In your endless scrolling, I’m sure you’ve noticed the same thing I have. Everything looks the same, sounds the same, is the same. There’s the infinitely multiplying franchises across all mediums. “We are now stranded on this deserted island in the middle of the ocean.” There’s Mr. Beast and his countless clones. [YELLING] There’s mega influencers and their lavish lifestyles. [GUNSHOTS] Everybody is playing old games and listening to old songs, or new songs that sound like they could be from 1995. [SABRINA CARPENTER, “ESPRESSO”]: “Thinkin’ about me, every night, oh Isn’t that sweet? I guess so ——” It’s viral crazes like that cup that everybody on TikTok had to talk about for months. Everything is thirst traps, and smash the likes, and hit Subscribe, and thumbnails that all look the same, and clickbaity texts that all reads the same. It feels like there’s been a dimming of our imagination and even of possibility. Are we somehow becoming less creative? I am obsessed with creativity. I even made a viral video series about it that I traveled around the world talking about. I haven’t always thought pop culture was improving, necessarily, but I thought it was going someplace, at least. It wasn’t circling. [ALARM BEEPING] Until now. I see circling. Creativity matters. It’s about more than just art and entertainment. To solve the alarming challenges of the future, we will need out-of-the-box thinking, yet sadly, we’re mostly stuck in the same box. It feels like sameness rules. Don’t take my word for it. Other cultural commentators are also warning us about the crisis of sameness. As theorist Matt Klein puts it, “There’s this weird thing that’s happening where amongst creative surplus, we have creative stagnation.” Everything you’re consuming online and on your phones is just the tip of the iceberg. Down below, beneath the waves, is a whole other world, one where creativity is thriving. Let me show you this underworld and how we can foster more of this kind of creativity. So think of the tip of the iceberg as pop culture. It’s the mainstream. This is where sameness rules. But beneath the tip of the iceberg, the creativity is there, and there’s a lot of it. Whatever the topic is, a small universe of content awaits you on the technology that drives culture, the internet. If you want Excel tutorials with dancing, you got it. If you want reviews of historical sandwiches, you got it. If you want debunking of anti-vaxxers, you got it. And if you want actual anti-vaxxers, sure, you got it. I’m not saying everything’s great down here, people. This is just the tiniest glimpse. There’s an infinity of amazing newsletters, podcasts, YouTube channels and way, way more out there. But the bottom of the iceberg isn’t seen so much. It’s smaller creators with smaller audiences. Our main experience of the culture is the tip of the iceberg. It’s the sameness. So the creativity is still there. We just don’t see it that often. Why not? There are lots of possible answers. It could be that innovation is just getting harder because so much has already been done. Maybe the sheer scale of the challenges we face is making us more apathetic. Or maybe the robots really have taken over. Many of us are afraid that the robot Armageddon is nigh. I’m not convinced it is, but there is one important place where the robots have definitely taken over: your social media feed. Social media algorithms are a form of A.I. And it’s algorithms that decide what’s in the top of the iceberg and what’s in the bottom. Algorithms give us what we want, but they also distort and amplify our preferences. Rules emerge. Then everybody obeys those rules. Making matters worse, it’s just a handful of algorithms that dominate. We once had three powerful TV networks. Now, we have a different three-headed monster. Tech hegemony has produced cultural hegemony. But you have power here. You can create change. How? Again, there are many possibilities. Like, maybe we just need to demand that social media companies do a better job of amplifying creative content. Maybe we should all spend more time in what’s being called the dark forest internet. These are private communities where we can relax and be ourselves. Maybe we should just add more newsletters and podcasts to our media diets. These are less curated by algorithms and come straight to you. Maybe we should all move to new kinds of platforms, like the so-called fediverse, which basically makes social media less controlled by platforms and more like email newsletters and podcasts. Or maybe, just maybe, we should use social media less. But here’s another, maybe darker possibility. What if there’s nothing we can do, and we’re just stuck in a creatively stagnant era? Well, stagnation can lead to explosive change. The Renaissance in Northern Europe came after war, the Black Death, and religious turmoil. The Harlem Renaissance of the ‘20s and ‘30s sprang out of segregation and poverty. The counterculture movement of the ‘60s erupted after the conformity and repression of the ‘50s. My guess — when human creativity seems defeated, it’s actually gathering strength and waiting for its moment to erupt.
