Photo by inottawa
Once upon a time, a creativity researcher asked a group of schoolchildren to write her some stories. She encouraged them to write about whatever they liked and let their imaginations run free.
Reading through the stories, she was disappointed. Instead of wild imaginations she found tame thoughts and lame tales.
The tales tended to be very tedious and unimaginative, as if the children were stuck with this very restricted way of thinking. Even when they were encouraged to think creatively, they didn’t really know how.
The researcher was Teresa Belton of East Anglia University in the UK. Determined to find the root of the problem, she monitored the children’s daily activities for several months. Jonah Lehrer summarises her findings in an article for Boston.com called Daydream Achiever:
Belton came to the conclusion that their lack of imagination was, at least in part, caused by the absence of “empty time,” or periods without any activity or sensory stimulation. She noticed that as soon as these children got even a little bit bored, they simply turned on the television: the moving images kept their minds occupied. “It was a very automatic reaction,” she says. “Television was what they did when they didn’t know what else to do.”
The problem with this habit, Belton says, is that it kept the kids from daydreaming. Because the children were rarely bored – at least, when a television was nearby – they never learned how to use their own imagination as a form of entertainment. “The capacity to daydream enables a person to fill empty time with an enjoyable activity that can be carried on anywhere,” Belton says. “But that’s a skill that requires real practice. Too many kids never get the practice.”
Lehrer also cites research by Jonathan Schooler, showing that those who spend more time daydreaming score higher on experimental measures of creativity.
Other researchers have used brain scanners and EEG sensors to monitor neural activity in people engaged in solving problems. They found that the brain was working much harder in those subjects who solved the problems by daydreaming resulting in a flash of insight, than in those who used logical reasoning:
These sudden insights, they found, are the culmination of an intense and complex series of brain states that require more neural resources than methodical reasoning. People who solve problems through insight generate different patterns of brain waves than those who solve problems analytically. “Your brain is really working quite hard before this moment of insight,” says psychologist Mark Wheeler at the University of Pittsburgh. “There is a lot going on behind the scenes.
In fact, our brain may be most actively engaged when our mind is wandering and we’ve actually lost track of our thoughts, a new brain-scanning study suggests. “Solving a problem with insight is fundamentally different from solving a problem analytically,” Dr. Kounios says. “There really are different brain mechanisms involved.”
By most measures, we spend about a third of our time daydreaming, yet our brain is unusually active during these seemingly idle moments. Left to its own devices, our brain activates several areas associated with complex problem solving, which researchers had previously assumed were dormant during daydreams. Moreover, it appears to be the only time these areas work in unison.
Robert Lee Hotz, ‘A Wandering Mind Heads Straight Toward Insight’
So What’s This Got to Do with the iPhone?
Some of you might be feeling a little smug at this point. If you’re anything like me – a new media enthusiast who spends more time in front of a computer screen than a television – the research seems to confirm all our prejudices against the ‘couch potato’ behaviour fostered by TV.
After all, we’re the creative ones engaged in ‘lean forward’ not ‘lean back’ media. We like our culture read/write, not read-only – right?
Well stop and think for a moment about the iPhone. Whether or not you’ve actually given in and bought an iPhone yet, don’t tell me you haven’t considered it. Or daydreamed about the wonderful creative possibilities of carrying this digital box of tricks with you wherever you go.
In a sense, it doesn’t really matter whether you buy an iPhone or not. What the iPhone represents is the arrival of portable cloud computing, a world where everyone is ‘always on’, always connected, wherever they go.
A world with no downtime.
Think about the last time you found yourself ‘killing time’ – at an airport, between meetings or on a solitary train journey.
With an iPhone, you’re never bored – just whip it out and you’re instantly entertained. In fact, you’re spoiled for choice: Browse the web? Play with an app? Start Tweeting? Check your e-mail (again)?
Next time you find yourself automatically reaching for your phone to banish boredom, stop and ask yourself: Is this really so different from those schoolkids who can’t do nothing for a moment without switching on the TV?
Without an iPhone, you’re in serious danger of being bored. What can you do? Examine your surroundings? Stare into space? Let your mind wander…?
Do you see what I’m getting at? How many creative discoveries have you made while daydreaming in odd moments? How often has boredom been the mother of your invention?
Could the death of boredom mean the death of your creativity?
About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet and creative coach.
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1 2 3 Next »I've long known that I do some of my best thinking in the shower. But until I read this post I didn't connect it with the fact that it's about the only time I'm not plugged into something.
I may need to start blocking out more time to disconnect.
It's funny that I read this today because just yesterday I tweeted my personal coach that he should have his clients mop floors to get great ideas, because that's where I get so many of mine!
Or while going for long walks or taking showers or sitting rocking a baby, anything I do that leaves me unable to access any sort of distracting device (even a book) and doesn't take up much brain power so my mind is free to wander.
