10 ideas worth spreading from 'Strangely Familiar' TEDxSMU 2014

DALLAS - Nov. 19, 2014 - PRLog -- Hundreds of locals hungry for knowledge headed to the Dallas City Performance Hall on November 1 to experience the sixth annual TEDxSMU (http://www.tedxsmu.org/). Themed “Strangely Familiar,” the day promised to look at familiar subjects through a different lens and to make strange ideas more relatable.

TEDxSMU is one of thousands of licensed TED (http://www.ted.com/) events created in the spirit of its mission: “ideas worth spreading.” Not only does it bring TED Fellows — such as African Prison Project’s Alexander McLean (http://fellowsblog.ted.com/tag/alexander-mclean) — to Dallas, but it also provides a stage for locals to talk about what matters in our community.

Although it’s nearly impossible to distill the day into 10 big takeways — and it’s hard to forget the impassioned dancing of the Unity of Cultures or the T-shirt cannon built by the Jesuit Robotics Team — these are some of the moments that resonated with us most.

“Teach human interaction as if it were as important as the air we breathe.”

Allison Graham of Alpha Girl Productions, an SMU grad and key business strategist behind the Blair Witch Project franchise marketing campaign, earned her TEDxSMU slot through the auditions process. Her talk poked fun at our obsessions with smart phones and social media — and pointed to its dangers, like teen deaths linked to texting while driving — to make a serious point: Phones and computers are very poor substitutes for face-to-face interactions.

She encouraged the audience to unplug for at least one hour a day and to practice “people activism” not “hashtag activism.” “I think we would all live better if we had hands to hold rather than keys to click,” she said. Schmaltzy but true.