There are many fascinating, esoteric elements related to the creative process. From the early, idea gathering stages, through to the hard graft of putting your ideas into action. Each of these elements can be sabotaged, swiftly, by glancing at social media.
The counter argument is that social media can inspire. You could be swiping through Tik Tok and see a funny video about a pigeon, which could then inspire you to write an incredible, heartwarming feature film about a small woodpigeon.
Yes, this could happen.
But you’re never going to write your pigeon movie if you incessantly return to social media at every given opportunity.
Why? Because two minutes later you’ll see a video about a sparrow, and you’ll be questioning whether your pigeon story would be better served by focusing on a sparrow, or maybe a seagull.
Then you’ll log onto twitter, where you’ll see a tweet saying: “Films about birds are lame! Unoriginal!”
You’ll be so depressed that you’ll log on to Facebook for comfort, where you’ll find your Aunt arguing with some guy called Geoff about gun laws and before you know it, you’re twelve years older and you’ve forgotten you were even considering writing a screenplay.
Creativity is hard.
There are easy versions. You can, for example, find a creative way to film a dog eating a shoe and that video can get you five thousand followers on Instagram, but that’s not the type of creativity I’m talking about here.
The creativity I’m talking about is those bigger projects you’ve been putting off and putting off. The short film idea you’ve been considering for five years. The TV pilot about that thing that happened when you were sixteen that you know you are destined to write.
Just because a project is your destiny, doesn’t mean you’re any more likely to write it.
It’s not that the people on social media are out to stop you being creative. There are many supportive, creative souls on Twitter and Instagram. But there’s every chance you won’t see their supportive posts because the algorithm is serving up negative, moaning tweets from some former actor in Hull who thinks the industry is out to ruin you and he’s made it his personal mission to make you feel bad about your work.
These people are out there and you’re likely to see them the second you log on to the socials.
It’s near impossible to sit and focus on something. But you need to do it, that’s what creativity is. It’s about having an idea, an idea that may be terrible, but you pursue it anyway.
You need to delve into your ideas even when you’re uncertain. You need to work on them to see if they hold up, to see if they’re worth the attention you’re giving them.
It hard to stay focused.
It’s also hard to daydream.
Both of these are near impossible, when social media is a button push away.
Yes, it’s addictive. Yes, the algorithms are built to hook us.
But somewhere, deep inside of ourselves, we know we have a choice.
