social media killing creativity essay

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Can social networks help us be more creative?

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Our interactions on social media could encourage new ways of thinking and different perspectives, if creativity was considered part of the network’s algorithms, say Rochester researchers.

The algorithms that social media platforms use to recommend who we should “follow” are designed to steer us to people who likely share the same ideas and interests.

However, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram could help us become more creative—a quality that is increasingly valued in our society—if they instead steered us to people with ideas and interests different from our own, say researchers at the University of Rochester .

In a new paper in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface , they describe conducting a novel experiment in which participants were asked to think of unusual, “creative” uses for commonplace items–using a pencil as a dart, for example, or a shoe as a hammer. They were also given the opportunity to view the ideas of other participants and then decide which of them they would like to “follow” for creative inspiration.

“We found that the participants overwhelmingly chose to follow peers who had the most creative ideas,” says lead author Raiyan Abdul Baten, a PhD student in the human-computer interaction lab of Ehsan Hoque , an associate professor of computer science.

“We confirmed that following highly creative peers indeed helped people generate novel ideas themselves—the intuition being, if you bump up against out-of-the-box ideas, chances are higher that you will be able to combine your own ideas with ideas you didn’t originally think of. Such creative recombinations can lead to further novel ideas.”

However, the researchers also found that when many people share the same sources of inspiration, even their own independently generated ideas can become similar to each other. The finding suggests potential drawbacks if too many people follow a relatively small number of highly creative idea leaders, resulting in a decrease in the overall diversity of thinking across the network. The “thought leaders” themselves need to keep generating outlier ideas in order to “stay relevant and remain ahead of others.”

As automation replaces people in jobs involving manual, predictable, and repetitive work, demand will continue to increase for people with creative skills, who can work with others, and “think outside of the box,” says Hoque. “Those are going to be the skills of the future.”

The researchers say social media companies could enable this process by providing members the option of receiving recommendations for a more diversified set of people to follow. This could be especially useful on platforms like ResearchGate, where researchers are specifically looking for new ideas, or Reddit, Behance, or Twitter, where graphic designers can find creative inspiration from interactions with their peers, Baten says.

The lessons could be applied to offline social networks as well, including the workplace, he adds. “If I am the manager of an office and there are a bunch of teams under me, and I see that everyone looks toward one person for all the good ideas, I’ll try to decentralize the teams and make sure that one person is not dominating the creative network. Otherwise, they are all going to generate similar ideas, and the company is going to fall behind.”

Simulated social networks help bridge ‘huge research gap’

Members of Hoque’s team designed their experiment using a blend of techniques and findings from a variety of fields, including collective intelligence, computer science, the psychology of creativity, and network design. Their findings bridge a “huge research gap,” Baten says, documenting for the first time the network-level dynamics that occur when people are presented with divergent ideas in a web-based setting.

In order to replicate those dynamics, participants recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk were divided into two sets of “nodes” in a simulated social network. Participants assigned to nodes as “alters” independently came up with ideas for alternative uses for commonplace objects. Participants placed in nodes as “egos” were each connected to two of the “alters.” After spending three minutes generating their own ideas, the “egos” were then allowed to see the ideas of their “alters” and were given three additional minutes to list further ideas.

The “egos” were then asked to rate the novelty of the ideas suggested by all of the “alters” and, finally, to choose whether to continue following the two “alters” they were initially assigned or instead follow others.

This process was repeated five rounds, each time the participants coming up with alternative uses for a different commonplace object.

The relative “creativity” of the ideas was rated in three ways:

• By other study participants who were not assigned to any of the nodes
• Giving more points to ideas less frequently suggested
• By using natural language processing to help determine which participants had a wider variety of ideas, and therefore were more creative

The researchers will continue to extend the scope of the experiment, examining for example, how the gender and race of participants may influence outcomes.

“There has been a lot of work on the optimal topologies (putting people together in the right way) to enhance team performance,” says Gourab Ghoshal, associate professor of physics, mathematics and computer science at Rochester who was also part of the work. “This, however, has been treated from a static context. In reality, social networks are constantly evolving, and the counterintuitive results presented here, suggests the situation is far more complex. This has profound implications in how people interact on social media, or indeed, work together in teams.”

