Stop the Senseless Murder of Inspiration and Creativity!
Is it time to choose the burial plot? Because creativity's stats are getting weaker.
We are constantly rushing about our day, doing this and that. We have devices that do practically everything for us. They make life easier, don't they?
Yes, all the apps and handhelds and cool gadgets are making life easier, but at what cost?
And if all these nifty things are making life easier, why do we seem to be rushing about more?
When I was in middle school I had a realization surrounding Sesame Street.
This was before ADHD was even a thing in my reality.
I theorized that Sesame Street was responsible for a shorter attention span in the population.
Remember Sesame Street? It came on PBS every morning, after the time school aged children left in their yellow busses. Entertainment for children geared to helping them learn their ABC's and 123's. It was an hour long show broken up into many segments. You could be watching a segment about an Alligator King who broke his crown for 30 seconds, then count 12 ladybugs for 30 seconds then watch Oscar be grouchy at everyone for two minutes.
This constant change led me to believe we were being programmed to have very brief attention spans as toddlers. I believed this at that young age and even now I think it holds profound truth.
Look at us now. We need a constant influx of stimulus from our outer environment. And it's getting worse each generation.
What is the cost of this? With our device in the palm of our hands we are never bored.
But now we have given up daydreaming.
Daydreaming is an important part of brain development. All this constant information and stimuli is killing our brains ability to think creatively. We are rewiring our brains on the neural level to not be able to focus on one thing for very long, and to need outside influence and stimulus. We are losing our ability to think deep. We are losing our ability to focus on one thing. We cannot daydream as the brain is being rewired to constantly search for distraction.
We, the human species, are losing our ability to think! Pretty soon we are going to need AI (Artificial Intelligence) to do our thinking for us.
Imagine if Nicola Tesla had had his Mamas cell phone from the time he could hold it. Do you think he would have developed the ideas he did?
As we lose our deep think ability, we lose our ability to focus hard on one thing. In doing so we cannot
Daydreaming offers an alternate reality, even ever so slightly, to where the mind can flow freely and try out possibilities. Ideas, associations, and even improbabilities can flow together freely without restraint, forming links between or entirely new concepts altogether when daydreaming. Inventions are only birthed in daydreams, except by accident. New concepts and philosophies can only become reality if one first creatively thinks of them. And this only happens when you allow your mind to daydream.
I urge you to rewire your brain at least once a week. Daily is best but starting small is the probable road to success as you will be less likely to become frustrated. Turn off the devices- yes, even your phone ;) Find a comfy spot or go for a walk and daydream. Just let your mind frolic about in any possibility. Guide it by creating a scenario and see where it takes you!
I have been doing something like this since before I started writing professionally. Each night after I calm my mind from the days events I play a story in my head. It's rather long- it's been going for a few years now, lol. But essentially I have a character that is based upon me who goes on adventures every night. It continues each night where the previous one left off when I fell asleep. I have never bored of this! And within my little adventures in my head I have come up with quite a few ideas, plot lines for books, and creations for the real world- so it even has practical uses!
Turn it off and daydream. Good things will come and you will be rewarded with both a greater capacity to think and a crisper creativity ✵⋆✵⋆✵
~ images via Shutterstock, Giphy, and Pixabay
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Many good points and a strong overall theme. Sesame Street didn't help at all!
Advertisements, sharp, loud, fast, bang, next! I don't own a TV connection any more and feel much more relaxed!
Re-steeming to share the love :)
I do not watch anymore either, and I am so much more... productive. Happy. Everything!
Thanks Asher! <3
Really good post. I actually bookmarked it to go back to later for a re-read. It reminds me of post I wrote on a similar premise about technology and the breakdown of human communication. You can check it out HERE if interested.
Ok, will do. Thanks :)
You can take me, but you cannot take my bunghole.... For I have no bunghole....
Really?!?!! Omg lol
Do you have T.P. for my bunghole? I would hate for my bungholio to get polio.
That would be unfortunate.
Uh oh. Don't get your panties all in a twist!
Truer words could not have been spoken. We are constantly bombarded at every side about what to think, what is right, and what is wrong.
This problem is greatly enhanced by the internet, 24/7. A person can turn on youtube, and sit down for weeks, all day and never watch the same video twice.
It's like an orchestrated effort to keep your mind occupied with entertaining but highly useless information. It literally replaces the slot our imaginatiom once held.
Orchestrated effort.
Well said.
That's exactly what it's doing. The children I teach to read each September do not even create pictures in their heads of story.
Now, this is probably going to cause a stir but I'm not sharing this for any other reason that food for thought. It's what I've observed volunteering with the WA reading Corp. The poorer the children, the more imagination they can summon. Imho the reason is the poorer children have less access to devices. It would be interesting to study these children thru adulthood...
I've had some sort of success ignoring TV and my phone, but the internet is a lot more tricky. I can always spot when I'm watching really useless stuff by checking my suggested videos on Youtube. But I do find that if I put in a real effort to search for thought provoking content, I find myself imagining as much as I did before, if not more. I'm in my early twenties, and it seems that my generation's challenge is bombardment of all this information as @voltsrage mentioned. We have to filter out all the garbage and find what's important to us. In regards to AI, they're getting really smart. So we have to sort out our shit before they realise how badly we treat each other and the world! Don't think we want a Skynet/iRobot scenario. Ha ha. Great post, @arbitrarykitten.
I like the fact you are aware of your "suggested videos". That's a good insight you have developed.
True- if you are reading/watching "brain food" as I like to refer to it, you are forming new connections in your brain- essentially growing your mind power, if you will. And like the ball in motion, it'll keep on going in the direction you set it on until it is stopped.
I agree with you on the AI and sorting our shit before it's too late! Any scenario I can imagine in that regard will be rather unfortunate for humans!!
Thanks :)
failure of imagination.
how can it be other wise if they have the attention span of a gnat.
Precisely!
Great way to put it ;)
Powerful stuff . Keep it coming .
Thank you my friend!
You’re very welcome . Glad following you .
Imagination created the technology for you to be able write and for us to read this great post. Imagine that!
Time for yourself is most important.
True story!
If you don't take care of yourself, you cannot care for others, either.
Great post. We certainly need to unplug and focus on our right brain thinking. I've always daydreamed and still advocate it just like you do. Less structure. More play.
I urge my boys to daydream! Last few generations had to stop kids from the act! My how things change!
totally agree with you @arbitrarykitten. gone were the days when we used to spend time with friends or with our family in the park playing and interacting with each other and having fun. nowadays, we are busy watching television which indoctrinates us of what they want us to believe. technology too is growing in a very fast pace and it wastes our precious time by playing games of all sorts and making distractions in our priorities. automation is now being considered where robots are being used in replacement of our jobs. driverless vehicles are now being manufactured as a means for transport. the question is, where this will lead us.
As a writer who mulls over every possibility, I can't help but picturing a Terminator -esque future
Yep, I just posted about this last week. Put down the phone once in a while before your brain loses all capacity for creative thought!
Exactly!
Switching off TV and stop reading mainstream garbage is the answer. Next step is to disconnect from Smart phone as much as possible and don't have long conversations on the phone as that increases the level of brain cancer holding the phone close to the head. There are many ways to stop all of this programming. Simply do not participated in what the controllers put out then this whole system of control and human creativity destruction falls apart. It's all in our power but we have to use it and stop complaining. They will not stop putting these things out. Only we an stop participating.
I have seen kids throw massive fits, where they're out of control. One day police will be called. All because Dad took away the phone.
It's truly an addiction to some.