Module 1: Look for Thesis Topics

This assignment is composed of two sequential parts, activities and presentation, and is designed to help you find potential thesis topics for research and exploration.

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Activity 1.1: Self-Reflection

Brainstorm

1. The six or seven milestones that have defined my life are:

• Interest and talent for painting When I was in kindergarten, I didn’t know what drawing was and how I should draw. I just scribble on the walls at home with a paintbrush, and my mom doesn’t blame me for soiling the walls. Instead, she very much encouraged me to do graffiti on the walls.

• Independent character The factors of my parents’ work and family relationships kept me at home all the time in my childhood. Because having classmates made me less lonely, but I learned to do a lot of things independently and think independently. This independence has benefited me a lot in the future.
  

• Caring for stray animals Because of the loneliness and independence of childhood, I not only realized the importance of friends, but also made me yearn for pets. When I was young, my parents didn’t allow me to have pets because they were afraid of affecting my studies. Therefore, I became friends with the stray dogs in the community. Every day after school, I play with the stray dogs in the community and buy some food for them.
  

• Rediscover interest The high-intensity and high-stress learning environment of high school made me neglect to find my passion. So I started to rediscover my interests in the wrong major in college. I try to join the student union, various club activities and part-time jobs to help me explore different areas and things.
  

• Insist my interest While exploring my interests at university, I discovered that graphic design is my passion. I hope to be able to use my interests as a career in the future. But since my major is not graphic design but exhibition design, there are many differences between them. If I’m going to stick with my interests, I have to learn and gain experience to help me get a job in this field after graduation.
  

• Start again - back to campus In my three-year work experience, I have encountered many setbacks and gained many valuable opportunities. These experiences made me realize that constantly learning new knowledge and technology can get more and better opportunities in the field I love. So, I quit my job and went back to campus.

2. A consistent theme throughout these milestones appears to be:

The spirit of continuous exploration and the courage to change

As we grow and change in our living environment, so do our mindsets and goals. For example, as I mentioned in the previous question, in high school my goal was to beat the pressure and get a good grade, however when I entered college I began to realize that learning is an important part of life, but interest can enrich us , so I started looking for something that really interests me. When I work, I’m very proud of my combination of work and interests, but I eventually find that only absorbing new knowledge and technology can make my interests stronger. In my experience, I have been constantly trying to explore, and when I find the answer, I will try to change it.

3. The truths that I live by are:

“Job fill your pocket, but adventures fill your soul” - Jaime LYN Beatty

I think the courage to take risks and change is my belief. While the first step out of our comfort zone is always difficult, and the setbacks and difficulties we have to overcome are real, the growth we will reap is truly unpredictable. This unexpected experience is the most fascinating part of the adventure. For example, my quitting job and studying abroad was the biggest step out of my comfort zone. I have experienced the frustration of taking the language test repeatedly, the incompatibility of different learning environments and the incompatibility in life, which made me feel very tormented. However, as I saw that I had learned and absorbed more and more knowledge and gained a deeper understanding of my area of expertise, I thought it was worth stepping out of my comfort zone.

4. The circumstances that seem to limit my ability to grow are:

Procrastination

I don’t think I’m a particularly serious procrastinator, and there are a lot of people with procrastination these days. But even if it wasn’t particularly serious, it affected me to a large extent. For example, when doing homework each week, I tend to be distracted for the first few days, thinking that there are still many days left to do homework. But over the past few days, I’ve started doing my homework like crazy. This meant that I myself could have a lot of time to think and reflect on my tasks, but I missed that opportunity by procrastinating. This behavior may not have a negative impact for a short period of time, but when a small amount of impact adds up it can become a huge problem.

5. I show the most resistance when:

When I need to meet new friends.

I feel a lot of pressure when I have to meet new people or need to socialize with new people. Because I am usually a quiet person, people who are familiar with me will get used to my character. However, I am afraid that my new friends will not know my character and instead think I am a difficult person and give them a bad impression.

When I need to improve my routine.

Staying up late has always been my bad habit. To be honest, I understand the negative effects of staying up late on the body, but when I actually take action to change the status quo of staying up late, it becomes very difficult. Sometimes I make excuses for wanting to play more on my phone, and sometimes I force myself to sleep and it doesn’t work.

6. I feel most liberated and free when:

When I travel.

