I recently watched several Ted Talk videos but a few really stuck out to me.One of those was a TedxTalk by Hillie Van der Kaa titled “Thanks to social media, everybody can be a journalist.” As the title suggests she speaks about how everyday individuals can become reporters of news because of social media. This is a trend that I myself have been seeing and participating in since I entered the social media atmosphere. She brings up the instance of 9/11 and how when she heard about it she tried to tell others but they didn’t quite believe her and they were more focused on their studying. It clicked to her that she was basically spreading a rumor in the eyes of those who haven’t heard the news yet.
The aspect of ethics was also brought up where she stated that she believes that ethical dilemmas like what to trust and what to publish are being taken out of the hands of journalists. Instead it’s the viewers who decide what they believe and what they want to see. This is something I agree with to a certain extent because traditional media used to and still give us what they want to show us a la the bias of FOX or CNN. However with social media you are getting information from a 100 different perspectives and you get to pick what path to follow.
Another interesting video that I watched was one called “The Art of Creativity” from a man named Taika Waititi. I am not sure if it was the subject of the video or just the interesting story of this man and the way he presented himself that fascinated me. He explained that he came from New Zealand and from a diverse background where his mother is from Russian and Jewish descent and his father’s background is not mentioned rather he tells us that his father is a farmer and an artist. He presents creativity as a matter of perception and expression through the lens of obsession. He speaks about all the things he was obsessed with as a child and how it honed his artistic skills that he has now. If you can’t become obsessed with your work, your passion won’t come through, and you just won’t grow as you would otherwise. Fully immerse yourself in what you love and amazing things can happen. A life lesson if I ever saw one.
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