Creativity

New Media fosters creativity in a variety of ways, from mash-ups to instapoetry to finding new ways to connect and communicate with others.

For example, Twitter users began using hashtags - those little '#' symbols we are all so familiar with, followed by a word or phrase, such as #tgif (short for 'Thank God it's Friday') or #catsofinstagram, to name just a few. Twitter took this a cue to innovate, and now hyperlinks hashtags. To me, that is a #win for creativity. The article "Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers" goes into more detail about how Twitter has learned from its users and implemented tools and features that were originally thought of as niche, but which turned out to be strokes of genius.

Mash-ups also foster creativity in that they encourage people to 'think outside the box' and create new ideas from old content, as we saw in the article "Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. But Why?"

Fanfiction, such as that hosted on Archive of Our Own (of which I am a proud member) is also a form of creativity that stems from a combination of relatively old media (books, movies, TV shows) and new media, namely the Internet of Things and sites that allow users to share their stories en masse and gain followings as authors of fanfiction. Most notably, 50 Shades of Grey, widely acknowledged as one of the top 3 bestsellers of the previous decade, began as Twilight fanfiction.

All in all, new media is an excellent vehicle for creativity, and I can hardly wait to see what the future will bring as new media expands, grows, changes, and evolves.

Works Cited:

Barnes, Brooks. “Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. But Why?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 24 Sept. 2007, www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/business/media/24crank.html.

“'Fifty Shades of Grey' Started out as 'Twilight' Fan Fiction before Becoming an International Phenomenon.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 17 Feb. 2015, www.businessinsider.com/fifty-shades-of-grey-started-out-as-twilight-fan-fiction-2015-2.

Miller, Claire Cain. “Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 25 Oct. 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/technology/internet/26twitter.html.

Russaw, Jeanine Marie. “E.L. James' 'Fifty Shades of Grey' Trilogy Ranked as Top 3 Bestselling Books of the Decade.” Newsweek, Newsweek, 21 Dec. 2019, www.newsweek.com/fifty-shades-grey-trilogy-ranked-top-3-bestselling-books-decade-1478690.