TED Talks

   TED talks are videos that are made by people to inform the world about various important aspects that they have special knowledge about. Some TED talkers display a variety of interactivity with the audience while other talks display a monotone and lackluster form of displaying information.

   I have watched about five or six pieces about TED videos but only two have caught my eye; one of them was Meera Vijayann: Find your voice against gender violence, and the other was Isabel Allende: How to live passionately—no matter your age.

   When Meera Vijayann spoke, she spoke with boldness and confidence, she was not afraid to tell her story; all the horrific incidents that have happened in her past and what she did to overcome the difficulties it caused in her life. She even uses with what happened to her to help other people. At points she did stutter, not because she was nervous but that is only because she was reliving the horrific moment she has encountered. Moreover, When Meera spoke she didn’t stay still she moved around, she used hand gestures and she was making eye contact with the audience.

   On the other hand, Isabel Allende was light hearted with the way she spoke, she made some jokes but at the same time she was serious, she gave wholesome life advice that can help people take in the aging process. Isabel additionally talked about her fears but talked about ways to overcome them, and assured the audience that it was okay to be afraid of changes. She was in sync with the audience; she connected to them in a way that everyone goes through the aging process.

    Both Meera and Isabel are great speakers but they both have different styles with connecting to the audience. While Meera was more leaning to the serious and emotional side, Isabel was inclined to the fun and more entertaining type of speaking. Meera and Isabel are both speak from life experience and their goal with speaking was to reach out and help the people that may be dealing with the same problems as they did, they both used slides, however the content of the slides were different. Meera and Isabel were diverse in ways that Meera would have connected with specific people like people that were victims of sexual assault, whereas Isabel connected with her entire audience because everyone ages.

   Some of TED talkers videos that I have seen, were not as good as Meera and Isabel’s were, among those that did not really engage me was Aziza Chaouni: How I brought a river, and my city, back to life. Aziza spoke in a melancholy and lethargic way, and to me she did not really connect well with her audience, she spoke about the way she helped purify the river in her hometown but did not do it in an appealing fashion. Contrasting to Meera and Isabel, she did not move around at all, mostly stayed in her position toward the side of the stage.

http://www.ted.com/talks/meera_vijayann_find_your_voice_against_gender_violence#t-824396

http://www.ted.com/talks/isabelle_allende_how_to_live_passionately_no_matter_your_age#t-209525

http://www.ted.com/talks/aziza_chaouni_how_i_brought_a_river_and_my_city_back_to_life#t-245572