Other authors include James Bagrow, associate professor of mathematics and statistics at the University of Vermont; and Daryl Bagley, a PhD student, and Ashely Tenesaca and Famous Clark, undergraduate researchers, in Hoque’s lab.

The project was supported with funding from the National Science Foundation.

• Social media

Is social media destroying creativity?

• April 7, 2022

There’s no doubt that social media has had a profound impact on the way we communicate. out of 7 billion people,50% of the people use social media . social media has introduced us to a whole new world of opportunities and brought tones of benefit to people’s lives . like:

• Discover new ideas and trends
• Connect with an existing and new audience in deeper ways
• Bring attention and traffic to your work
• Build a craft and enhance your brand
• Follow and share inspiring stories
• Connect loved ones

Although it has created a lot of opportunities as we say it’s a channel of communication, despite this advantage, social media has many disadvantages.

Some people worry that it might be having an adverse effect on our creativity is social media killing creativity ? or it’s simply changing the way we express ourselves?

In this blog post, we’ll take a look at both sides of the argument and see if we can come to conclusion then stay with us.

Table of Contents

What is Social Media?

The websites and applications that are focused on communication we call social media. each social media such as Instagram, Youtube, and telegram, focuses on one specific action, and many people these days are working with them.

So there are many important things for those who work with them as example you can have a great design for your social media. the good news these days about designing social media is that you can find agencies that design the best social media pages or posts as soon as possible if you need any help in these cases I recommend you check temis samples in social media design and order .

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The impact of social media on creativity

Some people argue that social media is destroying creativity because it encourages us to copy each other rather than come up with original ideas. After all, why bother being creative when you can just steal someone else’s idea and pass it off as your own? This might be true to some extent, but it’s important to remember that social media is just a tool. It’s up to us how we use it.

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If we only ever consume other people’s content and never create anything ourselves, then yes, social media will probably have a negative impact on our creativity. But if we use social media as a way to share our own ideas and connect with other creative people, then it can actually be a force for good.

How social media can inhibit creativity?

Social media can be a great tool for connecting with friends and family, but it can also have a negative impact on creativity. A study by the University of Pennsylvania found that people who use social media are less likely to come up with new ideas, and are more likely to conform to group norms. The study found that social media users were more likely to give up on a task when they encountered difficulty, and were less likely to persist in trying to find a solution. The study’s authors suggest that social media may make it harder for people to think outside the box and that the constant stream of information from social media can be overwhelming and lead to decision fatigue. If you want to be more creative, it might be worth taking a break from social media. You could also try using social media to connect with people who share your interests, and who can help you brainstorm new ideas.

In addition, social media might lead to less face-to-face interaction, which can also reduce creativity.

A study by the University of Michigan found that people who spend more time on social media are less likely to come up with new ideas, and are more likely to have trouble coming up with original solutions to problems. The study’s authors suggest that social media may lead to “cognitive overload,” and that people may be so busy processing information from social media that they have less brain power available for creative thinking. If you want to be more creative, try spending less time on social media, and more time interacting with people in person. You could also try using social media to connect with people who share your interests, and who can help you brainstorm new ideas.

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Ways to overcome the negative effects of social media on creativity

If you’re worried that social media is having a negative effect on your creativity, there are some things you can do to counteract it. First, try to limit the amount of time you spend on social media each day. You don’t have to delete your accounts, but if you cut down on the time you spend scrolling through them, you’ll have more time to focus on your own creative projects.

Second, make an effort to follow and interact with people who inspire you. If you fill your newsfeed with negativity, it’s going to bring you down. But if you surround yourself with positive, creative people, it can actually help to spark your own creativity.

The importance of creativity in the workplace

In today’s economy, creativity is more important than ever. With so much competition, businesses need to find ways to stand out from the crowd. And one of the best ways to do that is by harnessing the power of creativity.

Tips for enhancing creativity through social media

If you want to use social media to enhance your creativity, there are a few things you can do. First, try following people who inspire you. When you see their work, it will hopefully spur you on to create something yourself. Second, share your own work regularly. It doesn’t matter if it’s not perfect – the important thing is that you’re putting yourself out there and showing your creative side. Lastly, don’t be afraid to interact with other creatives. Collaborating with others is a great way to come up with new ideas and push your creativity to the next level. ( rentalry.com )

So, Is social media destroying creativity? It’s hard to say for sure. But what we do know is that it has the potential to both harms and enhance our creativity. It’s up to us to use it in a way that will benefit us, rather than hinder our ability to think outside the box.

