Week 4 lab

Ted Talk Story Lab: The danger of a single story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

·        Our lives are influenced heavily by the things we see and read

·        Stories do not always need to be about foreign things but can also be about things close to us that have meaning in our lives.

·        The more you read of one topic the narrower your perception will be

·        A single story will always give you only one and usually wrong perspective of a topic

·        The modern-day single story is news, TV, and social media

·        Single stories are often a result of belittling someone or making yourself superior

·        A single story is not an accurate representation of its whole

·        “It is a not that the single story is wrong it is that it is incomplete. They make the single story the only story.” This quote gives you a great perspective as to why hearing multiple sides to a story is important.

·        It is just as important to take about the negative stories as it is to talk about the positive ones.

·        “Single stories rob people of dignity” “It emphasizes with we are different and not why we are similar.”

·        When we chose to reject and not accept the single story, we “regain a sort of paradise”. Meaning we grant ourselves the ability to not see just the bad or negative but to accept all perspectives so we truly understand.

Imaginary Friends and real-world consequences by Jennifer Barnes

·        People send so much time and money on fiction. Why?

·        We believe that fictional characters are fiction but we have this gut feeling that they are real.

·        We can draw emotional support from these characters in hard times like they are a real friend.

·        The benefits of real-world relationships have a very similar benefit to the relationships with fictional characters.

·        Our social circle includes both our real friends and family but also these fictional characters

·        People are more invested in fictional characters then people they are acquainted with. Probably because we have invested in the fictional characters and care for them.

·        The people in acting as these fictional characters represent someone in the real world like politicians. The attachments to these fictional characters can be a negative thing if based on how we perceive them. If all the fictional politicians are white males then our perception of politicians is going to change.    

                    (Fictional Comic: Image from Wikimedia Commons)