Traveling or going to an unfamiliar city makes me feel very free. On the one hand, I can temporarily withdraw from my previous environment, which means I don’t have to deal with previous work, studies, or difficulties. I can dedicate myself to something that relaxes me. On the other hand, seeing some unseen scenery in an unfamiliar city also makes me feel free. It is a sense of freedom that comes from nature.

When I meditate alone.

I feel free when I meditate alone. Away from the hustle and bustle of the crowd and the distraction of complicated affairs, I immerse myself in my own thoughts, even if it is random thoughts. It is an inner peace and freedom.

7. I know these things to be true about me:

I used to have appearance anxiety. I have dropped from 150 lbs to 110 lbs. When I lost weight, I used to be afraid that I would gain weight. But with age and experience, I now accept that my imperfect body is the real me. During my growth in recent years, I have found that, rather than competing with our own bodies, we have more things worth fighting for and working hard for, such as our studies, careers and even emotions. These things are the most fundamental elements that make up us, not the mere body.

8. I know these things to be my greatest distractions:

Phone addiction

When I’m concentrating on one thing, I’m often interrupted by my phone. I also want to escape from reality by playing with my phone when I’m doing a difficult task. Phones seem to have become a paradise where I can find joy and relaxation in any stressful time. But this joy is fragile, and my pain is multiplied when I re-face the task I need to accomplish. I have to say that this behavior is tormenting my heart.

9. I would love to improve these aspects of myself:

I hope to overcome my fear of high speed. Because of the fear of high speed, I have been afraid to learn to drive, especially on the highway. Also, the first time I went skiing, I couldn’t learn to ski because I was afraid of high-speed slides. I hope to improve this fear so that I can learn more skills. But every now and then I have an idea of why I have to get over my fears. Because everyone has fear, but no one is defined as a failure because they fear something. And my fears didn’t affect my life.

10. I’m most self-critical about:

I think I’m someone who doesn’t demand much of myself. In the face of all difficulties and choices, I always ask myself from a moderate point of view. I always think that I just need to work hard, but many times my efforts are not 100% energy. This led to the fact that when I asked myself to do only 80%, the end result was that I only did 60%.

11.These things inspire me the most:

One of the things that inspired me the most was a stray cat I picked up on the side of the road that I adopted five years ago. Since I adopted it, I have started to notice that there are so many stray animals and stray animal rescue organizations around. Not only did I start feeding stray cats as much as I could, providing them with shelter from the wind and rain, but I also regularly helped stray animal rescue agencies. I hope to help more stray animals through my strength.

12. I love:

I love my cat. Because of this stray cat I adopted, I started to learn about the interesting things about cats. The biggest difference between them and dogs is that they are more independent in character and need more personal space, which is very similar to humans. However, cats are also more vulnerable than dogs, and they are more likely to be emotionally affected by changes in their environment, similar to humans in this regard.

13. I’m most proud of these accomplishments:

I am proud of my adoption of stray cats. Maybe this is a very simple and common thing for most people, but I adopted a stray cat when I just graduated from college and was looking for a job in another city by myself. I can still accept a fragile life while overcoming the feeling of emptiness brought about by a strange environment and a strange identity. I think that’s something to be very proud of.

14. My strongest life skills are:

I think my strongest life skill is being good at changing bad situations, not escaping reality. I often reflect on my bad mood and bad state, find the reason and the best solution, and put it into action. I think ignoring and avoiding negative emotions and states can make us feel more and more lost and end up making mistakes that are hard to salvage.

15. I place my faith in:

I believe the more different things we experience, the calmer we become. When we have experienced many good and bad things, we will not learn more ways to solve the problem, we will also get more state of mind. When these methods and emotions cannot be accumulated in our hearts, we will have a more comprehensive attitude towards problems, and will analyse problems more calmly.

16. I dream about:

I dream of opening a coffee shop with a collection of coffee beans from all over the world, a spacious and bright hall, and delicious desserts. My cat can take a leisurely nap in the cafe, and guests can interact with the cat at ease, or sit in a corner and read a book. My café is open late because there are always some office workers who need a temporary space to work overtime, and coffee can add a touch of energy to their evenings.

Activity 1.2: Automatic Writing

Activity 1.3: News Scan

Common Theme:

Urbanization has made the living conditions of wild animals worse.

