Words by Holly Royle
In a world of continuous social media notifications, busy deadlines and stress, has our ability to be creative been affected?
We have the world at our fingertips thanks to the development in mobile phones. We are able to contact other people instantly regardless of the locations and circumstances that may separate the speaker and the recipient. Not only this, we are continuously bombarded with emails and notifications from retailers, eateries, businesses, spammers – all trying to grab our attention and causing significant distractions.
Completing any task whether it be work, studies or a hobby, can take five times longer when your phone ‘dings’ every thirty seconds. So, how does one obtain time, with no interruptions, to indulge in their creativity? One, rather simple, answer is turn off said phone. However, that is not always possible or desired. And even then, there are other devices in the vicinity that like to go ‘ding’ too. Ultimately, it depends on the individual. Often you can become so involved and so excited with your creativity that all distractions fade into the background as you have a solid focus. Other times, if the task feels like more of a chore than of enjoyment, distraction is somewhat inevitable.
As annoying as a phone may be, the ability to access the world has some benefits to creativity. There are countless YouTube video tutorials on pretty much every form of creativity going. Be it literature, sewing, music, singing, dancing, painting you can teach yourself pretty much anything. Stuck for inspiration? Writer’s block? Well there’s another million and one videos for that too. And look at all the artists on Instagram, musicians on YouTube etc. There is inspiration everywhere. That’s great right? Well sort of. One question that occurs is, if it is so easy to obtain inspiration through the screen of our phones, do we obtain the same inspiration as when we go about our daily lives? Or, do we miss things because it is so much easier to search online? Once again, I think this depends very heavily on the individual and where their interests lie.
Technology isn’t going anywhere, whether it helps or not is debatable. Either way, the fast-paced world we live in has changed our accessibility to creativity, broadened the boundaries of creative influences and formed platforms on which to showcase our own creativity.
