By Joshua Norman
Technology gets people caught up in the popular trends through Social media which provides access to the popular trends. Trends tell us how to dress to fit in and what to do to fit in, that takes away from our individual thinking. Technology also provides the unlimited knowledge that stops us from thinking for ourselves and asking questions, it takes away from our imagination. Imagination and self-thinking is what makes us individuals, or at least two of the most important things in individual.
Although technology can provide us with information to expand our creativity but only if we access it for that purpose. However we are bombarded by ads and social media problems and trends that distract us from achieving that goal. People need to disengage from social media and focus more on their own individual thinking and creativity. “But where would we be if Michael Dell hadn’t brought the home computer into nearly every household? If Steve Jobs hadn’t invented the iPhone? If Thomas Edison hadn’t created the lightbulb? Creativity drove these innovations, and that creativity is directly related to our individuality.” This quote shows the importance of Creativity and how it helped create the technology which is now taking away from our creativity. It’s ironic actually how that works, someone had the creative idea to make it easier to be creative and to help unite the world, but his idea is now taking away from our creativity and bringing us farther apart. “We no longer need to work to express our individuality in new and creative ways and put in the hard work of building Self-creation is no longer a process of self-activity.” Technology has changed how we become ourselves, it has taken the hard work out of being individuals, and takes away the ability to be as creative by taking away the hard work of becoming individuals through hard creative ways, like Thomas Edison created the lightbulb making him famous as an individual. Thomas had to work to create the lightbulb, using his imagination and creativity to create it, but now, people don’t have to build new things or invent new things, they expect others to do it for them.
Technology does not enhance our creativity, it limits it by showing us ads and how “normal” people live and making us want to fit in. Technology has turned from new ways to communicate, write and grow, into a big propaganda tool. Daily people are bombarded with ads, trends and popular items that people get lost in the propaganda that we lose ourselves and our individuality.
“In a society one is expected to conform to the masses, where maintaining an individuality becomes an onerous task. There are a type of people who merely follow the crowd and there are also people (individuals) who strive to lead the way never following the beaten track and to be their own person.” This quote from the article, what is individuality and why is it important? This shows how people tend to fallow the trends instead of standing out and being different. Being unique is very important to society, people can only come up with new ideas and new creations only if they are different and are creative. Creativity is by far the most important thing in society and innovating, without a creative mind no new things can be created and technology limits the creativity in individuals by getting them hooked up in social media and blogs and tweets. All those factors adding up makes us less as individuals and more as a droid who fallows orders and does what all the others do, creativity and individuality needs to be encouraged and brought out more in schools and at home.
Citations:
Individuality vs. Fitting-In, Caitlin296, Round Rock, TX
Individuality Trumps Trends, April 24, 2014, Felipe De La Hoz/WSN
The end of the information frontier, A. Mowshowitz
INDIVIDUALITY: THE NEW CONFORMITY, Anonymous. New Oxford Review80.3 (Apr 2013): 16-18.
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