Soap Operas Reflect Life (just bigger)

Four larger-than-life lessons from soap operas

"And we can use those lessons to craft our own life stories. Soap operas teach us to push away doubt and believe in our capacity for bravery, vulnerability, adaptability and resilience. And most importantly, they show us it's never too late to change your story." - Kate Adams


Summary:

Kate Adams, a former assistant soap opera casting director for "As the World Turns," explains how soap operas can reflect problems in real life.  She tells four major take aways from reoccurring themes in soap opera series and pulls them out in order to tell a bigger theme to live by.  Each takeaway she presents she follows with a story of a character portraying the takeaway in the form of a overdramatic soap opera form, then explains the takeaway bigger, and then lastly explains the takeaway by explaining how a role model figure or CEO has used this theme in their own lives.  Her first takeaway is "surrender is not an option" she explains by using Erica Kane from Silicon Valley then presents the takeaway in real life to Pandora's CEO Tim Westergren.  The second takeaway is "sacrifice your ego," which is explained by using Stephanie Forrester of "The Bold and the Beautiful" and then further explained by Howard Schultz the CEO of Starbucks.  The third takeaway is "evolution is real," which is explained by Carly Benson from "General Hospital" and how this character has been represented by many different actresses, then the real life presentation of this scenario is by Julia Child who once was a WWII spy, but is now married and a chef with cookbooks and a tv show.  The last and fourth takeaway was "resurrection is possible," and is explained by Stefano DiMera from "Days of Our Lives," and then the real life presentation is by Kate Adams herself and her story after her show "As the World Turns" ended. 

Purpose:

The purpose of the TedTalk is to show that while soap operas are dramatic and exaggerated, or for some people a waste of time, it is able to present real life themes to follow.  Kate Adams was able to present these themes well and explain how these themes can be related in our lives.  For the first takeaway she explains how obstacles are expected throughout life but it is our own choose to fight or surrender.  For the second takeaway she explains life is not about you, it's about us and our ability to experience joy and life and only when we become vulnerable and accept responsibility for actions and inactions.  For the third takeaway Adams says, "we can choose to draw a circle around our feet and stay in that spot or open ourselves to opportunities."  Lastly Kate Adams says, "as long as there is breath in your body, it's never too late to change your story."  I believe that each takeaway she was able to relate to a theme presented in a soap opera show (or what could be seen in every soap opera show) is very important to life and what to live by.  I also believe that the way Kate Adam organized it was last was the most important because each one got more important in realizing the importance in yourself, the opportunities in our lives, and how nothing is the end.  I believe in all the lessons that Kate Adams presented and I love how she finds them within soap operas because I do love a good soap opera (Shonda Rhimes TGIT nights are a fav).

Use of technique:

Kate Adams used ethos and pathos throughout the Ted Talk in order to prove that soap operas were able to have life lessons within them.  She is a former casting director for a soap opera so she knows what it is like to read and create soap opera scripts and see the underlying themes there that are to be presented.  Adams is able to connect with soap operas so she is reliable to know the themes that are within soap operas because she worked with one, "As the World Turns" for 12 years.  She used pathos because she was able to connect with an audience who may have watched soap operas too by relating the themes to how they would be presented in a soap opera.  Then she connects with the audience by giving an example of how the life themes have been reflected with actual people who are a business man and woman.  She was also able to connect with the audience by being vulnerable and telling her own story of how she felt like everything ended when her work came to an end and went jobless for nine months but then she picked herself back up to get another job, which was her resurrection time.  Kate Adams was able to relate soap operas to life lessons.