Technology and Creativity, Essay Example

Have you ever questioned what creativity is or how creativity is measured? Creativity can be defined as the ability to create something that is of value from ideas and other concepts that makes a task easier or more pleasant. Charles Mingus said, “Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity”.Today, in our world, technology is everywhere. Society has become more dependent upon technology, consequently, which leads to the dimension of skills like creativity or critical thinking ability.The employment of various other complex skills, I believe, is what creative thinking is. As a result, I believe creative thinking is the application of logic and reason to an unfamiliar situation. Being creative means one has to be open-minded and willing to see situations from various points of view. Because creativity involves respecting the ideas of others, it is one of the most important aspects critical thinking. Another important aspect of critical thinking is being able to approach the problems rationally. One must understand that what may seem rational to him/her may not be rational to someone else. Children in today’s society have learned to depend more on technology than free play and thinking. My goal is to prove that the use of technology has negatively affected students’ ability to become productive members of society because it hinders social skills.

The use of technology has lead to a short attention span for students. For example:

“With extensive recurrent internet usage, studies indicate the development of systemic implications such as short term attention spans and scattered thinking. When we work online, our brains are constantly pressured to take in vast amounts of information. Many links on one page connect to others, sidebar advertisements flash and divert attention, web pages contain tantalizing pictures, and other factors all contribute to distractions while looking up information” (Olsen ).

Lack of patience, a common complaint, which we make about teenagers. With the use of technology, teenagers seldom have to wait for anything. There are numerous examples of how technology has made processes almost instantaneous. Before computers, friends that lived far apart called or wrote each other letters. When I first went away to college, I wrote my high school friends often. I eagerly anticipated a return letter from them.  People have many choices, today, to use to communicate with one another. First, there is instant messaging or text messaging. With this method a person can communicate with another person in real time instantly. There is also email and social media sites, both of which are also instantly. Because youngsters are growing up with access to technology that is instantaneous, they are very impatient. When they have to complete tasks that take long periods of time, they become agitated and often just quit. While all of the various forms of technology engage young people, it often becomes addictive to them.

Over a period of time, I believe, evolution takes place. Nicholas Carr, an evaluator of the internet and its impact on student learning, said that students “are evolving from cultivators of personal knowledge into hunters and gathers in the electronic forest…dazzled by the Net’s treasures, we are blind to the damage we may be doing to our intellectual lives and even our culture”. History has taught us this over and over. Likewise, the brains of young people are evolving to the tech savvy world around them. They no longer have to write or spell. No longer do we hear the scratch of the pencil lead against the paper or the “err” “err” of the eraser. We now hear the click, chirp, and cheep of cell phones. Writing skills, of course, have diminished. Text message and email lingo is difficult to decipher sometimes by people who are not use to reading and writing in lingo. Because there are no grammatical rules to use when chatting with friends via instant message or email, often they are unable to write in other situations when grammatical rules apply.Olsen added, “The human brain is malleable. It is able to change to form new synaptic and neural connections in order to gradually restructure itself in a way to effectively incorporate information. Studies indicate that daily internet users have brains that are gradually being restructured with these distinctive neural connections due to frequent exposure”.  Young people, consequently, are unable to handle face to face conflict. With social media, it is quite easy to just log off or not respond, but in face to face contact it requires some critical thinking skills to handle situations. Because they are unable to diffuse potentially bad situations, so many young people find themselves in trouble at school or within their communities. Young people are more willing to solve problems using brute force and physical contact because they are unable to adequately communicate.

