I would have to say that I do not agree with Rebecca
Mead. As humans we do enjoy things that
are relatable to our own lives, but that is not all that we crave. We are always trying to learn new things,
whether in research or just by observing other people. Take the movie “The Fault in Our Stars” for
example, most of us have never had cancer and lost someone we were in love with
to the evil disease and hopefully none of us ever will, but that movie still
generated much conversation and was extremely successful in the box
office. People went and bought tickets
because, for most of us, the situation these young people were in is a pure
mystery. As humans, most of us enjoy being able to have sympathy for others who
may be going through a tough patch in their lives. Relatability to the average American was
rarely shown for the majority of the movie, granted that there were most likely
a few people that did have a similar experience. This is a perfect reason why relatability
will never be as important as Mead likes to say it is. No two people have had the exact same
experience, therefore it would be virtually impossible to make these things
relatable, and ultimately the fact of things being relatable is simply just not
as important. Relatability is something
that we enjoy in our lives because it is like a safe haven, a comfortable area
for us, but that is not the only thing that we care about, and there are many
more reasons for us to enjoy any types of media.
I have to disagree with your first point you made. As human beings, we need interaction with others, otherwise we'd drive ourselves crazy. That goes hand in hand with having relatability with someone. Being able to relate to what someone is going through, has gone through, or just general experiences, its something that we need in order to make those vital interactions with others. If we can't seem to relate to a certain person, we tend to get bored or disinterested in what they're saying (now that does depend on the type of person you are individually, but I'm speaking from a general standpoint), and ultimately we'll move on to someone more interesting and relatable to ourselves. It's a selfish way of thinking, but that's the way it is, I suppose.
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