The most important note that you should know is that all of these points that we talk about in this blog post depend on how you use social media so there is no need to worry about the disadvantages of using it. cause you can also work with social media and earn money or you can find friends all of these aspects depend on how you use your social media pages and I recommend you work with your social media accounts as much as you can and with any arts that you have.

For more helps my colleagues in temis marketing are here to help you in many ways such as:

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How Social Media Affects Your Creativity

Social media has become a part of our daily life. Although the debate about how social media may affect the quality of life, users of different social media have increased over time. Facebook users for example increased from 75 million to 600 million in the between 2008 and 2011. LinkedIn users increased from 20 million to 100 million in the same period. Social networks have become accessible by almost all out digital devices including computers, mobile phones, tablet devices, and wearable technology such as Google glasses and the Apple watch.

The debates concerning social media is repeated when there are continual new trends and technologies. While email service was invented by Ray Tomlinson in 1974, research presented by Archambault and Grudin during the Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (2012) indicates that the service was not accepted by businesses and organizations until the late 1990s. At this time, there was debate that email service reduces productivity and many companies suggested it be removed and replaced by traditional correspondence methods.

Design and visual arts are part of the most favorable media shared on social networks. Sharing images and video content indicates higher engagements and exposure compared with text status on Facebook. Social networks that are based on visual arts and design such as Pinterest have proven success in the social market. Therefore, we should stop blaming ourselves for using our social media accounts as indulgent and start to look at social media from a different perspective to understand how to form this tool for the benefit for our creativity and fuel our talent.

The Pros of Using Social Media

Many articles blame social media to negatively affect creativity and reduce the designer’s ability to create new ideas. Although social media websites may be seen as distractive from the main creative process, there are advantages of using the social media to serve creative people as following:

Source of Inspiration

Many social networks started to support different types of media including images, animated GIFs, videos and sound tracks. This extended support allows both designers and artists to explore new ideas and inspirations for their own projects. In the old days, we used to search in huge library of books to learn about specific design style. Joining a Facebook page or a Pinterest board lets one preview hundreds and even thousands of ideas and styles in less time and effort.

Specialized social media networks allows designers to connect with their peers to view content related to their interest. For example, Vimeo.com is a video social media network that is more specialized in artistic and professional video footages, unlike Youtube.com which contains generic videos and less inspirational smash-ups. Behance.net is another portfolio social network owned by Adobe Systems Inc. This social network is specialized for designers, artists, and photographers to share their work and get feedback as well as appreciation. Furthermore, the platform supports searching for jobs, which allows companies to search for talented designers on Behance as well. This extra advantage increases the benefit of the social network.

Learning and Expanding Knowledge

Many of the educational institutions and design bodies use different social networks to share their news and resources. Many students prefer to follow these bodies on social network websites because it is easier to reach and allow them to follow all the resources and projects directly from their Facebook, Twitter , or LinkedIn profiles.

Although there is debate in considering social media as source for academic learning, many scholars are starting to use social media to share their research papers and presentations such as researchgate.net , academia.edu , and slideshare.com .

Learning Groups

Social groups such as Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, and Google Plus groups were built to gather people with the same interests to share ideas and collaborate together. Many students and designers have started to build learning groups based on schools, classes, and even specific courses. In these groups, students and designers use groups as method to learn, discuss assignments, and share projects together. The digital learning group replaced many of the local school learning groups because it allows students to communicate during travels or summer breaks.

Get Feedback and Criticism 

Social media such as Behance.net and Devientarts.com allows followers to add comments and give feedback on the presented artwork. Criticism and feedback are one of the essential learning resources of any designer to improve work based on others feedback. In other creative fields such as photography, feedback is very important for photographers to enhance their work. Photography social networks such as 500px.com and 1x.com allow a better feedback experience through displaying the photograph and camera specifications, also services like image background removal service help with an overall experience.

Promotional Tools

Social network websites have extended its role from sharing content to adding marketing and advertising methods. Designers use social networks to promote their work and services. Facebook pages provide a very effective method to promote services and project updates. The advertising feature in Facebook can be used to promote services among Facebook’s huge base of users. Other social networks such as LinkedIn presents a business-wise platform, where users can add their resumes, projects, and apply for jobs.

