The Single Story

We all have a single story on a subject. We all have a stereotypical view.
The single story is where the same story gets told over and over again about a people or a place we do not know first-hand. The danger is that it leads to stereotypes, to half-truths not the full truth. So, for example, many Americans think of Africa as being full of wild animals and hungry, unwashed children, not a place where there are libraries, bus drivers and true love. Or they think of Australia as the land of kangaroos, the outback and Crocodile Dundee, not a place of boring suburbs and proper English.

How does the whole story change your view on something? For instance, Cigarettes, If you grow up in a world where smoking is a social status because its cool and the Rich people do it, you take it up believing you are in a higher society status. You don’t know any better. One day you hear a story about how smoking causes cancer. How it can kill you. Does it change your mind on the whole view of Smoking cigarettes? Does it make Smoking less Glamorous?

Here is a talk from Chimamanda Adichie.
http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html