New Media Challenge

Breaking the view of a single story

The world seems to be looked at with squinted eyes, I am on a mission to start looking at the world with them wide open.

Judging people before getting to know them is a thing we are all granted, whether we mean to or not, we are all guilty, but is it really our fault? The media is full of opinionated controversy that can put a negative thought on your mind, based on just what you heard/saw. For example in Micheal Wesch’s video on how to stop hating “Life is a game of distinction, separating ourselves from others.” Following that statement, I believe assumptions may be the complete opposite of someone’s true situation, and that a single story should be something of the past.

I recently interview another student in my English class to try and break my single story perspective. I thought she was a shy person and didn’t want to talk with anyone, after our interview, I found out we have more in common than I would have assumed. I found out we both enjoy playing guitar and watching similar movies, we also went to the same middle school. My eyes were opened just by getting to know one person, I had never realized that we have spent many years doing similar things.

As I realized how much a single story mindset can affect just one person, I realized how many other things are based purely on assumptions and opinions. Adichie, a powerful writer, spoke during a ted talk about her own experiences with single stories, “It had not occurred to me that anybody in his family could actually make something. All I had heard about them was how poor they were so that it had become impossible for me to see them as anything else but poor. Their poverty was my single story of them.” I found this ironic as her whole adult life she has been biased on perspective, but thinking back to her youth, she realizes she too looked at people from a single story. We all seem to say that we are biased, but most of us are opinionated without even knowing, media and society project many single-story mindsets by pushing negativity onto a certain subject or person. This happens all over the world, each pushing its own perspective onto you without even realizing it.

I started to wonder about my own single stories and if I view people differently without noticing. I think we are all guilty of this but I wanted to know specifically how I could improve on them. I noticed the smaller things in my lifestyle that I judged, I would assume people with lower numbers on their jersey seemed weaker just by their number while at my hockey games. I also judged the players on their height, thinking they were slow because they were short. The short guy ended up being the fastest on their team, which was very ironic since I judged him without seeing his ability.

I’m still learning my lesson and hope others will catch on as well, it may only make a small change on single story perspectives in the world, but it is a start well needed.