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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 and 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?


 

billwald

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Digital cameras are great for kids. In the bad old days I had to pay big money (for a kid) to get color film developed. Now a kid can practice and experiment at almost no cost.

The digital age is destroying honesty. From 1870 to 1970 when you saw a photo you see what the camera saw. Now, thanks to Photoshop and animation even the porn industry is going goofy.
 
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coberst

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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
 
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PhilosophicalBluster

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@ OP:

Oh please, give us young 'uns some credit. I was brought up in the digital age. I own an X-Box with live, an I-Phone with internet, this laptop, and a variety of other devices I don't really need. I have access to basically anything that can be defined by the word "social" basically any hour of the day. And yet, lots of the time I would rather sit in my room listening to Radiohead. Go figure.

Just because the digital age makes communication easier doesn't mean everybody wants it every second of their waking hours.

Also, why even say that being social tears down the imagination? In my experience bouncing ideas off of people in my school's philosophy club works a lot better while in an existential idiom than sitting alone and trying to figure out a problem by myself. Joint thought is not your enemy. Bands are better than solo artists.

(Except Beck. He rocks.)
 
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Eudaimonist

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Did photography destroy painting? Did recording and sound mixing destroy music? Did movies destroy live theater? Or has technology opened new fields of artistic endeavor?

:wave:

Thank you for that vote of sanity.


eudaimonia,

Mark
 
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lisah

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Will the Digital Age Destroy Creativity?
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.

I love this. Discontentment is not a bad thing as long as one does not wallow in it.

I don't think the digital age will destroy creativity. I think it can provide more people with the means to explore and share creativity.

(However, the digital age does threaten privacy. That is of great concern to many.)


Edit:

Oh yes, I just wanted to add:

I seek solitude, but get interrupted by people, dogs, cats...etc...

I would love to have more time alone, but I'll bet the day will come when I have too much solitude.

Solitude sought is good. Solitude imposed, not so good?

I often find creativity while I'm busy doing daily tasks. There is something in physical activity that frees my creative mind.

Also, people sometimes explore creativity as a couple, or a group. Therefore, I don't think solitude is an absolute requirement for creativity.


Well, that's just a few of my disjointed thoughts as I try to write amidst frequent interruptions. ;)
 
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lisah

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Digital cameras are great for kids. In the bad old days I had to pay big money (for a kid) to get color film developed. Now a kid can practice and experiment at almost no cost.

The digital age is destroying honesty. From 1870 to 1970 when you saw a photo you see what the camera saw. Now, thanks to Photoshop and animation even the porn industry is going goofy.

Have you ever seen any of Jerry Uelsmann's work? He would sandwich negatives to create wonderfully creative images. I've tried this kind of work and it's not as easy to do with film as it is using photoshop, but it is the same kind of thing.

You give some people a tool and often times they will find a new way to use it. Sometimes the results are good, sometimes...not so good. *shrugs*
 
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