Keywords

social media, creativity, time displacement, cognitive functions

Abstract

It can be noted that levels of creativity among society have declined in modern days, perhaps with no clear reason as to why. Therefore, a need exists to explore the effects of increased social media use in the modern world on creativity as a whole and its role in the rapid creativity decline. First, the factor of time displacement is examined, as passive social media use has become the replacement for creative pursuits. Free time once dedicated by individuals to generate new ideas and further improve their artistic abilities is now being used to scroll online. A second important factor is the effect that social media use has on an individual’s attention span. A high attention span is needed to dedicate oneself to a craft and to produce creative ideas, and social media use is presented to have effects on cognitive functions, such as decreasing attention span.Therefore, the general decline of creativity in society can also be traced back to social media for this purpose. A final and compelling element of decreased creativity in the modern world that is affected by social media is that of lost motivation. Social media is a source of addiction and comparison which feeds a loss of motivation to progress creatively in the real world. Thus, another outlet is presented through which social media is clearly viewed as the culprit for less creative productions in society. The combined research presented all contributes to this important finding, that social media use is detrimental to the progression of an artistic society.