The Power of Story

Michael Arrington started TechCrunch and is a major player in tech journalism. He recently posted on Facebook that he inadvertently was copied in an email exchange between a kids soccer team’s coach and the parents. He has no idea who they are:

“There’s this email exchange that I’ve been watching for a long while now. It’s the parents of a soccer team called the Jaguars + me. I think they added me by mistake. At first the coaches wife, Sara, was asking people to tell their kids to focus more at practice. A few parents got upset. One said the coaches were bullying their kids. Sara has now responded saying she’s offended – “And, these kids are not “treated poorly”, threatened, or filled with fear. That is really offensive to me” and she’s demanded a team parents meeting. I can’t attend the meeting because I have no idea where these people are, but I’m emotionally invested now and I feel that it’s time for me to add my two cents. There are only two weeks left in the season, it’s go time. These parents need to put on their big girl pants and tell their kids to FOCUS on the WIN.”

Notice how your mind is automatically locked in to the story and wants a resolution. You start to picture the players, the coach, the parents and imagine what they look like.

Maybe you start to recall your own coaches, or remember similar situations you had with your kid’s coaches. All this from real life story that you have no idea who the people really are.

It shows how stories get you, as Arrington says, “emotionally invested,” whether you want to or not.