Creativity vs. Technology Advancement

Monday, November 16, 2013

I wonder if creativity works in inversion with internet access and technology advancement. I surely was more creative before I owned a laptop and a smartphone with full internet access.

Internet access and technology advancement themselves have without a doubt improved the quality of people’s life – for me personally, I can’t be more grateful for millions of free great online articles and amazing photographs and (illegal) music and applications AND youtube videos, not forgetting social networking services through which I connect with my best friends. They have, however, also sucked up my creativity, it seems. Back when I was 15 and all I had was a regular phone without internet access – and quite expensive SMS fee – I would spend the evenings feeling the breeze and writing poems or finishing my novel or writing diaries, and ideas seemed to easily and abundantly flood in. Now, with all kinds of information available online, I more often than not find it hard to tap into my creativity and write, instead.

I guess muses really do reside in nature, which, by the way, reminds me of an episode in Charmed – the one where Phoebe or Paige found stray muses in the park, all barefooted and wore leaf-crowns, and they had to help them in a way that I don’t remember how. Anyway, those muses – a few of them were probably overjoyed with the invention of blogs and Instagram, but most of them, I suppose, still prefer to hide behind raindrops and sunsets, or sing with the wind that blows through excited leaves and flowers. Or at least, that’s where my muse seems to dwell.

This also reminds me about the downside of multitasking – there have been some scientifically proven facts that it is actually inefficient. With internet and technology, people nowadays are more prone to multitasking, including all my students and me. The result? Not so good. I’ve been trying to reduce multitasking, mostly when it comes to online activities, but I guess I still need to reduce the actual amount of time that I spend being online.

To less internet access and more creativity – cheers!