media update’s Talisa Jansen van Rensburg takes a dive into the world of social media and takes a look at how it can encourage creativity.

Social media can help your creative process by breaking your daily routine, expose you to a diverse audience which will help you see things differently, and will assist with removing mental blocks and encourage you to laugh more often. All of which will directly help to improve and encourage your creativity.

Let’s dive a bit deeper: here’s how social media helps you be creative:

1. Social media breaks your routine

Most of us have a daily routine, which can eventually stifle our creativity. That’s why it’s important to be able to break out of it from time to time, and a great way to do this is by engaging with social media.

Nothing is ever the same as the day before on these, and most people post whatever they feel like on that day. And the things that they share or post is more than enough to spark an idea, whether it’s for an article, a caption or even an ad!

For example, might be sipping on your morning cup of coffee when a cute video from The Dodo catches your eye. Seeing this might spark something in you, and the next thing you know, you’ve created a masterpiece on social media that has gone viral.

2. Social media can expose you to diverse perspectives

Social allows us to connect with anyone from anywhere in the world, which means that platforms are likely to introduce you to new people with different cultures and beliefs. This can contribute towards an increase in creativity because of the exposure to perspectives from the outside world.

Being innovative does require you to get out of your comfort zone and allows you to do research and ask questions. So, use social media to your advantage and learn about t things that you wouldn’t come across in every-day surroundings.

Just remember to take what you read in the digisphere with a pinch of salt — not everything you read online is true.

3. Social media can make you laugh

You are bound to find some humorous content on any social media platform you visit. Whether it is a friend sharing a funny story or a new meme that goes viral, social media will always find a way to make you laugh.

According to John Spencer, there are five ways humour is linked to creativity, namely:
  • Humour encourages creative risk-taking.
  • It develops divergent thinking.
  • Humour models curiosity and playfulness.
  • It boosts creative problem-solving.
  • It leads to creative fluency.
What other ways do you think social media and creativity are linked? Let us know in the comments section below.

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*Image courtesy of Pixabay