Through the news I collected, I found that the living environment of wild animals is getting worse due to the urbanization of human beings, and even the wild animals are dying. There are two main reasons for these reports, one is the destruction of wildlife habitat by roads, and the other is the threat of power lines. The number of reported injuries or deaths is increasing every day. Almost every month, there is news of at least one or two endangered wildlife injured or killed by uncovered power lines. I think this is something that people should think about and change.

Activity 1.4: What Is Wrong?

1. List 10 things that are currently wrong with the world.

• Animal abuse

• Home violence/abuse

• Drug abuse

• Pedophiles

• School bullying

• Youth oppression

• Suicide/mental health/teen depression

• Teenage pregnancy

• Social media addiction

Animal abuse

I think the issue of animal cruelty is very common and cannot really be changed. Many countries have established animal protection laws, which have greatly improved the problem. Not only can people raise their own awareness of protecting animals, but they can also monitor society. However, there are still many countries that do not have animal protection laws, and people’s awareness of animal protection is very weak.

School bullying

School bullying is a common phenomenon and not limited to physical harm. It can be physical, emotional or psychological. It can occur between friends or within groups, either in-person or online. There are many effective ways to handle bullying at school, so long as parents, teachers and administrators work together to create a safe and inclusive environment and confront problems when they arise

2. List 10 things that are currently wrong within 50 miles of where you live.

• Drug problem

• Salary inequality

• Homelessness

• Shooting

• Racism

• Inflation

• Package stolen

• Employment issues

• Psychological problems

• People not wearing masks

Package stolen

Package stolen is one of the worst things that happen to me. Due to the current building structure, the imbalance in the number of packages and manpower, and some time constraints, the packages cannot be delivered directly to customers, but are placed in some public places. This can lead to lost and stolen packages. I recently discovered that the community I live in has a machine that stores packages, similar to a safe. The package owner must pass a code to open the door of the box that holds his package. This is a very effective way to avoid package theft.

3. List 10 things that are currently wrong in your personal experience.

• Procrastination

• Stay up late/unhealthy routine

• No sense of saving money

• Irrational consumption

• No spirit of perseverance

• No demanding of myself

• Difficulty choosing

• Fear high speed

• Fear of calling others

• Don’t like to socialize in crowds

Procrastination

Procrastination is a common problem among contemporary young people. There are tons of articles on the web explaining the definition, causes and solutions of procrastination, so there is no doubt that procrastination is a problem that can be completely overcome. For example, strengthen self-discipline, look for others to supervise, actively ignore procrastination, reduce distractions, etc. But why do so many people still procrastinate? What’s holding them back from changing this?

Stay up late/unhealthy routine

Staying up late or even unhealthy work and rest is a very concerned problem in today’s society, and it is also a very serious problem for me. Most staying up late is something we can improve and avoid by taking action. We can plan daily tasks and itineraries by creating a schedule, which helps us to complete tasks in a planned and reasonable time. However, according to my experience with my friends, staying up late is unavoidable in some situations, such as temporary overtime.

Activity 1.5: Personal Passions

25 things I am most passionate about after I won the lottery:

• Build a stray animal shelter

• Buy houses

• World travel

• Open a coffee shop

• Crazy shopping

• Buy a island

• Give to people indeed

• Investment

• Open a zoo

• Explore outer space

• Support scientific research

• Trace human origin

• Reduce earth pollution

• Save the endangered species

• Promote animal protection law

• Invent time machine

• Colonize Mars

• Search for aliens

• Open a art museum

• Invent a machine that can communicate with animals

• Extend pet life

• Punish people who use violence

• Explore virtual reality

• Improve food safety issue

• Seclusion

Activity 1.6: Distill Down to Five Areas of Interest

5 areas of interest that have the most potential to meet the viable topic criteria:

• Animal homelessness My cat is a stray cat that I adopted. There are also more and more friends around me who are starting to keep pets, and even paying high prices to buy breed pets. However, there are always stray cats in the community where I live. My neighbor even abandoned his cat to move. It is important to raise people’s awareness of pet responsibility and the science of feeding pets.

• Wildlife living environment I saw a news article saying that roads are killing wildlife. Although there are many measures to alleviate this situation, I still see a lot of videos of people encountering wild animals on the highway and don’t know what to do. Through graphic design, we can more effectively let people understand the relationship between human living areas and wild animals, and how to deal with wild animals on the road.

