Daniela Marcel, Week 13: The Mandela Effect Theory
I first found out about the Mandela effect when I was scrolling through TikTok. Some random dude showed up asking if the fruit of the Fruit of the Loom logo pours out of a cornucopia? Or if Fruit Loops was spelled Fruit Loops or Froot Loops? Or if Looney Toons was actually Looney Tunes? He just went on and on about these questions, and I would nod agreeing that these items were part of the logo. However, at the end of the video, it was revealed that none of the items actually existed. I was absolutely bamboozled. I immediately went to the comments to see if I was just going crazy. And I was, not just me though, everyone was. Turns out everybody believed that all the items were part of the logo. I even went on my computer to double-check all the logos, since everyone knows not to believe everything that's shown online. HOWEVER, the random dude was right. NONE of the things he said existed.
I grew more curious about the Mandela effect and started to research about it. Researchers say that, when you get new information, your old information may become disoriented. Still, how come everyone’s disoriented image is the same?
I searched up more examples of the Mandela effect and it showed things, like how there is no hyphen between the Kit and Kit. How there is no black strip on Pikachu. How that The Berenstain Bears, was spelled with an a not an e in Bernstein. Or that the phrase “Life is Like a Box of Chocolates” is actually “Life was Like a Box of Chocolates”.
https://nccnews.newhouse.syr.edu/what-is-the-mandela-effect/
Hi Daniela! I found your ideas on the Mandela Effect to be very interesting. I think there are many words and ideas that we encounter on a daily basis that are implemented in our head since a young age. If these change form or spelling, we tend to be confused and shocked because we are so used to seeing the spelling that we believe is correct. I believe that most of spelling norms come from the rules of the English language. Often, we are familiar with how to spell unknown words because we have seen other words being spelled in a similar way before. The patterns of the English language create similarities between the spellings of words, and these patterns soon get ingrained in our head.
ReplyDeleteI think that the Mandela Effect is a very beneficial characteristic of our mind because it makes it easier to read words and guess the meaning of them. In addition, the Mandela Effect allows us to read the first part of a word and predict what comes after. This means we can skim over words and still understand the full meaning that is conveyed. How did you encounter the Mandela Effect?
Hi Daniela, your topic is really interesting and I like the specific examples you incorporated to provide a better understanding of the “Mandela Effect.” I stumbled on the same Tik Tok video about a year ago and I was equally surprised to see that brand names or logos are not as the general population remembers them to be. However, I think there are some logical explanations for this effect. Many people don’t focus on brand logos, names or pay attention to proper details, so we tend to skip over some things. For example, I don’t think anyone has properly inspected the Monopoly man and his details. When someone brings up the monocle, people can incorporate the monocle into their imagination when conjuring up an image of the man, as they don’t remember exactly what he looks like and now the idea of this object is put into their head. It could also be due to context, as it would make sense for an old business man to have a monocle. For this example specifically, I think another factor is the similarity of the words “monopoly” and “monocle,” creating an immediate connection between the two. With the Mandela effect, ideas and images are put into peoples’ heads, creating false images.
ReplyDeleteHi Daniela, your blog was very informative and informative. I like how you added particular examples to explain the logic and thought process. I remember about a year ago when on TikTok, the community was shocked to find out about the effect and the stream would be filled with people posting about this effect even developing a filter for this. I feel like this effect is prominent because people barley pay attention to these common logos or branding elements as we see them so often. This leads to the failure and lack of attention to these details. I think part of the problem is people also gaslighting themselves and doubting themselves under the pressure of knowing something "so common"
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