Will the Digital Age Destroy Creativity?

[coberst]

Will the Digital Age Destroy Creativity?

Solitude makes it possible for us to gain access to our most inner reality. Through solitude we find the ability to sort out the structure of our thoughts, to gain access to the meaning of our ideas and attitudes. Solitude provides access to our imagination.

Imagination and reason are the aspects of the embodied mind, which, in levels of sophistication, sets our species off from our nearest non-human species. It is imagination that provides man with the flexibility to adjust to a changing environment but it is imagination that also robs man of contentment.

Our non-human ancestors are guided by instinct alone. Instinct is the impulse that determines the behavior in a pre-programmed response. But our species has added to this survival response system a high level of imagination, which allows us to fit into a changing environment for survival. Reason and imagination determines the destiny of the species. Discontentment, bred by imagination, motivates man to seek a different way; reason facilitates the change by offering the options for change. The discontent of imagination is the catalyst for adaptation.

The product of imagination can become either reality or fantasy. Fantasy can provide an escape from reality or, as is evident in our accomplishments of science and the arts, it provides the ingredients for new ideas, which like the theories of Newton and Einstein establish the paradigms for technology.

Freud wrote, in his paper Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming, “We may lay it down that a happy person never phantasies, only an unsatisfied one. The motive forces of phantasies are unsatisfied wishes, and every single phantasy is the fulfillment of a wish, a correction of an unsatisfied reality.” Critical Thinking, i.e. evaluative thinking not negative thinking, makes a correction of an unsatisfactory reality possible.

Freud considered fantasy was an escapist practice, a turning away from reality rather than a confrontation with reality in attempted change. He considered fantasy as a derivative of play; the child, in growing older, turned from fantasy focused upon an object to castles in the air. Freud theorized that the pleasure principle was replaced by the reality principle.

Present day psychology considers that fantasy is part of our biological endowment and that the discrepancy between our inner world and our outer world compels man to become inventive thereby leading to an active imagination. Imagination is the attempt to bridge the inner world and the outer world of man. Imagination is the engine of play.

Goya wrote “Phantasy abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters; united with her, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of their marvels.”

Do you often seek solitude?

In our Digital Age is solitude possible for young people?

Will the Digital Age destroy solitude and thus inhibit imagination and thus creativity?

[skasian]

Will the Digital Age Destroy Creativity?

Do you often seek solitude?

In our Digital Age is solitude possible for young people?

Will the Digital Age destroy solitude and thus inhibit imagination and thus creativity?

Yes I seek solitude when I am working on something that I have specific knowledge to and do not require the help of others. Since primary school, I found myself finishing a task fastest in solitude. However I did found it valuable to increase my own creativity with the influence of other peoples' ideas. But overall, when working on a project, I preferred solitude as I could concentrate and focus more on it without explaining to other people what is in my mind. Unless I was the leader, I found it hard to following another person's orders when there was an obvious method that could improve the capability and potention of our group.

Nothing is impossible when it comes down to society. In the Digital age, it is indeed hard for young people to be solitude as it is the age where the ways of communication has been fourished to be everywhere as it is easy to have access to. But regardless of our environment, any being such as young people can be solitude when they feel it is necessary, but as our Digital age keeps on developing, it is becoming harder and harder for young people to be solitude, as it is in the nature of young people to be dependent to their social friends and our digital technology enables them to commute more often and easily therefore prevent them from being solitude.

Unable to be solitude doesnt necessarily imply one loses the ability to be creative. This is because in a group or a society, one may implement an idea that a group may produce and stimulate imagination and create a new idea thus act of creativity. In a business meeting, the reason why multiple number of people are required to actively create an idea is because there are more heads to produce imagination thus creativity. By communication, one idea from one head may influence another to use their imagination thus extend the creativity of the whole group. A triggering effect. Overall, a group of heads' product of creativity are usually better than one head's product of creativity. This is why we have the Digital Age. Through our digital age, individuals can input their creativity and encourage another to use their own creativity.

Lets take art as an example. A person's painting consisted a fishbowl with an oversized ostentatiously coloured fish where another person's painting consisted a beautiful sky and clouds, you can use your creativity while using the influenced of these painters. For example, you fuse the two paintings together, where you paint a work that depicts a peacock trapped in a jar, naming the work "flight of fancy." Our digital age can cultivate creativity by giving us resources that we can implement in a new way.

[coberst]

The hand held electronic gadgets and the Internet have created the means for constant interaction between one another thereby diminishing any time for adult contact or interaction with the world via newspapers and books.

“Mark Bauerlein, a professor of English at Emory University, compiled his frustration at young Netizens in his recent book The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future.”

“Bauerlein, 49, says younger generations don’t spend enough time learning about the world at large, writing: “They are latter-day Rip Van Winkles, sleeping through the movements of culture and events of history, preferring the company of peers to great books and powerful ideas and momentous happenings.”

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/257487

[Dori]

Where I live solitude is all too easy to come by, especially when you don't own a cellphone.


“Bauerlein, 49, says younger generations don’t spend enough time learning about the world at large, writing: “They are latter-day Rip Van Winkles, sleeping through the movements of culture and events of history, preferring the company of peers to great books and powerful ideas and momentous happenings.”

As if it were a crime to enjoy a friend's company...

[0=2]

I am enjoying your posts, nt necessarily because the questions you pose are particularily "deep"(depth is deceptively shallow), but because the responses you garner are hilarious... and an insult to the human race.

Lawl, total jk.

No. Creativity is not just an output, or an action relayed onto an object that can therefore be said to contain "creative thought". Creativity is the only reason you have an ego or I, it's the only reason you're able to be brainwashed or enlightened. Hopes, fears, loves, regrets...