The Cons of Using Social Media

Although there are benefits as noted above, there is an agreement among experts that there are disadvantages of using social networks especially when many people become addicted to it while not engaging in any productive work or time. Below are some of the commonly highlighted disadvantages of using social networks:

Everyone is a Designer

All social networks allows users to upload artwork without any restrictions on the quality and the ownership of the original artwork. Everyone has the right to upload designs even if they are not worth the time for others to view and share. The result is that the good work get lost among all the other unqualified artworks. Good designers can’t be spotted among the massive number of beginners.

This problem occurs in general interest social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. In specialized networks such as Behance.net, and 500px.com, there is a rating system that allows other professional designers or photographers to rate the artwork or promote it to be featured in the homepage. This system contributes to highlighting the creative artwork and bury the bad or unqualified submissions.

It is very important to choose the right social media to share your design work. For example, if you are sharing design work to get a professional profile and career opportunities, Behance.net can be the best social network to use. Also, make sure to submit your best ideas that reflect your talent and experience; think more about the quality of the work rather than the quantity.

Reducing Creativity

The massive number of shares and likes in social media distracts designers and artists from the real creative process. Instead of focusing on the production of the artwork, reviewing others’ shares and artworks consume the time and the effort required to start your own project. While there are lots of inspirational resources on social media websites, there should be a balanced use for these websites.

In order to avoid these distractiond, focus your activities on a number of social networks that help you develop your design skills. Some applications allows you to view and share artwork from one simple interface such as hootsuite.com and buffer.com .

Intellectual Properties

Sharing copyrighted materials and stealing other’s design ideas are among the important disadvantages of using social media websites. While you share your designs to get feedback or a possible business opportunity others can view the design and can either steal it or copy the idea without permissions.

Some social media website such as 500px.com disable the ability to copy or save images, other website provide section for the artwork copyrights such as flickr.com . It is important to understand the copyright issues related to your work and share creative artwork carefully through social media websites. Also, designers should choose the social network that help them copyright their work to avoid unauthorized reproduction and theft.

Losing Sense of a Real Life

Human beings are social creatures. Communicating between others and learning about other’s thoughts may drive more ideas and inspire designers and artists to think with the end user or client in mind. Although the digital world allows you to meet with people from different countries, it prevents the real meaning of social communication. Human brains communicate better when two people talk face-to-face rather than using texting or chat applications.

In addition to social network website, make sure to keep your physical life active and running. Spending time with you friends and colleges in order to maintain the physical life style that helps you create new ideas.

Being addicted to social networks leads to significant time loss. Checking new updates and engaging with others all the time consumes your production and creative thinking time. The availability of social media on mobile devices contribute to this time loss as designers spend time to check their social media profiles on both the computer and mobile device multiple times during the day and sometimes during the same hour. Many companies block social media websites from their network in order to drive employees to focus on their daily tasks.

While it is helpful to communicate with others around the world and share experience, it is very important to limit these activities in order to focus during the design or project development. Some applications can be used to block the Internet or specific websites to help you to focus on more important tasks. Using applications such as hootsuite.com helps you to spend less time managing all your social profiles through one application.

Easy Access to Information

The value of spending effort in order to reach information gives it more value comparing with easy access information. People can easily google any question to find millions of results. Some of these results are credible while other results need to be investigated. Many designers and users share untrusted information through social networks with a simple click of a button. The culture of verifying information gets lost with the massive number of shares on different social media.

Designers should share information from trusted and credible website that share verifying information. If the information is not verified, it should not be shared on social networks. Much wrong information has spread through the Internet because the easy share feature while the content and credibility of the shared data is questionable.

Social Networking or No to Social Networking?

Based on the pros and cons above for using social media and its impact on creativity, designers should understand that social media is a very helpful tool that can be used to learn, find inspiration, communicate with other designers, share artwork, and find business opportunities. However, designers should use social media website carefully to avoid the disadvantages. Based on the criteria discussed above, below are some of the tips that help you get the most out of the social media as a tool for designers:

• Limit usage time to avoid affecting production time
• Use social networks that relate to your design interest such as Behance, Pinterest, and Deviantarts
• Share your best work to represent your self and make sure to check the copyright issues –use social websites that try to secure your work such as Flikr and Behance
• Do not lose your physical life and try to meet with your friends from time to time
• Use social networks as a learning method and privilege the learning features such as groups
• Use social networks as a tool to build a professional profile and promote it through other networks. For example create your profile on Behance and share it using your Facebook profile.

