Camille Kelly | Reporter
We are constantly consuming others’ creativity.
This consumption, at its core, is a beautiful privilege. The ability to share art, poetry, music and more with the world in a matter of seconds is astonishing. It is incredible the way we can all appreciate and inspire one another’s minds. But as Thomas Edison said, “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration,” and in this endless void of constant media consumption we are all addicted to today, the lack is not inspiration.
So why does it seem, when millions are sharing across platforms, the average person grapples with deep, envious regret as they see someone else who finally did write the book, learn the piano or bravely attempt unicycling whilst playing the fiddle? Is our issue simply laziness?
I would argue that what we struggle with is not always a lack of motivation or loss of inspiration, but rather the crippling fear of failure. This fear is only exacerbated by the prevalent overconsumption of media.
Authors publish their third novel, finally a success, after years of drafts have collected in their junk docs. Meanwhile, we see this and lamely falter when our first attempt at the 60-Day Novel Writing Challenge isn’t met with the same praise. The same algorithm that inspires can also be a trap for the easily discouraged.
But as everyone in the real world must learn, the only way to get better at something is to keep at it.
We must revise more than we compare. We must try again, and again and again. Most of all, we must keep creating. We cannot give up before we’ve begun and succumb to the endless doomscroll of the lives we wish we had.
Now you may be asking, practically, how do I begin to live this way? Discipline is a lost art, and ironically, is where true creativity often begins — to start creating, you have to turn off your phone and set aside a time to do it.
Here is my challenge: set aside a little time each day, maybe even a mere five minutes (I know, dear college student, time is costly, but please hear me out), and pick one of the things you’ve always wanted to do, or that your feed is full of others doing.
Then, attempt it for yourself! It could be anything, something random, simple or adventurous. Maybe something you haven’t tried before. Something that you permit yourself to start really badly. But then there’s a requirement that follows: keep doing it.
Write a sonnet, build a birdhouse, make your own board game, start embroidering, learn to play the Scottish bagpipes (MCC offers a class), arrange flowers, invent your own sport, film a movie, audition for a play, host a dinner or bake a souffle — the possibilities are endless. For goodness’ sake, build some Legos! Whatever you do, create something.
Maybe the solution to this imbalance is not limited to deleting Instagram for the 20-millionth time. Maybe the solution is that, to consume less, we must create more.
