This group: @sfreto @Mustapha Adel @Maria Tarancon @Ahmed M Rabie sat together and got personal. They shared with each other aspects within themselves and their lives that they are trying to change to the better. As the conversation evolved, they realized they had much more in common than they thought.
One of the main problems that were recurrently brought up within the group is a lack of engagement in activities within the community. However, this wasn’t always the case - @Maria Tarancon was really active in her community in Spain (her native country) and @Mustapha Adel used to be involved in a lot of initiatives, but is now too focused on work.
The group tried to reach the core of the problem: Why are we demotivated? What is the cause?
@Nadia asked ‘your position as an actor in the society has changed, and you don’t know what that is anymore, things you started before suddenly feel irrelevant, why?’
The general consensus was that everything in all spheres has become so predictable and we’ve reached a point that they feel like we can’t affect change anymore and just plain indifference.
@Maria Tarancon made a very important point that if people don’t change the way they live their lives, concerns and priorities nothing will change in a larger scale. Lots of complaints and things needing to be changed but no one is taking action. As citizens you have responsibilities. People don’t understand that if you change small things in your lives you can contribute to a larger scale of change. It’s an issue of attitude.
Therefore, the group tried to figure out what kind of awareness can be effective to change that mindset, and how can people know that there are consequences to their actions?
These were the main outcomes:
- There’s a lack of critical analysis skills.
- If people express their opinions and communicate with one another, you can hear different perspectives and point of views which will help you make your own decisions.
- If you converse and communicate with people who are completely different to you, you can eventually reach a common ground. Telling others what’s wrong and what’s right and of your own experiences and others experiences can lead to change in opinions and actions.
- You have to speak in the language of the person you’re speaking to, take into consideration their background, context, environment and try to communicate in a way that they would understand. But it’s very important to communicate with people that are outside your circles, different, and you wouldn’t normally converse with and it’s possible to change behaviors and ideas.
@Ahmed M Rabie gave an example of how a person will throw glass in the garbage bin (disregarding the negative impacts of their actions). While there’s a young boy, just starting his life, who has a job of picking up the trash, inevitably he was hurt by the glass you threw in. Therefore, if someone tells you that this boy exists and you’re hurting him – then maybe you’ll change your behavior by simply knowing.
This discussion is what led to the Future Newspaper Story ‘For the first time, Downtown Cairo is free of sexual harassment’. Read it, and you’ll get the grasp of the power of storytelling and exchange of personal experiences.
What do you think about the concept of storytelling as a mechanism for changing behaviors?