The above tips can help you reduce the disadvantages of using social media websites and increase the benefits that can be acquired from them.

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Dr Rafiq Elmansy

As an academic and author, I've had the privilege of shaping the design landscape. I teach design at the University of Leeds and am the Programme Leader for the MA Design, focusing on design thinking, design for health, and behavioural design. I've developed and taught several innovative programmes at Wrexham Glyndwr University, Northumbria University, and The American University in Cairo. I'm also a published book author and the proud founder of Designorate.com, a platform that has been instrumental in fostering design innovation. My expertise in design has been recognised by prestigious organizations. I'm a fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), the Design Research Society (FDRS), and an Adobe Education Leader. Over the course of 20 years, I've had the privilege of working with esteemed clients such as the UN, World Bank, Adobe, and Schneider, contributing to their design strategies. For more than 12 years, I collaborated closely with the Adobe team, playing a key role in the development of many Adobe applications.

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Is Technology Limiting Creativity? (The Pros And Cons)

In a society driven by modern technology, many have wondered if computers, the internet, and social media platforms negatively impact creative thinking.

As usual, there are two sides to the story. 

According to some, technology hinders creativity because it can distract people and cause them to scroll through online platforms for hours instead of doing more productive, creative things in their daily lives.

On the other hand, some suggest that the growth of technology positively impacts creativity because it gives people access to resources and information. 

There are differing opinions on the impact of technology on creativity. However, it’s crucial to comprehend this impact so that we can use technology to enhance our imagination and come up with creative designs in every field.

How does technology affect creativity?

Despite its ability to foster human creativity, technology can also stifle it. In particular, young people who grow up with electronic devices in their daily lives are at risk of reducing their curiosity and openness to new experiences.

Technological innovation can facilitate communication and provide many learning opportunities; however, it can also negatively affect motivation, thinking abilities, ideas, and problem-solving skills, potentially limiting the scope for creativity. It’s important to note that since 1990, studies have suggested a decline in creativity scores.

Nevertheless, it is also essential to recognize the benefits of technology. Innovation can enhance collaboration, provide valuable tools for creativity, and create new opportunities for expression and exposure, positively contributing to the evolution of creativity.

What’s included in this blog post:

Negative effects of technology on creativity, positive effects of technology on creativity, strategies to enhance creativity.

Let’s first check the top three negative effects of technology on creativity.

1.  Lack of original thinking and copying

Creativity or you may find it somewhere as creative impulses are defined as an ability to create new, original theories, work, and techniques.

Additionally, creativity is an innovative, unique, and authentic thought that gives a new perspective or further develops something else.

Nowadays, many people use the Internet and digital tools to explore ideas, find information, and research new designs. The predominance of technology has made many dependent on it, so one might assume that its usage is limiting creative growth.

For example, the Internet is full of cases of plagiarism and similar content . As cyberspace is an open-source environment and is freely accessible to all, it’s also a place where you can quickly locate designs and claim them as your ideas.

We can take any social media platform as an example. While many users are using social media to showcase their creative talent and creative expression, some users copy what they see without the creative thought process. Many YouTube videos, Instagram photos, and TikToks, are copies of one creative person’s work with the sole purpose of gaining viral success.

In addition, there are many cases of art designs being stolen. While easy access to information is excellent and boosts productivity , it can also negatively affect creative pursuits and result in copying someone’s work instead of creating your own.  Using online sources for inspiration is acceptable, but copying without effort has become a common issue.

2. Dependency on modern technology

A creative thinker possesses strong problem-solving skills that require intellectual effort. However, with the help of an electronic device that can fix everything for us, we no longer need to motivate ourselves for intellectual challenges.

Today, technology plays such a massive role in our daily lives that almost everything has an app that may have negative consequences . Some apps require minimal effort to draw, paint, and even write. Many accessible platforms can even generate music with the touch of a button, and many of them even promote lazy communication. 

