Will the Digital Age Destroy Creativity?

Books and newspapers went through equally distrusting stages, and not that long ago. Books are far less social than forums, and when through a phase when they were considered a pastime for women. Newspapers have had rocky periods when they were considered seedy, and for the lower-class.

All advances in technology are met with skepticism by those with no imagination and transformed into new expressions of human ingenuity with those who have some.

 

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Definition(s) of society.
Words may have many different meanings, so that in conversation we have to take the context into account. In short, stop being a pretentious arse and address the point.

As for 'progress', there is a school of thought that exists which believes we HAVE progressed from our pre-historic counterparts. The fact we will never reach 'perfection' as a civilisation is irrelavent.

 

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This is a nit-pick, but what you're referring to isn't "the new digital age," or even the (more proper) "Information Age," but a specific subset of it: the mobile age.

For devices that still plug into a wall, the screen size and media fidelity has continued to increase markedly. It's today routine for recent college grads to purchase televisions of sizes that, not so long ago, could only be afforded by the most lavish spenders (and even then, the quality would have been absolute crap compared to today). And have you compared the quality of a DVD (let alone a high-def format) with the shite we used to watch?

 

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Population increase is but a minor and natural "growing pain," that's good for life and prosperity.​

I am not at all convinced that our natural population increase is such a big thing to worry about so much. Who's to say that human societies can't be vast and "crowded?" We are already so numerous, what's a few more billions? I believe there are ample technologies and resources available, there shouldn't be any reason to worry that we are supposedly getting too numerous, if we would but use what God gave us, develop our resources, fight corruption, and work more together, and of course, promote the social graces. We already have 2 countries with more than a billion people within their borders. Aren't we already getting rather used to being so populous? It would be best to make the best of it and live with it, and not disparage people's children without just cause, and let them be "too numerous" or whatever.

If the planet is getting "pregnant" with people, why not have a healthy and proper pregnancy, and enjoy it?

 

It's a populous era. Deal with it.​

So what's really so wrong, with a human population that may always seem to be "too large?" Some population phobics think India's population is too large. So what? What does their narrow poorly-informed opinion count for anything? Who says that a nation must have less than a billion people? Some people might think a pregnant woman's belly swells too big. So what? The facts of life are, what they are. I hear that's what tilt steering was invented for, so that pregnant women could drive.

Far better for human populations to enjoy being "much too large," than to be "too small." Population is what it is.

 

The overall consensus here seems to be that the digital age poses no threat to creativity--that, on the contrary, it enhances it. Certainly I can see the reasoning behind this viewpoint but I also would not be so quick to ignore what (I believe) coberst is getting at here. Is solitude possible in the digital age? I think the answer here is pretty obvious; fortunately, all of our connectivity devices have an off-switch. What has changed, however, is the degree of choice we have in the matter. Solitude is possible (for most of us), yes, but we can easily opt out of it at almost any time we please. And, given the amount of digital traffic connectivity devices receive, people appear to be doing just that. I could be reading a book or meditating (etc) right now, but instead I'm choosing to be here. Overall, do people experience less solitude (be it by choice) in the digital age? Probably. However, it's a bit of a leap to say that this reduction in solitude results in a reduction of creative thought. If I understand you correctly coberst, you are saying that solitude breeds creativity. I can agree with that to an extent, HOWEVER, I don't believe that solitude is the ONLY FACTOR when it comes to creativity. As others have been quick to point out, our recent technological advances have opened many doors for creativity--they have brought the tools of artistic creation to the average (western) person. Do these combining factors (ignoring all the other unknown factors that invariably come into play) result in a net movement towards or away from creativity? It's really quite difficult to tell.

 

Excellent first post ogdred. However, I am confident you will join the rest of us in a downward spiral of ad hominems, off-topic posting, agenda driven rants, specious arguments, logical fallacies, and general tripe.

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Welcome anyway.

 

It's the mobile stuff that replaces the sit-by-the-pond anachronistic time-spending, though. The biggest audio market in the world now is in ringtones. People wear headphones to walk around the block.

And the best of the new wonders is still far beneath the ordinary world of trees and meadows - or bricks and streets in sensaround, for that matter. The input flow to the modern human mind is depleted, in some specific ways, in complexity and richness of detail. How, or if, that affects creativity is anyone's guess.

Turning to the words of the great philosophers in this matter, we have O'Rourke on the modern imagination http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200812/disney , in which he makes the interesting observation that ages of pragmatic innovation and engineering prowess are not necessarily ages of imagination, or vice versa.

 

See.. that's because you are insane.

 

Digital technology has provided another tool for creativity, but it isn't inherently creative. It manipulates an input from a creative person, so they are ultimately in control of it. There is a case of knowing when to turn it off.

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The great problem as I see it, is not being swamped by it, as technique, and also from a time-based perspective, Its too easy to be drawn away from one's own creative centre by learning a program; researching (i.e. on-line); or manipulating a work, be it music, or visual art.
Time is needed to practice other skills, even observation. It has been mentioned here already that creativity somehow equates with solitude. I don't think that is necessarily the case. Much can be gained from contact with other creative people, either informally or in a more formal sense like collaborations. Time away from a computer is maybe not essential to do this, but face-to-face is good!

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And evil. You forgot to mention evil.

 

The closest thing to evil anyway.

 

Never confuse evil with infinite ignorance. This is a man who makes vast judgements on the state of a world he has no experience of, using little more than guesswork and the Bible.
Yet, I enter into debates with him again and again.

 

Your opinion there, is no "news flash" coming from you.

No, I'm the sane one, living in an insane world.

 

Sure, sure lol

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I think that solitude is a necessary but not sufficient condition for creativity. Solitude is, I think, also necessary for any sustained learning of significant and complex matters. I suspect that these hand held gadgets cut solitude down to less than 10% of what it was 20 yeas ago. At least the manufactirers intend for them to do just that because their success is dependent upon making the young frivilous consumers of mind numbing gadgets.

 

coberst,

I am curious as to whether you have come across any scientific studies that support your hypotheses? And how would you respond to those claims that digital "gadgets" make creativity more attainable? Is it your view that digital technology absolutely does not/can not enhance an individuals creativity, or rather that the overuse of said technology has decreased solitude to such a degree that its creativity enhancing effects are untapped?

 

Really? You think everyone is the exact same? Have you ever considered that different people reach the same place through different means? That different people have different styles?