I received my package from UPS today. Does UPS not understand the world "Fragile"? It was broken to pieces!

Never send anything fragile via a general freight company they will break every time at least some of it.

The word "Fragile" is only to be used on UPS packages that only contain tires.

Did the sender by any chance mail it "media mail."

I made that mistake by not researching what the rules were with that. Something I had heavily bubble wrapped got broken hard.

I think because it is suppose to be books/paper they use some machine that hits it hard.

If your sender used that, that is on them.