So, instead of creating or learning something on our own, we install an application to do it, and we deprive ourselves of developing critical thinking skills. In addition, due to the rapid growth of artificial intelligence apps and ChatGPT, people may rely less on their creative problem-solving skills, because now they have a powerful tool that can do almost anything for them. 

We live, work, and think fast today, so little time is left for exploring, researching, and learning.

So, relying on technology that answers everything in minutes is the simplest way to adapt to fast-paced living.

According to the study “ The brain in your pocket: Evidence that Smartphones are used to supplant thinking ,” those who think more intuitively and less analytically when given reasoning problems were more likely to rely on their mobile phones.

Due to the use of technology, people face reduced abilities to think, process, and understand problems independently.

3. Technology is distracting

Technology is often a time-distracting factor for creativity, which is a strong argument against it.

The ability of people to think creatively seems like it is being blocked by many technological distractions that hide behind the corners of life. The most common external distractions are the notifications that come from our phones. Furthermore, endless scrolling on social media, for instance, is taking all of our time and attention, leaving no space for developing our creative ability.

Many technologies are becoming addictive and challenging to let go of , so many users find it impossible to imagine life in the absence of technology. So, rather than spending their time on creative expression, many would rather spend it on engaging apps that give instant gratification.

Let’s now dive into the top three positive effects of technology on creativity.

1. Technology is a source of information and inspiration.

Undoubtedly, the growth of technology has given us access to a sea of valuable information. It’s crucial to have access to information when designing a creative output, and thanks to technology, we can explore pages, books, and everything in between in the search for relevant information. 

Researchers are happy to discuss how they arrived at their creative solutions and their methods. Additionally, the Internet offers many sources where people can learn how to think creatively and improve their intelligence .

The good thing is that they are available in many formats, so users can learn how to get creative or develop creativity through videos, e-books, blogs , etc. This information can also serve as an inspiration to motivate others to start promoting and exploring their creative potential. So, limited resources are no longer an issue when it comes to information in modern life.

2. Technology eases our communication

Technology eases our communication with the world. It is a tool that allows us to connect and communicate in ways we never thought possible. It has also become an important part of how we work, learn, play, shop, and even live.

Thanks to technology, the exchange of ideas has become more accessible . People can communicate with like-minded people and find collaboration opportunities with just a few clicks.

For example, Facebook groups and forums are a way for users with creative minds to exchange ideas, and experiences and discuss various issues.

This way of communication and sharing can positively affect creativity because people learn by sharing different experiences and can use them to promote creativity and create innovation.

Furthermore, social networks are a place where many people share problems and details of their lives, which can contribute to the birth of a new idea that can solve someone’s problem.

3. Technology helps generate new ideas

Creativity is not only about creating something from scratch. It is also about improving and advancing old ideas. One place for finding creative possibilities is the Internet and the old gadgets we have at home.

Technological innovations can also give users new ideas and perceptions about how far technology can go. This can motivate people to explore and develop more creative ideas that can lead to solutions to various problems.

Another thing worth mentioning is that technology boosts innovation. Now, users can quickly test and develop products, which can help produce new and improved ideas.

 1. Exercise creative self-confidence

Creative self-confidence is a way of taking risks and believing that you can create something new and unique. Creative self-confidence can be increased by starting new projects, activities, and exercises that will bring you new experiences and thus will motivate you to think about new creative ideas.

2. Practice associative thinking

Associative thinking can contribute to increased creativity. The purpose of associative thinking is to think more broadly and find connections between multiple concepts. Furthermore, associative thinking can be a kind of storm of ideas that can be a kind of stimulus that can improve creative thinking.

3. Use Mindmaps and flow charts

Much like associative thinking, mind maps contribute to creativity by connecting concepts. Additionally, mind maps help in enhancing creativity because they are a visualization of how concepts are related.

Start by writing a central term, then associate it with associative terms. This way, you will see how the objects are interconnected. This way, you can see the existing problems to find solutions and come up with unique ideas.

Is technology killing creativity? 

The answer to this question is debatable.

Technology can be both good and wrong when it comes to creativity. While it can be a source of inspiration and innovative solutions, it can also be a waste of time on unnecessary applications.

The way we use it depends on each of us, but the constant desire to develop our creativity will produce authentic ideas that enrich our lives.

