Do you think TV destroys creativity?

I was asked: How does televsion destroy our creativity?

In moderation, I don’t even think it does!

Actually, I’d answer: not if you plug it into a helpful round of recursive meditation.
I think, more to the point, that moderation should come about from a rich collection of other experiences that otherwise consume the time. You can find enough quality television across the various platforms to never have to watch anything mediocre. Plus, programs can stimulate interests like yoga, cooking, history, science- dramas can bring up intriguing ideas reflective of real world situations- TV can be a terrific tool, and a sociable way to unwind. A good laugh with your best friend, or a viewing party of some beloved franchise, or a streamed show to provide a topic
uniting you with a friend living far away: television can play part of a healthy life.


There was a satirical criticism leveled at TV one time in an episode of Futurama. Does the unpredictable scare people out of a layer of complacency- a layer people seek to wrap themselves in, by the very practice of watching TV? I’d suggest, for all the bad ‘reality TV’ and dopey sitcoms to come along since 2001, television’s come a long way.

Television’s no more guilty of destroying creativity than other pursuits like Facebook, video games, and more. Any of those things can be balanced with a creative life to become a pro=creative force. Inspiration could come from anywhere. It’s a matter of the quality of the production with which you occupy yourself. An episode of Face-Off might spur you to learn about special FX make=up. A cooking show might send you to the grocery store. Sesame Street and other programs give children the basic building blocks of understanding.

I know there is an answer possible, castigating the cynical ways ostentatious wealth is promoted, materialism, celebrated over relationships, and concepts, resurrected over and over again in the name of greed. A creative take can be applied to any of these. Few creators are content with slavishly copying what went before. It's just not how creativity works. (That's how Production sometimes works.)

ON the other hand, think of how many creative positions have been generated by the TV industry in central Georgia, alone. With so many platforms, there's a lot of TV shows. They all need creative professionals.

Now, that said: television, and any of those media, present their problem in not only their easy time-wasting opportunity- missing out on sleep to do any of them could hurt your productivity, though a sleepless state of mind can provide unusual perspectives. It’s the pre-digested manner in which information comes to you in these media that can decay critical thinking. If you don’t come away with questions, experiment, research, respond in some way, then your creativity languishes. When there were basically three networks and a bit of PBS, the money was in the lowest common denominator. Why make people feel threatened with anything smart? It’s not that quality programs didn’t appear, mind you. But there was little platform for a niche audience. Still, programs used comedy and drama to challenge people’s preconceptions about race, gender, social issues. Looking for garbage on TV is the proverbial ‘shooting at fish in a barrel’ situation, but there have been charming flecks of gold, just as there’ve been plenty of critics for panning.





Dialing it back to the underlying question, entertaining yourself too much with a passive form can come in the way of interacting with raw materials, having conversations, reading books, cross-referencing articles- experimenting.
If you simply copy what you see on TV, you might find a style of clothing you like, an attitude you think gets results, or if we’re talking about a separate, dramatic creation, you may have a safe way to relay drama in a familiar way.

But ‘safe’ never challenges anyone. If you can’t find a way to some uncomfortable territory, for one, you’ll never break ground. Creativity can be gentle, child-like, while still being unconventional. There needs to be a component of creativity, however, that challenges you to consider a new perspective. Challenges you to recognize and empathize with a point of view with which you reflexively disagree. Offers you to face your own biases, and yes, fears.

When we think of content, we usually think first of 'story'- but wait! What about...music?

Have you ever been inspired by a cool tune from a TV theme, some soundtrack music- or even, a cmmercial? My first memorable regular viewing expereince was that Spider-Man cartoon from 1967-69. I used to record episodes with a cassette, so I could replay its somewhat limited animation in my mind's eye. But was the appeal not only the character of Spidey himself...but the music?

Even today, I think of that Aloe Blac M & M's commercial and think of it as a defining musical bite of that season. I heard that Corona Extra ad and had to search for "Saltwater" by Geowulf. I'm about to give "It's Strange" by Louis The Child a listen, on the stregnth of that Nissan ad connecting with my feelings. Until now, I couldn't even be sure what car they were selling. But when you feed my emotional life, you feed my creative life.




Formula can provide a platform for strange new ideas; tropes can provide relatable short-hand for the participants of time-honored conflicts. But if you’re not broaching any uncharted territory, or representing less represented voices, creativity is more like doing crafts. You have a pattern, you produce according to pattern. That’s still creativity to the average person. But it’s the individual, unique stamp of distinction that answers the purest call to creativity. You may have to risk pretentiousness, but the genuine risk is an act of authenticity. Giving a voice to ideas that are not commonly discussed, or ideas rarely articulated well, is real creativity. Providing a genuine surprise, a hidden beauty- exposing the shadowed Other- this is true creativity. Until you have known stillness inside, and let the living flow of ideas find you- you don’t create, you merely regurgitate. To create is to foment the existence of something that wasn’t there before, to reveal a hidden value.


Television destroys our creativity only when we passively let it substiute for providing, at least for ourselves, some of our own culture. Make a song for your own amusement. Write a poem or story to embody ideas you value! Make a costume that doesn’t merely copy an existing design- let it say something a little different, that comes from your effort. Open the door to some spontaneity. Forge a bit of culture, from your own convictions and insights. There are feelings you will only evoke by taking yourself out of four walls of familiartiy.


Leave the door open to let Nature speak to you. Let something come to you from a stroll among the trees. Let a conversation bring you a new topic. Let a few moments of meditation uncover an idea that you may’ve buried under hours of television watching. Watch just enough TV to make it a treat- to watch only the best stuff you can find- instead of a form of anaesthesia. Let a passing snip of it set you off, rather than endless hours of binge watching, bury your expression.