Is our world is built purely on single stories and assumptions?

By watching Adichie’s TED Talk it made me realize that it is important for everyone to be open to new things and new ideas. Single stories are things that everyone has made for each other whether that be just seeing someone walking past you or even one of your friends. Everyone sees you from a different standpoint and a lot of the time they are wrong about your appearances. In Adichie’s TED talk she talked about a boy named Fide, a very broke young kid that she would only hear bad remarks about by her parents calling him very poor. When she went to Fides village one day she met his mother and was brought a present they made a basket, a beautifully handcrafted piece made by Fides Brother. Adichie said “It occurred to me that no one in his family could make something” She was shocked. After all, she never expected they could do or make anything that beautiful because she only heard the worse of them. She only painted one picture for Fide only one single story. I would recommend for everyone to take 15 minutes and watch the video.

When watching Wesch’s video, I learned that trying new things is a huge part of life. Even if you don’t like the activity you tried to at least you know that you gave it a try, it is a start to something new that you could enjoy later down the road in life. You should never criticize someone on something they enjoy just because you don’t think it is “cool” or “Interesting” especially if you have never tried it. In Wesch’s video, he talked about how our symbols define our status and I think that he is 100% correct. The things we do differentiate us from others, give us status and separate ourselves from others. Our Cultural and Social capital help us build alliances with others of the same status by our taste and values. A quote that Wesch said caught my attention, “Learning to love some musical genre you once hated is not going to solve the deep divides of our world,

I watched two videos, The first one spoke about how one single African male named Daryl Davis a jazz and blues musician, was able to speak his mind from past experiences and make 200 KKK members realize their beliefs were wrong which ended up making them leave the cult. “Daryl Davis began to start collecting KKK memorabilia as a reminder to him of his historical culture and how far the civil rights movement has come“. By collecting the items, he had met many members of the KKK or family members of them, all he would do is sit down with them and talk to them. That little bit of change and realization that Daryl Davis could make was incredible.

The second video that I watched was ProCon.org’s video, Critical Thinking Explained, which reveals how critical thinking leads to “greater

 citizen involvement” when it “comes to the most important and controversial issues in our society today,” issues such as the polarization of ideas and people due to intolerance. We use critical thinking every day like when grocery shopping or when picking what movie to watch. But when it comes to the most important social issues in our society, we often find it too difficult or time-consuming to think critically. We experience a lot of fake and biased information daily. When you critically think you need to push away the confusion by questioning statements and assumptions. Discussion and debates can promote critical thinking, that’s why it is very important to have class discussions or even just conversations with new people. It is scientifically proven that people who take part in-class discussions, a vote later in life, follow political news, and have confidence in their ability to influence public policy.

By having a class discussion about Adiche’s TED talk and Wesch’s video we were all able to hear from different people’s viewpoints on a single story or their viewpoints on trying new things. I found that class discussions about serious issues and topics such as the videos we watched are always important and useful for more information to be taken away.

The Instagram challenge that I took part in with Ranya was very interesting when I started the interview we had not talked much before this time, so it was a bit awkward at first but later we were both able to talk to each other with no problem. I learned that we shared a lot of the same interests and more about each other’s backgrounds. This activity was very interesting, and I feel like school should try and involve people more as Ms. Shong did with our class