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The Internet’s Impact on Creativity: Your Thoughts

Is the internet helpful or hurtful to human creativity? I posed that question to the reader discussion group known as TAD , and the consensus seems to be: It’s both. It’s complicated. And naturally, it depends a lot on what form of creativity you’re talking about. Here’s how one reader sums it up:

Because of the Internet I write more and receive feedback from people I know (on Facebook) and online strangers (on TAD and other platforms that use Disqus). I use it as a jumping-off place and resource for planning lessons for my high-school students in science. However, I don’t practice music as often as I used to.

On a similar note, another reader confesses, “I draw less because I’m always on TAD”:

As a sketch artist, I appreciate my ability to Google things I want to draw for a reference point, but that doesn’t make me more creative. I already had the image in my head and the ability to draw. I honed my skills drawing people the old fashioned way, looking at pictures in books or live subjects and practicing till my fingers were going to fall off. In my opinion, the internet also encourages people to copy the work of others that goes “viral” rather than creating something truly original. The fact that you can monetize that viral quality also makes it more likely that people will try to copy rather than create.

That’s the same reason a third reader worries that “the internet has become stifling for creativity”:

Maybe I am not looking in the right place, but most platforms seem to be more about reblogging/retweeting/reposting other people’s creations. Then there is the issue of having work stolen and credits removed.

As another reader notes, “This is the central conflict of fan fiction”:

It’s obviously creative. On the other hand, it is all based on blatant copying of another writer’s work. How much is this a huge expansion of a creative outlet, and how much is this actually people choosing to limit their own creativity by colonizing somebody else’s world rather than creating a new one?

The fanfic debate is fascinating , and more readers expand on it here .

For my part, I tend to think the internet has encouraged and elevated some amazing new forms of creativity based on reaction and re-creation, collaboration and synthesis. Take this delightful example :

Those creative forms are a big part of my job too: When I go to work, I’m either distilling my colleagues’ articles for our Daily newsletter or piecing together reader emails for Notes, and those curatorial tasks have been exciting and challenging in ways that I never expected. But I’ve also missed writing fiction and poetry and literary criticism, and I worry sometimes that I’m letting those creative muscles atrophy. If you’re a fanfic reader or writer (or videographer, or meme-creator, or content-aggregator) and would like to share your experience, please let us know: [email protected] .

This next reader speaks up for creativity as “the product of synthesis”:

It’s not so much a quest for pure “originality,” as it is a quest for original perspectives or original articulations. I’d say that my creativity has been fueled by letting myself fall into occasional rabbit holes. Whether that’s plodding through artists I don’t know well on Spotify or following hyperlinks in a Wiki piece until I have forgotten about what it was that I initially wondered, that access to knowledge in a semi-random form triggers the old noggin like little else.

On the other hand: So much knowledge! So many rabbit holes! Jim is paralyzed:

I find many more ideas and inspirations, but the flow of information and ideas is so vast that I never find time to develop them. I need to get off the internet.

Diane is also exasperated:

The promise of digital technology was: spinning piles of straw into useful pieces of gold. My reality is: looking for golden needles in a giant haystack of unusable straw. I spend so much time looking for the few things actually useful to my project, my writing, my daily info needs, and by the end of the day I feel like I’ve wasted so much time and effort sorting through useless crap. And the pile of useless keeps getting bigger and bigger, like a bad dream.

This next reader provides some tips for productive discovery:

I am old enough to vaguely recall a time before I began to use the internet on a daily basis. What I would do, back then, when I got stuck and could not find a creative angle on a problem, was to go to some arbitrary corner of the library, take down the first book that caught my interest even though it had nothing to do with the problem at hand, and read a few pages—sometimes, the whole book. More often than not, it would trigger all sorts of analogies, and at least a few of them usually turned out to be fruitful. (Even if nothing turned out to be relevant, I usually still learned something interesting, so it was a win-win strategy.) It was a great way (to borrow Horace Walpole’s definition of serendipity ) to make discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things one were not in quest of. I try to use the internet in a somewhat similar fashion: When I’m stuck, I often spend a morning strolling around arbitrary corners of the internet, trying to discover stuff I did not know I was in quest of. Typically, I start in some academic resource like JSTOR. (I almost always start by limiting my search to articles at least 50 years old; it ensures that one does not end up reading fashionable stuff and thus thinking the same thoughts as all the other hamsters in the academic wheel. Also, older articles are usually far more well-written than the crap that results from the publish-or-perish system.) I am not above using e.g. Wikipedia, though, at least as a point of departure. I also like reading old stuff in online newspaper/magazine archives. Sometimes, a stray remark in one of those wonderful 19th-century magazines written by and for men of letters is all you need to get a fresh angle on a familiar problem.

