Week 6 Story Lab

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For my Story Lab this week I watched the TED talk given by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie called "The danger of a single story". During her talk she states that describing someone as one "thing" or one characteristic continuously can cause that person to become that in someone else's eyes. For example, she heard many negative things about Mexcians from the media coverage that they had become the "abject immigrant" in her eyes. By starting the story differently, the story can completely change. Adichie emphasized the negative impact of single stories on causing incomplete and hurtful stereotypes. The second TED talk I watched was "Imaginary friends and real-world consequences: parasocial relationships" by Jennifer Barnes. Barnes asks why we engage with fictional characters and what effect does engaging in fictional characters has on us? One reason is parasocial relationships, which is relationships we form with someone without ever meeting them, because we have read and learned so much about them. These parasocial relationships can have positive outcomes, like creating a buffer against losses of self-esteem and feelings of social rejection, and giving the same benefits as actual friendships. Some of Barnes' research found that female participants experienced more grief over the death of a fictional character than their acquaintance, while males didn't have any significant difference. This may be due to the stronger relationship felt with the fictional character than with the acquaintance. Through her studies, Barnes emphasized the power of fictional characters and stories on the readers. I really enjoyed the second video and the research Barnes performed to find answers to her questions, before the video I had never thought of the impact fictional characters and stories had on my life.
Ted talk logo (Wikipedia)
 

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