I admit I'm bad to pulling out the iPhone if I'm going to be bored for just a minute or two, like waiting in line. Maybe I'll start a leave the iphone in the purse challenge for myself!
One of my philosophies in raising my kids is that they need lots of minutes every day where they have to figure out how to entertain themselves. When they are little they tend to have a running narrative of what they are doing going on so you get a real sense of how their imagination and creativity is developing. It's an amazing process - I play with them a bit, and push them into taking it a little bit forward each time, but then leave them alone for them to incorporate it into their repertoire.
Very thoughtful post. As a Christian you are constantly reminded of the important part that solitude and silence play in your life. Getting through the uncomfortable an awkward silences within yourself is something that takes practice and requires intentionality.
The other part is that there isn't always a visible cause and effect to this type of behavior which makes it much harder to reinforce than the activities or 'have it now' culture promotes.
Laslty, I try to be intentional about fostering imagination and 'down time' for my boys. Whether by our action as parents or the boys personality, the boys aren't interested much in TV which makes it a lot easier for them to have space to be creative.
You read my mind, Chris. I take very long showers (like 30 minutes), and I find that gives me more than enough daily mind-wandering time.
The jogging that comes before it is just extra idle-minded gravy.
There are plenty of mindless tasks that people still have to do. While I no longer have to stare into space while sitting in a waiting room, my mind has sort of reprogrammed itself to do its open-ended creative thinking while I'm doing chores or brushing my teeth or commuting. Creativity will always find a time to assert itself.
Like anything, it depends on how you use it. I'm on mine constantly when I'm in motion, but it's hard to stare at screen too long while sitting still.
Do you consider listening to audiobooks while doing other tasks somehow killing creativity?
What an astute observation. I never considered boredom as a gateway to daydreaming/creativity.
I can't remember the last time I sat in the waiting room at a Dr.'s visit or even to get my oil changed without pulling out my iPhone. Then again, before the iPhone I was guilty of pulling out my laptop, and before that a book. I guess if you feel the need to "be productive" every moment of the day, you'll find a way.
Definitely going to think twice before occupying every second. Now, to overcome the guilt I feel when I'm just sitting around...
Having just spent the last week in Wales (mostly in a wetsuit hanging off the end of a kite or a surfboard) I came back thinking - hmm... would have been handy to have an Iphone with/without some tricksy app to check all the right tidal times for different stretches of the coast so we hit the right beaches at the right times. Not hard to work out I know with a bit of early groundwork but the lazy convenience would have been nice.
But then I ask myself how easy this would be, whilst resisting the compulsion to check the calendar or emails and whatnot while the tide races out?
But after a gadget free week (and plenty of welcome daydreaming) your heart always tends to sink when the roads widen with more traffic, the buildings leer and you return to 365 emails the following morning. That said, the 9 wilderness days absent of anything more sophisticated than necessary text-messaging was truly welcome. When I return it always makes me question whether the 'cloud' assists me in running my life/business/everything or whether I'm just running to keep up.
I digress. I was glad to be raised as one of those kids who had no problem finding some form of entertainment out of thin air. As a hobbying writer and working film-maker, a passport sized notebook in the back pocket is still a great channel for spontaneous 'insights.' The fact that I fill more of these when I cut the umbilical to the cloud is perhaps telling.
When my phone contract permits, I've accepted that getting an Iphone is perhaps inevitable. Your article has made me conscious that use of it should be very self-policed.
Thanks everyone.
@Happy Rock "there isn’t always a visible cause and effect to this type of behavior which makes it much harder to reinforce than the activities or ‘have it now’ culture promotes." Very good point.
@Tyler - "Do you consider listening to audiobooks while doing other tasks somehow killing creativity?"
Not necessarily. Only if it's done to excess, and became a compulstion. i.e. if you always had to be listening to something and never allowed yourself the downtime to just do the task in hand.
@Adrienne - Ignore the guilt - it's only after attention. It'll soon get bored and go away. :-)
@Chris - Great summary of the pros and cons. I love technology but as you point out, it's a two-edged sword. Which needs carefuly handling. ;-)
This is good stuff. I also present these concepts in my workshops.
I realised some time ago that my creativity can be traced back to one very undesirable attribute that I have: car sickness.
So as a child on long journeys, my brother could read but I could not. I had to sit in an upright position and look straight ahead out of the window.
If forced me to think and to dream, I had nothing else to do.
I think it depends on what iPhone apps you turn to during your 'down time'. I have WriteRoom on my home screen. I often find myself firing it up to write the first few paragraphs of a blog post or short story, be it at a train station or while waiting for the kettle to boil. Looking at it like that, the iPhone's been a great boost to my productivity and creativity.
Of course, if you turn to the phone every 15 minutes in an attempt to curb your boredom by besting your latest Flight Control score, it's probably not such a good thing. That said, it's easy to underestimate the power of play; I've had some great ideas while watching films and engaging in other seemingly braindead activities.