I have thought a lot about this question and all the different ways to answer it. Honestly this is a very hard question to answer, especially because before this course, I had no idea how completely blind I was to all of the single stories and polarization I have given into. However, I think I have found my answer, love, vulnerability, and knowledge. These three things are necessary in the process of minimizing polarization and helping to rise above all of the things our media and society have and are teaching us. I came to this conclusion by watching Anthropologist Weschs video  “How to stop hating (Country Music)”  where he says “ Love is something that doesn’t just happen to you, it’s something you do, you practice” and just like how Wesch says we to practice love the world also needs to practice vulnerability, and knowledge

I especially think this message shows through while talking about single stories. We need to realize that we don’t know everything, that not everything we see online and on the news is seeing the story from every angle and that it is insane that we are able to judge and categorize a whole group of people from false, altered, or incomplete information. These single stories need to stop and that starts with love, vulnerability, and knowledge. while watching a TED talk led by the writer Chimamanda Adiche she says something that I think relates to this situation perfectly. She says that she has “always felt that it is impossible to engage properly with a place or a person without engaging with all of its stories of the place and that person”. This is exactly what I am talking about when I mean the world needs to learn and practice love, vulnerability, and knowledge but also realize, how are we supposed to give love and show vulnerability and obtainknowledge if we have no prior knowledge of that person of place that you have gained yourself instead of from the media or other sources. An example of this is Germany, for so many people the word just reminds them of WW2 and the Nazis. Germany has created so many amazing things for the world and a wonderful culture. However, the single story that has been created for Germany keeps people at a distance where they are unable to share love, vulnerability, and knowledge.

In an early 2020 article written by Megan Schmidt called “How Reading Fiction Increases Empathy and Encourages Understanding” she explains that “Although there are many ways to cultivate empathy, they largely involve practicing positive social behaviors, like getting to know others, putting yourself in their shoes and challenging one’s own biases.” These are perfect examples that answer the main question perfectly. Ways of opening up and showing compassion, I tried this recently and made a new friend! Our recent assignment was getting to know someone new in our class, before the judgement, before the bias, just sitting down and asking questions to genuinely getting to know someone. This activity is just a small example of how much information, culture and fun is out in the world just waiting to be found. I enjoyed this activity so much and found things out about my partner that I would have never known if not for this task.

The world just needs to be more open in general, as Christopher Senaca says in his article called “How to Break Out of Your Social Media Echo Chamber”, we have something in our brain that makes it a “natural human tendency to seek, interpret, and remember new information in accordance with prexisting beliefs.” It is wired in ouor brain to judge and misconstrue information to make it make sense in our mind. Break free of these stereotypes, stop using, believing, and giving into single stories, make your own. Find a balance of love, vulnerability, and knowledge and the world will thank you.

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