Philosophy of storytelling

I believe we tell stories to entertain and relieve ourselves from stress. Whether we are telling a story to a crowd or ourselves, we are trying to detach from current stressful events in life. We tell stories to crowds to entertain and help take them to a place they’ve never been before. A place that will distract them from any negativity that is alive in their current situation. It’s less about the length of the story and more about the strength; the strength to take the listener somewhere new and refreshing—away from the now and into an imaginative state of mind. Perhaps the person who gets the most enjoyment out of storytelling is the actual storyteller; they’re the ones either reminiscing on the past or creating this imaginary world outside of reality and the current time. The control of the story is in their hands and when telling their story they become fully immersed, allowing them to escape reality and forget about their worries. Even if you are telling a story to yourself, reminiscing without a crowd or audience to hear your story, you’re entertaining a space in yourself and in your mind away from your troubles. Over time, the types of troubles and things that cause us stress have evolved but the act of worrying has been constant. Storytelling has evolved over time through different forms of media. Telling a story over the Internet effects the time when the two parties (the person telling the story and the audience who is receiving) enter the state of imagination and entertainment. The narrator enters this imaginary world before the audience even knows it exists and it isn’t until it is posted online that they too get a chance to forget their problems and factors that are causing stress in their life.