The Enemy of Creativity

I love the old show, 3^rd Rock from the Sun. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a 90s show about four aliens who come down to earth in human suits to research us and send information back to the home planet. In one of the episodes, Harry is devastated when Dick, the high commander, tells him he has to take a break from TV. What will he do without TV?

By the middle of the episode, Harry starts to think but with great pain, seeing as how he’s not used to thinking. Then he starts learning and observing the world outside of TV. He sees problems and finds solutions. Of course this leads to annoyance with everyone else and eventually they give him the TV back. But for those few brief days, he was more creative than he’d ever been.

After watching that show, I kind of sank down in my seat with that squiggly, convicted feeling. I love movies and TV shows, YouTube and Disney+. I love stories and the easiest way to consume stories in this busy world is through visual media.

So that got me thinking: how much of my creative juices are consumed by media? Does technology drain my creativity and thereby defeat my goal of writing stories? Oh, that thought hurts.

Well, it turns out I’m not alone in my love (addiction?) of media. According to the website eMarketer, Americans in this pandemic environment reported media consumption of up to 13.5 hours a day (up one hour from 2019). That includes all types of media from working on your computer, mobile, print magazines, radio, TV, and other sources. We are constantly being entertained.

So does all that screen time kill creativity? It just might.

In a study by the University of Kansas, 56 people took a 4-6 day backpacking trip in either Alaska, Colorado, Maine, or Washington state. They were not allowed to take any electronics with them, but had to simply enjoy nature. Some of the participants took a creativity test the morning before they set out on the trip. They scored an average of 4.14 out of the 10 questions. After the backpacking trip, the average score for creativity was 6.08 out of 10. Their ability to creatively problem-solve increased by 50 percent. The researchers admit they aren’t sure if it was the influence of nature or the disconnection from tech, but in my very unscientific experience, I’d guess that if you do either of them, you’re likely to see an increase in creativity. For most of us, the easiest way to get more creative is to put down the tech.

There are many articles and books on how to break our addiction to tech. To get you started, I’ll list some of them below and let them talk specifics. I will, however, throw out a challenge: Let’s get bored. Remember boredom? It’s a rare commodity these days, but it’s when our minds can search for thoughts, connect dots, and imagine. In other words, when you’re not focused on a million things, your creativity can run, skip, and climb the monkey bars and I bet your next great idea is just around swing set. Like Harry, it might hurt. We might feel our fingers tingle and itch to reach for that cell phone when we’re waiting in line at the taco stand. But resist. Let your mind wander. And let the creativity flow.

Resources:

Cal Newport books: Deep Work and Digital Minimalism

Unplug: Disconnect with tech. Reconnect with yourself. Be more Creative.

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