Pinterest is Killing Your Creativity Btw

I watched a Ted Talk about how craving attention makes you less creative. Hosted by Joseph-Gordon Levitt, he went on to talk about how your art suffers when you aren’t giving your work your full attention. If you are paying attention to what everyone else is doing then your work pays the ultimate price. He explained the business model of social media and how it is designed to buy and sell our attention, which is something we are all aware of yet still willingly sell our precious time. This concept is something I have noticed but towards a more specific time consumer: inspiration.

Your search for constant inspiration is making you less creative. When you trust your ideas and sit alone with them that is when they can transpire. Constantly searching for inspiration, as a generation, has caused the manufacturing of the same ideas. How many pins have you seen recreated identically from Pinterest? Think about how many people got inspired by the same exact pin. I’m not sure exactly when it started, but our generation has become inspo obsessed! #outfitinspo #dinnerinspo #roominspo #weddinginspo #lifeinspo. I understand the desire to be inspired but when your time is spent constantly looking the curate the perfect aesthetic, your art becomes about the attention of others and not your desire to create.

Because of apps like Pinterest and Tik Tok this idea of inspiration has become an excuse to consume. Yes, it is fun and I am a victim of Pinterest doomscrolling at night, incessantly saving and creating specific boards, but I started to realize that while I thought I was looking for inspiration, I was actually numbing my ideas. The moments I put my phone down, listen to the world around me on the train, pick up a book, watch a movie, cook a meal I like, or read an article are the times I actually become inspired. Those moments alone with my mind are when I have the best ideas.

I do not want to shame these platforms for creative inspiration because there is some for sure but once you trust yourself and your ideas that have been formed by personal experience, intellect, history, and desire, that is where art comes from. Everyone has been complaining that art, fashion, and music have started looking and sounding the same, well that’s because we are all looking at each other for inspiration instead of looking at ourselves. That attention is being paid to our comrades who have been deemed competitors instead of collaborators.

The amount of attention you use when looking at someone else for inspiration is the amount of attention you could be putting towards your work. Don’t let your craft pay the ultimate price.