• Social media / influencer Influencer has gradually become a career that can earn high wages quickly. But there are also people who lose their bottom line in order to become an influencer. In such a rapidly emerging industry, it’s easy to overlook some unknown darkness. Getting people to know more about the industry can help a lot of people who are interested in becoming an influencer.

• Involuted generation in China In recent years, an internet buzzword in China has been called involution, which means the process of curling inward, trapping participants in an endless loop of self-circulation and whipping them. But this behavior has been described by anthropologists as purposeless acceleration, purposeless progress. It is necessary to make people aware of the unnecessaryness and harm of involution.

• Various phobias As our understanding of human beings is getting deeper and deeper, some strange phobias have been gradually proposed and used in recent years, such as dense phobia, giant phobia, and spider phobia. Because of the popularity of these phobias, we can face our inner fears more calmly. So I want to make people know more about phobias.

Activity 1.7: Create Five Topics for Investigation

1. Animal homelessness

Step 1: Fact

Abandoned animal stats report that the number of US stray animals reaches 70 million.

Step 2: Problem statement

Many pet owners do not have a sense of responsibility and scientific feeding awareness before raising pets. This makes them easy to give up pets when they encounter unknown difficulties in getting along with pets.

Step 3: Goal

I will use graphic design to raise awareness about scientific feeding of pets and adoption of stray animals.

2. Wildlife living environment

Step 1: Fact

It’s estimated that as many as 1 million animals are killed on U.S. roads every day. A report by the Department of Transportation identified 21 federally endangered or threatened species that are being directly imperiled by our thoroughfares.

Step 2: Problem statement

The popularization of reasonable disposal methods for wild animals encountered on the road is not comprehensive and people do not pay attention to the signs of wild animals, resulting in the loss of life of wild animals.

Step 3: Goal

I will use graphic design to let people learn how to avoid collisions with wild animals on the road in advance and how to deal with wild animals on the road.

3. Social media / influencer

Step 1: Fact

According to Google Trends, searches for the term “influencer marketing” grows by 5000% each month

Step 2: Problem statement

More and more young people believe that becoming a social media influencer can be a quicker path to success, leading them to gain attention in some extreme ways.

Step 3: Goal

I will use graphic design to help young people look at influencers with the right mindset and achieve success the right way.

4. Involuted generation in China

Step 1: Fact

Xiang Biao, a professor of social anthropology at Oxford University, expanded on what he has called the “last bus mentality” (fear of being left behind) . “Heated competition began in the 90s; the reason people are raising the question of involution now is because the last bus has passed,”

Step 2: Problem statement

In recent years, Chinese urbanites are contemplating whether all this hard work really makes life better. Worse even, it may well be making things harder for everyone, but there doesn’t seem to be a way out.

Step 3: Goal

I will use graphic design to make Chinese workers realize the unnecessaryness of involution and the harm of involution, so as to get rid of this predicament.

5. Various phobias

Step 1: Fact

Kate Wolitzky-Taylor, PhD, an associate faculty member with the Anxiety and Depression Research Center at UCLA, said fear can cause severe distress or damage a person’s life in some way.

Step 2: Problem statement

Many people with phobias subconsciously avoid the things that frighten them. But on the contrary, this often increases the influence of fear, and eventually falls into a more and more fearful psychology and even affects normal life.

Step 3: Goal

I will use graphic design to encourage people with phobias to not see their fears as something to overcome and eliminate, and to embrace their phobias.

Assignment 1 summary：

Describe what you did.

I followed the assignment requirements and instructions in Module 1 to complete topic explorations 1.1-1.7. In the process of exploration, I included a lot of self-reflection and extended my topic through external resources, and finally recorded it.

Describe what was successful.

I think answering these questions not only helped me to self-reflect and explore myself, but also provided me with an effective method for how to find and discover an interesting topic in the future.

Describe what was unsuccessful and could be improved.

After collecting so many topics, my biggest challenge is how to summarize the topics I'm interested in into a rightsized topic. In my opinion, I need more practice in this area to help me sharpen my grasp of the topic.

Describe anything new or interesting you learned.

In the process of sorting out these topics from my personal experience and collected external resources, I found that many problems are still difficult to take substantive measures even if people are discovered early and even realize the urgency of the problems that need to be changed.

Process image gallery

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