How Screens and Social Media May Be Affecting Your Creativity

Creativity, prolonged screen time, and social media are not partners in your goal to create.

I unplugged from the digital world. I got sick because I was not eating, and my stomach decided to punish me with a terrible acid attack. In pain for a few days, I was too uncomfortable to hold up my phone or watch TV.

After this episode, my phone decided to give up on me. The LCD was breaking down, and I was afraid the poor battery capacity—and possibly a bloated battery—caused the sudden damage to the screen.

I then decided to continue my screen hiatus and put my phone down from the constant chatting or scrolling. Unplugging made me realize that putting my phone down helped with my imagination and creativity.

The constant communication, information, and scrolling have hindered my mind from wandering and building.

With all the extra time on my hands—that were literally free from constantly carrying a phone—my mind seemed more at peace. I found myself coming up with more ideas; I was more engaged in conversations and observant of the world around me.

Most importantly, my mind got to write. Not just writing for my blog, but creating.

If you are like me and want to be a creative but haven’t made anything in the past few years, your phones may be the culprit, and these few ideas may help.

1. Information Overload Can Snuff Out Sparks of Creativity

All the information at our fingertips may be hindering sparks of creativity from igniting into a flame.

This blog from HuffPost said that all the information from the digital world takes up the space in our minds from “deep thoughts.” The author, a research psychologist and lecturer at Harvard University, called these the “antitheses of creative idea generation.”

 If your mind is too busy with all this useless (maybe sometimes useful) information, how will it breathe and help you build new worlds and create stories? 

You do not always have to be busy looking through social media and reading random articles online to pass the time. You need the dull moments, times when the brain would wander, discover and grow.

2. Observation is Key to Creation

With my nose stuck in one of my different gadgets (a phone, a tablet, a laptop), I do not know the last time I stopped and watched ants work away in my yard.

 As a kid, I liked watching these annoying creatures walk some invisible line and occasionally stop to communicate some pressing issue with another ant going the other direction. 

They looked like humans busy running errands in town that hurriedly bumped into a friend. With broad exaggerated gestures, they had to tell their friend the latest gossip as if it was the end of the world.  

I do not think I would have noticed this if I spent my childhood online.

There are things I would not be able to do if I was scrolling through my phone all the time.

 This article by Forbes reminds us that many discoveries and innovations started with observations such as Isaac Newton and the apple. We all know where that got him in the field of physics.

Mindful observation is a key to creativity and innovation based on this article by Fast Company. 

We have to learn to step away from the digital world and take in the vibrant world around us. 

There are ideas and stories around us. We might be missing out because we are too busy trying to tune into the digital world.

3. Screens Could Distact You from Completing Creative Tasks

I started writing the ideas for my blog posts long hand.  

Writing with a physical pen and paper has kept me more focused on the process of writing instead of merely staring at a blank page and switching between windows to easily available entertainment such as YouTube and Instagram. 

I admit that I often give up on the endeavor of writing for instant gratification online, but going old school has helped me focus more.

The latter causes you to stop writing mid-sentence to correct errors, pushing the train of thought far from your grasp.

As I write this on paper, I know the piece will be revised several times once typed onto digital paper. With that in mind, I can just write away.

In this Tedx Talk, the speaker could not even finish a book with all the distractions of the digital world.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Zi (@thisis_zi)

 With the few weeks I cut down on my screen time to the point that I disappeared from a few Discord servers, I found myself on track with my daily to-ds and finishing books. I was able to read three books in the past week alone. Check out my blog post on the three Shakespearean comedies I read here.

 Digital distraction exists. And this article by the Harvard Business Review explains how it could be affecting your productivity and two different ways to address it.

4. Social Media Likes are Not the Answer to Creativity

Creating something new and posting on social media for me has become a subconscious burden. Low click-through, social media likes, and impressions have scared me from putting myself out there. 

Not just that, it has even stopped me from creating things altogether.

This Harper’s Bazaar article explains how we only put out what believe others would like.

Creating has become daunting in the light of likes, shares, and followers. 

Algorithms designed for popularity and likes curate everyone’s social media feed. The same Harper’s Bazaar article discussed how this curation hurts creativity and originality. 

We tend to follow what is popular, view what has the most likes, and see what is trending. 

This Wired article talks about how all of this needs to change to help restore diversity in creativity. 

Stepping away from social media has helped me think of more out-of-the-box ideas and grow these seeds of creation. 

This may be the prompt you need to do the same. 

For more tips to help you unplug, check out this Inc article that would help you balance your screen time and foster your creative juices.