Title: The Filter Bubble
Context: What is creativity when everyone is enabled to be creative?
Synopsis: Everyone is a photographer. I know because Instagram tells me so. According to Medium (and, apparently, WordPress), we are all writers deserving to be read. YouTube allows us to be auteur and actor in one virally-delivered cinematic package. It is technology that both fuels and manifests our creative acts, allowing us to not only express ourselves, but also propelling immediate distribution, and absorbing the ensuing critical acclaim that was once only reserved for a sliver of the otherwise frustrated creative class. Creativity is—correction: was—exceedingly difficult. Expressing oneself using analog tools, crafting artifacts by hand, is time-consuming, and challenging, and, well, hard. But not with technology at our beck and call. Ideas are iterated upon at the speed of thought. Mistakes are easily erased permanently (unless you need to retrace your steps later on then simply “undo”!) Pixels are much more forgiving than paint or photo paper or film, and comparatively free when budgeting for one’s pièce de résistance. Does all of this lead to a better or lesser human relationship with the ethereal creative process? Who knows? Not a very creative answer one could say, but then again, creativity is really in the eye of the beholder is it not?
Best Bit: “Yes, technology encourages us to create by restricting the options available, but it tries desperately to guarantee pleasant results with minimum effort. We’re discouraged from pushing our creative boundaries. As a result, the likelihood of producing something new, surprising or valuable is diminished.”
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