This TED Talk was one of the more powerful TED talks I have ever listened to. It highlights how as humans, we often use one story to define a person, people group, or place. When we do this, we fail to see the truth about people. The reality is that every single person has multiple stories and experiences that make them who they are. A couple examples Adichie uses are her college roommate's view of Africans and her view of Mexicans. When Adichie came to America from Nigeria, her college roommate was surprised and almost a little disappointed that Adichie had many things in common with her. When Adichie visited Mexico, she realized that Mexican people were all that American media made them out to be. I also find myself believing in the single story. This talk opened my eyes a bit. Storytellers often write stories that are related to what they are reading. When a story is started also makes a huge difference. If you do not start at the beginning, you miss out on so many important details. One of the the most powerful lines spoke in this talk was "The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but they are incomplete." No one can be summed up in one story. Every individual is unique.
In my upcoming stories, I want to make sure I look at all the story possibilities. I could give the backstory to a villain or the position of a main character. There are many stories out there, but infinite stories yet to be written.
Do you actually know who you are following? pxhere
Imaginary friends and real-world consequences: parasocial relationships
A parasocial relationship is a relationship we make with someone we do not really know through media. We take the characters we read about, celebrities we research, or people we view on social media and form parasocial relationship with them. We feel like we really know these people, when we really do not and they do not know us. The questions is why do we do this? Research has shown that we can draw social and emotional support out of parasocial relationships, especially when one is combating a feeling of loss or social rejection. Jennifer Barnes and one of her graduate students did a study that showed that on average, a student would be more sad if their favorite character died than if a real person that they see often but to not actually know died. This is quite alarming as the real person has real aspirations, real relationships, and real lives while the fictional character does not even exist. We really need to be careful about what is happening to our minds and emotions when we create these parasocial relationships.
Bibliography
The Danger of the Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Bibliography
The Danger of the Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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