I volunteer at 826 Seattle, an organization author Dave Eggers started to teach literacy and writing to kids. Recently Mr. Eggers stopped by to thank us and talk shop.
At one point during our discussion, someone asked which of 826’s writing workshops were most popular. Surprisingly, Mr. Eggers said, all the workshops—poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, etc—were almost constantly packed or overfull. Except for blogging. None of the kids would show up for the blogging workshop. So he had to cancel it.
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I’m always hearing people talk about how the internet is killing creativity. Saying that tweeting and blogging are making us all ignunt. That the lights have gone out in America, and we’re entering a new dark ages. That we’re all ADD, digital zombies now. (Drool. Urp. Gag. [Falls over])
Which is why it was refreshing to hear Mr. Eggers’ anecdote, and think about the many ways in which culture, creativity and literature are not being decimated by our fast-twitch consumption of online ‘content’.
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Before I go any further, I should mention that I started out as a luddite. This was partly because of money and the culture I grew up in, but it was also because I’ve never been the kind to get excited about ‘new and shiny’. In fact, I used to be repulsed by new & shiny, which is why I would wear my shoes and purses until they fell apart. And which is why I threw up in my mouth the first time I used Twitter.
Anyway, the point is this: Even though enjoyment of short-form, online content (much of which consists of porn, poop jokes and cute pix of animals on boobs) is at an all-time high, I don’t think people who enjoy and create artistic, well-considered long-form content are going away.
And that’s because creativity transcends the medium. Aka, creative people who want to write and read thoughtful stuff have been around for a while. They didn’t die when the telephone came. They didn’t die when radio turned to TV. And they aren’t going to die because of Twitter or Tumblr.
If anything, I predict that our “always-on digital lifestyles” are going to spawn:
- a backlash that leads to more long-form printed literature being desired and created and/or
- new and shiny species of artists and writers and/or
- a compromise in which SOME types of long-form material stay in print, but we consume OTHER types of long-form material online, according to what’s practical, inspiring and sexy
And I think this will happen even if iPad whomps the Kindle whomps the book whomps the publishing industry.
And if time proves me wrong, it won’t matter. Because me and my kind will have locked ourselves underground. Or, nobody will be able to think or read or write at ALL, really, in which case this discussion will be moot, because we won’t be able to understand it.
Guh. Buh. Duh. Bluh.
Creators: Get busy. The lights are still on.
5 Comments
This is interesting to think about, and I’m in agreement that creativity transcends medium and technology. Honestly, any argument that states that a medium, any medium, is killing creativity is just plain stupid.
The web sparked my creativity. Without it I doubt I’d be a creative professional. Blogging, for example, is what got me into regular writing and I’d wanted to be a writer since I was a kid. I’d given up on that idea until the web came along and helped kick-start that desire.
There are many, many examples of this. Look at Rana Sobhany and her quest to make music with iPads: http://www.destroythesilence.com/apps. Might be a small one, but you get the idea. There are thousands more.
As far as consumption, the iPad, for example has opened me up to reading all kinds of content I’d never really had a desire to read: news, for example. The NPR app has been great for introducing me to all sorts or written and audible content I’d previously been missing.
I also enjoy long-form pleasure reading on it, something I thought I’d never say. When I want to read a cheesy mystery or something, you can bet it’ll be digitally from now on. I’ll never have to drag a bunch of guilty-pleasure-paperbacks to the used bookstore again! Huzzah!
Having said all that, I’ll still be buying hardbacks when it comes to my favorite authors. There is just something about a book.
Keith: Yes!! I wanted to include more about how new mediums actually spark creativity, like you say, but didn’t get to it. I’m glad you mentioned it.
Also, I hadn’t seen Rana Sobhany’s project. That’s so rad.
Thanks as always for your thoughts. I think your writing and work are great examples of what we’re talking about: creativity finding and flourishing in new channels.
beautifully put “The Lights are Still On” I enjoyed every word of this article. Ever stop and think YOU could be THE new shiny species of writer? think about it – Positive outlook, New Ideas, Introducing new words such as ‘Ignunt’ and allowing your readers room to think for themselves
Spot on Tiff!
Sure, there are new devices (iPad being one of them), and micro-blogging (twitter for example), but these are not going to stop longer posts on blogs being written. People who enjoy writing, and the creativity of language, will still write more, longer posts.
Already, my reply here exceeds the 140 characters of a ‘tweet’ – so there is definitely scope for more writing and more content space for it (which blogs seem to provide quite well).
Extending this question though: has blog-writing taken content away from hard copy, published material? In Keith’s case: blogging inspired him to resume his creative writing, rather than abandon it. Micro-blogging could be having the same impact: short-form encouraging writers to write even more elsewhere (maybe?)
Writing a long-form blog post takes more effort than a micro-blog snippet, but isn’t it worth it? I think it is!
Joe: I like how you think. And thank you for expanding my ego.
Matt: I definitely agree that long-form writing is worth it. Would be interesting to see if internet-ing is really “stealing” people away…
Thanks guys.