Week 4 Lab

      For my Lab assignment this week I watched two videos, The Danger of a Single Story and Imaginary Friends and Real -World Consequences.

     I really love the video about the Danger of a Single Story. I thought it was really eye-opening because in many ways I do allow a single story to become the only story. She made some very applicable examples. She talked about the images that were fed to us about Africa, images that I'd seen so many times. The example about Mexico was very personal to me, because I had planned to take a study abroad trip to Puebla for Spanish courses and my father managed to talk me out of it because he believed in the single story that terrible things happen to Americans there. We need to remember that stereotypes are not the full story and we need to keep an open mind.

     Imaginary Friends and Real-World Consequences was also a great and interesting Ted Talk. As a huge Harry Potter fan, I was shocked when I saw the statistic that people had spent, conservatively, the equivalent of over 200 thousand years on Harry Potter. 

Image of Hogwarts Castle
     She talked about how we develop attachments to fictional characters and it's almost like they're out friends. I myself have developed emotional attachment to many fictional characters, despite knowing that they aren't real. She also talked about how it can create empathy, but we need to watch the materials that we consume. This is because it can have a impact on our perceived social circle.

     Overall I really enjoyed these Ted Talks that I watched, and I think they made me a bit more aware, not just of the material that I'm consuming as a reader but also of the stories that I write. 


     

Comments

  1. WumbologistOctober 6, 2019 at 2:05 PM

    Hi Jackie, it may be weird getting a comment on such an old post but Hogwarts caught my eye! I watched The Danger of a Single Story after reading your comments and you're right, it's eye-opening. Her description of how Africa is viewed in America is startlingly accurate and shows how very little the majority of us know of other cultures. It makes me wonder what viewpoints I have that are based off a single untrue story.

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