Second Advisor
Tamika Galanis
Keywords
Black, Film, Mental Health, Queer, Relationships, Technology and Social Media
Abstract
Not only are humans disconnected from each other, they are even more so disconnected from themselves. Now more than ever the progression of technology, anti-progressive ideology and policy has impacted modes of communication, community, and our consciousness. Using empirical research based on self-experience and evaluation, mass social studies, and reviewing media such as The Body Keeps the Score, The Black Ball, Casablanca, and many other articles and short form videos, this writing argues that capitalism is the true puppet master of the growing failures in our communities; outside of the known financial struggles that come with it. Dating apps and social media, are disguised as ways of easily connecting and building relationships with others, when the truth is building community has never been easy, especially for young millennials to gen-alpha. When there is no longer a constant practice of in-person social etiquette and bonding, we lack culture and understanding, making us unsure of ourselves —finding ways to self-soothe our feelings of loneliness from false communities like private reddit groups, to obsessions with choice comfort items we may never be able to let go of. Losing ourselves in the varied modes of comfort, one must find a way to heal the self and relearn to reattach the soul to the body and find a way to connect with the more positive communities we desire to be consumed by.
Access
Open Access
Recommended Citation
Sims, Monae Kyhara, "A FUTURE BETTER THAN THE FAMILAR: DEVELOPMENT FROM A PASSIVE OBSERVER" (2025). Theses - ALL. 975.
https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/975
