This week, I chose one of the prompts offered as a part of the Story Laboratory option. I really enjoy that this option is available every other week, as it gives a lot of options and a lot of variety in what we can do with our blogs. The prompt I chose this week was to watch the two TedTalk videos about storytelling and give my thoughts on them-so here goes nothing:
The first video I watched was "The Danger of a Single Story". I was excited to see this as one of the videos in this assignment, as I had already watched it once for another class assignment. The assignment was for African Repercussions and the goal of watching it then was to acknowledge the cultural differences between the speaker and where she comes from and the United States, as well as to understand the necessity of not defining a culture by one thing you know about it. When I watched this video again, however, I got another message out of it. Just like how when an author writes a story from a single perspective, we as people can sometimes view others and their stories solely from our point of view, and can neglect the many other sides to that story. The speaker in this video says that collecting as much information you can about people, their origin stories, and the places they call home can help to change your perspective and allow you to see every side of every story. As a writer, this video encouraged me to do my research and focus on all of the different sides from which my story could be told.
The second video entitled "Imaginary friends and real-world consequences: parasocial relationships" was super entertaining to watch, plus it was really cool that the speaker is from OU! In this TedTalk, the speaker addresses the parasocial relationships that we tend to form with fictional characters. This is something I can definitely relate to, as I have been known to get pretty attached to the characters in the books I read, the TV shows I watch, and the movies I see. For example, when watching This is Us (one of the best shows ever!!!), there are times when it makes me cry actual tears and there are times where I am so genuinely happy for a character that I am beaming. Even though I don't know any of the characters personally at all, I still feel this connection to them that can affect me in my day to day life. I found it really interesting that she highlighted the both the negative and positive effects of parasocial relationships, especially when she said that even just looking at your favorite character can reduce feelings of social rejection and improve your performance on specific tasks, as if you were in the presence of real friend. This video showed me the importance of connecting with the characters in my stories and how creating realistic and relatable characters can improve the overall quality of my stories from here on out!
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