Creativity

New media has given a whole new meaning to the word creativity. All of a sudden, people don't have to be good with a pencil or a talented musician to foster their own creativity. It can come from anywhere, such as creating an avatar on SecondLife, coming up with innovational ideas for social networks such as Twitter, or taking their favorite music and combining it to make something new.

One of my absolute favorite examples of new media fostering creativity is the mash-up. In an article titled "1 + 1 + 1 + 1: The New Math of Mashups", Sasha Frere-Jones describes the technology behind the mashup as well as it's likeability factor. The fun is in hearing two songs "mashed" together and sounding GOOD, something you'd never put together in your head or even associate with each other. My own personal perfect example? Shaggy's "It Wasn't Me" vs. The Beatles "Let It Be". The Youtube user I found even went as far to mash-up pieces from each separate music video. Check it out:

Let It Be It Wasn't Me

It allows people to combine their mixed interests in music to create something they can call their own.


SIDE NOTE: While we're on the subject of music and new media (don't fret, I will of course cite another article before the end of my post) another thing that makes me really happy about new media is that it has brought to attention the pure awesome-ness of string quartet tributes. A string quartet tribute is a purely instrumental version of a popularized song, played by a string quartet (2 violins, a viola and a cello).

For your enjoyment, a string quartet tribute to Guns N' Roses "Sweet Child of Mine": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnwxXNfdsxU

It highlights a completely different area of the song and the music that you may not have noticed in the original song. Another really good example is the string quartet tribute to 3 Doors Down's "Here Without You" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6OB8okE1jQ). It brings an entirely new intensity and sadness to a song that wasn't ever one of my favorites. It also takes string quartets out of the band geek realm and turns them cool. (I'm a band geek, yes.)

Back to creativity and new media, another way that creativity is fostered through new media is through user-generated innovations. The best example is Twitter. In an article titled "Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers" on NYTimes.com, reporter Claire Cain Miller chronicles the recent updates made by Twitter, including the "Retweet" feature and the "Mentions" feature, all thought up originally by users of the website.

Social networking websites are a breeding ground for creativity among its users. The social network is something that will not succeed unless it caters to it's followers, so of course any follower suggestions should be taken just as seriously as a suggestion from someone within the company. Web-savvy users on Facebook are creating their own Facebook applications everyday, some of which really take off and the creators are then indicted into the "Facebook Developers" team. The Facebook developers site also allows users to integrate Facebook onto their own personal websites and blogs. http://developers.facebook.com/