Gotta love those 19th-century magazines . In some ways, their mission wasn’t so different from that of the Facebook groups and Reddit threads and Disqus forums of today: creating a space for discourse and exchange and reflection, where exciting new ideas could bump up against each other. As James Russell Lowell, The Atlantic ’s founding editor, wrote to a friend in 1857 , “The magazine is to be free without being fanatical, and we hope to unite in it all available talent of all modes of opinion.” And as Terri, one of the founding members of TAD, reflects today:

TAD itself has been a creative endeavor for me and the other mods. Envisioning the community we wanted. Coming up with ideas to bring it to life. We developed ideas around the mix of politics, open and fun threads that the community has taken on and grown. It really has been a creative experience in collaboration on the internet.

Check out TAD’s whole discussion on creativity here , as well as many more. As for the offline benefits of online collaboration, take it from this reader—a “furniture maker and Weimaraner enthusiast”:

I would like to share a story about a project I am working on in which the internet has certainly aided my creativity. Zeus, our 8-month-old Weimaraner, is a couch hog. When my girlfriend and I sit down on the couch to watch TV, he will sit directly in front of us and bark until we make room for him. There are three large dog beds in the house, but Zeus steadfastly refuses to lie on the dog beds. I am a member of a Weimaraner-owner Facebook group called Weim Crime. Several people in the group have had similar problems. We came up with a solution I tested out last week: build a dog bunk bed with one bed on the bottom and one bed about the same height as our couch. It has worked out very well. Zeus quietly relaxes on the top dog bunk while we sit on the couch. I am now collecting feedback from that same group before building the more attractive final version. I have received very useful feedback—for example, lowering the top bunk deck to 18 inches or lower to prevent joint injuries. My end goal is to design and build a simple, low-cost dog bunk bed that is more attractive than the prototype and post a YouTube video showing other owners how to build a similar one. This is just one silly project, but the feedback and interest I have receiving regarding the project has been really inspiring.

What questions about your day-to-day experience of the world have you been pondering? We welcome your feedback and inspirations. Check back Monday for the next discussion question in this series—and in the meantime, enjoy some Weimaraner art:

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Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, a double-edged sword: social media use and creativity.

Information Technology & People

ISSN : 0959-3845

Article publication date: 27 November 2023

The use of social media is an integral part of modern life, yet the impact of social media on creativity is a paradox. Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, the authors propose that social media, as an ecological condition, both nurture and deplete resources. Accordingly, the authors investigated two inconsistent mechanisms: creative self-efficacy and ego depletion.

Design/methodology/approach

Study 1 established the within-person effects of social media use on creativity by tracking 64 college students for five working days. Using a sample of 493 employee–leader-matched dyads in a national bank, Study 2 tested the entire model. Study 3 is a follow-up experiment based on a sample of 160 participants.

The results consistently showed that: (1) social media use had a positive impact on creativity in general; (2) social media use increased ego depletion and creative self-efficacy, which were two inconsistent mediators; (3) hedonic use of social media reduced the negative impact of cognitive use of social media on ego depletion.

Originality/value

This research sheds new light on the paradox between social media use and creativity and highlights the benefits of the balanced use of social media features. This research has implications for creative stimulation and job design in digital contexts.

• Social media use
• Ego depletion
• Creative self-efficacy
• Conservation of resources theory

Acknowledgements

Funding: This research was funded by the Key Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No: 72032008), the Humanities and Social Science Project of the Ministry of Education (No: 22YJAZH143), Zhejiang Soft Science Project (No: 2022C25023), Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No: LQ23G020008), Fundamental Scientific Research Project of Zhejiang University of Technology for Humanities and Social Science (No: GB202103005) and the Cultivation Project of Unique Research in Humanities and Social Sciences of Zhejiang University of Technology (No: SKY-ZX-20200300).

Zhang, G. and Mao, S. (2023), "A double-edged sword: social media use and creativity", Information Technology & People , Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-09-2022-0682

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