The point I want to make is that person to person communication is almost nonexistent. Young people are able tweet Twitter messages via social media and other forms of technology daily. Often one will see them in a social setting, but instead of conversating with the people around them, they are messaging. The constant lack of communicating with others will lead to isolation and the ability to use the skill. Those who spend the majority of their time communicating via technology will drift away from family and friends. I have experienced this first hand. I found myself spending too much time on social media sites that my personal relationships went lacking.  Initially, the person may feel this is not a problem, but eventually they suffer from depression and anxiety about person to person contact(Carr). In the future, these young people will have difficulty with job interviewers. Being able to hold a conversation with a real life person may prove impossible. Depending upon the type of job they choose, it may be difficult to perform job duties like making eye contact and paying attention to details. People who lack these essential communication skills will not be able to perform in a professional setting. Being able to adequately communicate requires much more than speaking ability. Body language is just as important. When young people have not been exposed to body language and gestures, they may miss many unspoken cues. Another common complaint about young people is the fact they are unaware of what personal space is. They often stand too close or cross personal boundaries when they are in social settings. All of these equate to poor judgment due to the lack of person to person contact. I have experienced this, personally, when I work with my students. I had to actually have a conversation with them about what id too close. When they get too close, I say: “Sally Sue Should Know What TO Do”.

Don’t get me wrong, I know there are some positive effects of technology, but parents must be vigilant and proactive. Researchers have proven that being a part of social media sites help to build children self-esteem and for those shy students it allows them to avoid face to face contact until they are comfortable doing so. Technology is also a great teaching tool. Parents and teachers can enhance what they are trying to convey. However, it should be used as just that-a tool. “Despite these benefits, proven trends indicate that with our customary reliance on the internet every day, our originality and higher order thinking is diminishing” (Carr). Parents and teachers should not rely on technology to do their jobs or to pacify the child in their absence. Children must be taught to manage their emotions and behaviors appropriately. They must be able to self regulate. Self-regulation is a skill that is learned in the face to face world and can be carried over to the technology world when appropriate. Those children who already know these skills are less likely to be risky in their behaviors while using technology. There are three qualities, I believe, individuals must possess to make appropriate decisions. The first is the ability to recognize ethical issues and to reason through the ethical consequences of each decision. The ability to see second and third order effects, one of the elements of strategic thinking, is very important. The second is the ability to look at alternative points of view, and decide what is right in a particular situation. Finally, the third is the ability to deal with ambiguity and uncertainty; thus making a decision on the best information available.Ultimately, I want it to be known that technology cannot teach children to think in this manner. This task is placed on the shoulders of adults and educators in the lives of young people.

My conclusion is that every person is capable of creativity. Some children are fortunate enough to have their talents and creativity nurtured as they grow into who they are to become. During my time as a teacher, I experienced this first hand. For many students, using technology was second nature because they had access at home, but for others it was scary beast. For those, I gave them the opportunities to grow in confidence as they embarked on creative experiences. Those people who are now great artists, performers, writers, and inventors were once creative children. Creativity makes one’s life a journey instead of just a ride. Creativity does not mean making something new, it means perfecting things to tailor to specific needs. I believe that every human being is born with a brain that is capable of creativity. They are apt to find innovative ways to make life easier and more productive for them. Creativity is the most important quality that one has; it sets one apart from others. Logically, one can deduce that technology is hindering students from thinking for themselves. It is producing robots that are unable to do nothing more or less than the required. By the time a child is 9 or 10, he/she has been stripped of creativity due to unlimited technology use. Technology, naturally, makes youngsters seek the easiest way to complete a task instead of the best or more effective way. In today’s world, people are placed under strict time restraints to produce quick results. Fast food restaurants, pay-per-view, instant messaging, and microwave dinners are just a few examples of how children are taught to expect fast results. Creativity makes life fun because it takes away the monotony. Nevertheless, creativity is driven by passion. Youngsters must take a break from technology and examine themselves to discover what they are passionate about- then and only then will they unlock their creativity.

Works Cited

Carr, Nicholas. “Does the Internet Make You Dumber?” The Wall Street Journal. Business News & Financial News, 05 June 2010. Web. 26 Jan. 2015

Olsen, Stefanie. “Are We Getting Smarter or Dumber?” Brain Fitness & Brain Training. Posit Page | 15 Science, 21 Sept. 2005. Web. 26 Jan. 2015