Is Technology Limiting Creativity?

Is Technology Limiting Creativity?

Is creativity being limited by technology? Is the human creative thinking that brings about technological innovations, or is it vice versa? Well, these questions require liberal responses, and everyone is entitled to voice his/her opinion. The wise use of the internet has positive impacts both at the individual and communistic levels, but when it comes to the point where the internet becomes a severe obsession, things tend to go south. Numerous researches have shown that millennials spend a lot of hours online in a week, and from this, critics come to the conclusion that they have no or little time to be innovative. What if we agree with Runco et al., 1998 findings that suggest a person’s creativity is based majorly on his/her core motivation, ability to solve the crisis or curiosity intensity? Exposure to information shared by those with ideas increases the recipient’s knowledge span; that is why I will always persuade myself that in terms of creativity improvement, technology has played a crucial part despite being a few fallbacks.

For average students, the use of specific means of educational technology in writing has shown an improved level of creativity. This is approved by a study carried out by Joram et al., 1992 involving two groups of average students; one group was to use word processors while the other used pencil and paper to compose their writing. This led to the finding that those students who used word processor had improved creativity due to the possibility that word processing allowed them to generate several ideas as compared to those who used pencil and paper. However, they also found out that the use of word processors on the above-average student hurt their creativity, bringing to the conclusion that the use of such educational technology has a varied effect on different kinds of students (Joram et al., 1992). .

Computer-aided design software has improved the product creativity of graphic designers. In Howe’s 1992 study, he concluded that students who used computer graphic software to do their design work outdid those who used the typical method in product creativity attributing this to the likelihood that these computer programs permit graphic designers to create a wide array of ideas then subsequently incorporating the most creative ones in their final designs. However, according to the reviews of some graphic designers, these computer-aided graphic designs are not polished as those created by humans (Molly, 2017); hence these designs ought to act as assistants.

The improvement of writers’ creativity can be highly influenced by the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. In an online article published Molly in 2017, she implies that when computers are fed with a variety of information, they are capable of storing important and precise details and putting them in a draft that allows writers to easily access information on their subject that they then use to start writing and then giving them the human touch needed to allure their addressees. On the downside, when AI was used in scientific paper writings, an issue of online plagiarism arose because such technology involves the incorporation of distinctive pros from other writers and transposing them in these scientific writeups (Molly, 2017).

In conclusion, technology can be used to improve creativity in average students and product creativity by design students and also influence the writer’s creativity. In itself, technology is a form of human creativity (Lewis, 1999). Production of creative products combines an individual’s and process creativity; thus, no need for blaming creativity limitation on technology. I suggest that we regulate our internet usage to avoid internet addiction, which was seen as a creativity deterrent.

REFERENCES

Howe, R. (1992). Uncovering the creative dimensions of computer-graphic design products. Creativity Research Journal, 5 (3), 233-243.

Joram, E., Woodruff, E., Bryson, M., & Lindsay, P. (1992). The effects of revising with a word processor on writing composition. Research in the Teaching of English, 26 (2), 167-192.

Lewis, T. (1999). Research in technology education: Some areas of need. Journal of Technology Education, 10 (2), 41-56.

Molly, St. L. (2017). Artificial Intelligence Might Increase Your Creativity in the Future: Creativity is Innately Human, but Maybe AI can help. (Online) Accessed on April 6^th, 2020 from https://www.inc.com/molly-reynolds/artificial-intelligence-might-increase-your-creativity-in-future.html

Runco, R.A., Nemiro, J., & Walberg, H.J. (1998). Personal explicit theories of creativity. Journal of Creative Behavior, 32(1), 1-17.