Something that is sticky to me is something that could apply to my life, is shocking, and comes from someone I trust. In short, I do agree with the Heath's idea of stickiness. When I hear something about science in a bunch of technical terms, I am bored to pieces, not listening, and counting the seconds until it is over. Nothing is possibly going to stick if I am that distracted. Even to someone who likes science- most people would need the idea repeated, especially if it was very techinically described the first time to understand the concept. If you are going to make a story stick with me, you are going to have to keep it short and simple. If I am shocked, even better- because I repeat shocking stories. If the topic comes up, it is something interesting to bring into the conversation, so a shocking story that stuck with me gets recycled into my new conversation. Reusing a shocking story, almost makes you feel more interesting, because when you tell someone something shocking they are paying their full attention to you. If the person telling the anecdote has even a little bit of credibility then its all the better because you wouldn't question them twice, as you believe every word that they say. Something sticks if it makes sense. Sometimes something that sticks is a memory. A memory of something that changed your life, changed someone elses life, was especially funny, or especially sad, made an impact, any of these would stick. Stories are just memories being retold. I will never forget the day my cousin died, or the what I was doing on September 11th. I will always remember in perfect detail my trip to Spain, and when my mom married my stepdad. These memories make an impact, and whether they are happy or sad, they had shocked my life, and that is what makes something stick. The story about the children eating apples with razors in them from trick-or-treat night is something that scares people, and shocks their lives because up until this point they had not worried about their children eating the sweets over Halloween. Just like those memories made a change in my life, the parents made a change in their children's lives when they heard the razor rumor.
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I feel the same way when I am learning or just being told stories in general. If they are not interesting, creative, or funny in any way then I am simply just not going to regard them as simply not interesting and probably forget it in a few minutes. As for technical terms, I hate them, just like the example Heath gave us in his article, which I really don't remember at all now, most people do not remember things which seem to not interest them or are very technical. I think that me not being able to remember the example served it's purpose perfectly in that article. Also, like you mentioned about stories being shocking and how they will often get repeated if they are, gossip is prime example. Most people love gossiping about everything, but if they find out a good piece of interesting and shocking information about someone or something, it will spread like wildfire. Most people cannot help but to tell the world about stories that they care about or interest them greatly.
ReplyDeleteI think you made a great point about how a story doesn't stick unless it has some personal or emotional significance to you. People tend to ignore issues until they are personal or hit close to home. Additionally, people become more effected by emotional stories than factual. This all ties in with your point that stories must have some sort of meaning to you. Though the razors in halloween candy didn't actually happen, people all over can relate to not only trick-or-treating, but also the universal fear of strangers.
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