When I first read the question “what is storytelling” I thought that this would be an easy no brainer to explain. But as I have tried to put storytelling into words, I have found it much harder than I would have ever imagined. I don’t think that storytelling is something that can be easily defined or fit into a perfect little box. I think that story telling is constantly evolving and changing as we grow up and as the world progresses around us.
Story telling to me is the passing along of information (ideas, life events, funny moments) from one person to the next. In elementary school this was when your teacher would read aloud a children’s book aloud to your class. While at the time it just seemed like a fun thing to do, the teacher was always sharing some sort of information with you by reading it. Nowadays its when you see an old friend and tell them all about your life and what you have been doing since you all last talked. While the types of stories have changed from when I was in elementary school to now, the idea of story telling really has stayed the same.
Digital storytelling to me is just storytelling done with some sort of technology. This is a type of storytelling that is new and growing with each day. This is just a new way that storytelling is evolving with the times.
It was definitely meant as a difficult question. You are on to something with the storytelling part being the connection to/from people. I wonder though ig just information is storytelling. What is the difference between relating a series of events versus making it into a story? I think you might consider the essence of character, that there is a potential struggle to overcome, that there is an emotional connection we have with story that is not present with pure information… food for thought.
I dont have the answer either.