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Will the Digital Age Destroy Creativity?

coberst

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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?
 
those who own the outlets and the airwaves may destroy creativity however as soon as the masses are once again exposed to real creativity the minds may expand, and at one point, there will be a turnaround for the good, as more true information is available. Good art will emerge at one point, technology will speed up., and more people will see a wider variety of all different forms of creativity. they gotta learn sometime, information is the key.
 
I think Industrialization did a pretty damn good job of destroying creativity. Prompted the Ford-style assembly line (tony does one part and gets great at one part, while joe does another and gets really good at another) and it sucked the creativity right from the industry-- turning humans into machines, which is why machines are now filling human jobs..
 
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.”

Author: The Web is Making Kids Dumber, Encouraging Them To Ignore World Events - Digital Journal: Your News Network
 
I think Industrialization did a pretty damn good job of destroying creativity. Prompted the Ford-style assembly line (tony does one part and gets great at one part, while joe does another and gets really good at another) and it sucked the creativity right from the industry-- turning humans into machines, which is why machines are now filling human jobs..

I disagree. The creation of the efficient assembly line was quite creative. There was also an extreme amount of creativity used to create the machines that can build the cars and the design of the cars themselves.

Also, there was nothing creative about building a car with exact instructions and the all the proper tools. Though time consuming and attention to detail is required, these are semi-mindless jobs that anyone, even machines can be trained to do.
 
The digital era does not equal constant human contact with people. It's digital contact. If you're sitting in your room typing to people a world away, you're still alone in that room. The computer is a middle man and it is hindering people's social skills in a very real way. Technology has made people more disconnected from real human interaction.
 
I feel like the reason that technology has been progressing so fast is because of people's ability to communicate faster and with more people. Bigger discussions pool more resources and allows for greater creativity. How many times are people inspired by others? Almost all the time.
 
It won't be the digital age, because creativity, compared to some aspects of creative thought, was destroyed hundreds of years ago. An example would be Leonardo DaVinci, probably the greatest creative mind of all time.
 
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