Today is Cyber Monday, following a hectic Black Friday weekend, where the whole world goes mad for a bargain before Christmas. It’s great, you get to stock up on everything you wanted to get, at a fraction of the price. Whilst doing my own shopping in the sale madness, I was struck but how the gifts I was buying lacked real creativity. No longer do I have the time to personalise gifts or make my Christmas cards. This lead me to thinking is creativity dying?
In an age where we are surrounded by tech and convenience, it seems the far easier option to go with the pre-made. pre-prepared and unoriginal. Even the image at the top of this blog, I am afraid to tell you, is a stock image (I hear your horrified gasps!). Would the image have been better if I had taken the time to think of the image I wanted and set it up and taken my own photo? Possibly. Did I have the time to do this? No. Would this blog have been made better for it? I don’t think so.
Creativity is changing! It is becoming more advanced, more intelligent and more integrated into life. So much so that we often do not see it. In some case, it is more convenient, we are able to use someone else’s creativity to support our own. We rely on those with strengths in certain areas to provide us with their creative ideas. Whilst others rely on our creativity to support and inspire their own. The tech around us is becoming ever more creative, allowing us to do things we would have only ever dreamed of before.
Yes, creativity is becoming less hands on for the majority of us. But, this does not mean it is no longer there. It is in fact all around us, in our new gadgets, in the way we prepare our food, in our wardrobes and on our screens. Whilst of course our children need to sit and stick and cut and cover everything in glitter, they will also learn to code and cook and design. It is the way of the future, we should all appreciate the creativity that is all around us.
The creativity of others has given me the time to write this blog, my own creative outlet. It has allowed me to be creative with my clients website, and build an amazing Lego structure with my little boy. Have a think about the creative things around you today, and think about what your creative outlet is?