None of these things can be proven to exist outside us, therefore they are simply figments of our creativity. Ironically enough "boredom" and "eternal discontent" are also figmentary pigments of the same principle.

That principle is us.

[JacobF]

Do you often seek solitude?

In our Digital Age is solitude possible for young people?

Will the Digital Age destroy solitude and thus inhibit imagination and thus creativity?

I do seek solitude. It is where I get to collect my thoughts and think about things. It is where I am completely uninhibited and can do whatever I please.

Yes, solitude is possible for young people. Actually, solitude is more possible today with the fact that we can interact with our peers through the internet and cell phones. I don't have to go all the way to a friend's house if I want to chat with them. Nor do I have to talk to them at all; I can just close the conversation window (I don't normally do that >_>).

No, the digital age will not destroy solitude. It will not inhibit imagination. I don't see the correlation between that, unless you are referring to teens who are so caught up in the consumerist culture that they don't inform themselves or educate themselves, and in turn become apathetic automatons. Just like when the first cars came out, society still isn't fully aware of how to approach these digital advents, such as internet, properly.

And don't get me started on "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future." It was written with arrogance and generalizations. I watched some interviews with Mark Bauerlin and the guy is a complete jackass. The only reason we may be lazy and useless is because of the baby boomer generation. They were the beginning of a dying culture, not us.

[skasian]

I am enjoying your posts, nt necessarily because the questions you pose are particularily "deep"(depth is deceptively shallow), but because the responses you garner are hilarious... and an insult to the human race.

Lawl, total jk.

No. Creativity is not just an output, or an action relayed onto an object that can therefore be said to contain "creative thought". Creativity is the only reason you have an ego or I, it's the only reason you're able to be brainwashed or enlightened. Hopes, fears, loves, regrets...

None of these things can be proven to exist outside us, therefore they are simply figments of our creativity. Ironically enough "boredom" and "eternal discontent" are also figmentary pigments of the same principle.

That principle is us.

Why are you saying that some people's views are insult to human race? Some views cannot be layed down as right or wrong therefore you have no authority to say that their view is an insult to overall mankind. Dont you know that some people in the world cannot read or write? And because of their lack of knowledge, does this imply that they are insult to human race?
Please be careful on how you choose your words as it is you that is an insult to some people.

[librarius_qui]

Do you often seek solitude?




What kind of solitude exactly are you talking about?
A man may be among thousands of people and be lonely.

In my writings, I frequently find myself complaining about solitude, but then, I'm talking about the lack of a girl in my life.

If you believe in any gods, you're never lonely, or completely alone (because there are other worshippers ...).

And I have a hobby -- playmobil --, among others. You can't dedicate yourself to anything while others are at your side, talking. You have to be alone. When I paint, draw. When I write. If I want to learn a song, in the mandoline, there can be noone around.

But I miss people. I can't be always alone, nor always with people.

There are other thoughts, but I'll go in parts. Many small bits.


Libri~

[coberst]

What kind of solitude exactly are you talking about?
Libri~

Solitude--removed from society. I don't think that it comes in kinds.

[Bakiryu]

Actually, I think the digital medium provides inspiration and fosters creativity. Solitude is not so necessary for creation.

[librarius_qui]

Do you often seek solitude?

In our Digital Age is solitude possible for young people?

Will the Digital Age destroy solitude and thus inhibit imagination and thus creativity?


DIGITAL TIMES

For a while, I wrote with help of the computer. It's a wonderful storage place, tool & resource. It does help organize thoughts, in some level.

However, I realize that I still need the paper & the pen. There are things that go well in the computer, but not everything, or at least not yet. (For instance, I write outside, a lot. Many, maybe most of my greatest ideas come when I'm out.) I still don't have computer with me outside, pocket one. We're coming to this, some here may even have it already, but it isn't my case, and it'll take a few years still, I believe. (5?, 10? ...) And I question if, even with a pocket computer will I need a pen? I think so. Even if they have to find a way of (which there is already as well ...) handwriting in the (pocket) computer. Then I'll may say that I don't need paper anymore ... (For creation; reading is something else.)


SOLITUDE

I don't think the digital age destroys solitude. To be alone/lonely ... solus, is a decision. You are alone when you take yourself out of the places, and keep quiet. Doing whatever you need, wish, will do. I'll always have moments of being alone. It's part of my life! I need it. If I don't have it, I'll be creative enough so as to find a way ...

By the way, therefore, I think yes: I do seek solitude often. Sometimes I naturally find it as well.


still thinking
:crash:

[0=2]

Why are you saying that some people's views are insult to human race?
Please be careful on how you choose your words as it is you that is an insult to some people.

To get reactions from people like you?

Trust me, my word choice is never careless.

<3

Question for people, does anyone think that without creativity, here meaning the ability to make something out of nothing for no utilitarian purpose, any of us would have identities to feel "lonely" about or through? Replace lonely with any other adjective.

[MattG]

To get reactions from people like you?

Trust me, my word choice is never careless.

<3

Question for people, does anyone think that without creativity, here meaning the ability to make something out of nothing for no utilitarian purpose, any of us would have identities to feel "lonely" about or through? Replace lonely with any other adjective.

Maybe. Personally, I link identity with memory not creativity.

[0=2]

But the emotions attached to memory, your spin on it...

These things are not intrinsic in the moment remembered, surely. Sadness is not of death. Happiness is not of birth.

Your ability to "remember" the way you currently do is a facet of a force which drives you to conceive, to create "more" where there was "less", "something" where there was "nothing".

Memory is art.