Week of 08/26/2019

Creativity Versus Attention
– by David Matthews 2

I recently watched a really interesting TED Talk video by actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  You may remember him from movies like “Looper” and “Inception” and “The Dark Knight Rises”.  He’s done a whole lot more before and after those big-budget blockbusters, so, sufficient to say he’s a hard-working guy in Hollywood.

In the video, recorded just a few months before this article went online, Gordon-Levitt talks about the similarities and differences between being creative and getting attention.  Both are highly addictive.  Both are extremely powerful feelings.  But they are diametrically opposite in what they do and the processes that are involved.

When you’re creating something, Gordon-Levitt explains, you pay attention to detail.  You’re aware of everything that goes into it.  You shut out everything else.  He knows this as an actor and filmmaker.  I know this as a published writer, comic book creator, former Internet radio personality, and former college stage actor.

But when you’re involved with social media, there is another equally powerful state, and that comes when you’re getting attention.  Gordon-Levitt singles out Instagram, but, really, there are several forums of social media that do the same thing.  When you’re getting attention, you don’t care about details.  You don’t care about what’s going on right now.  You just do more and more stuff to get more and more attention and to keep attention.

Now... I strongly recommend that you see the video for yourself, because he explains things perfectly from his own perspective.  However, I want to build from that, because there is a lot more that needs to be said.

Strangely enough, when Gordon-Levitt was talking about the dangers of getting attention and how social media like Instagram are encouraging it for their own financial gain, I had posted my column about marketers, and, specifically the people that call themselves “influencers”. I pointed out that what they were doing was really pitching product, and that whatever “friendship” that exists was only one-way.  And, really, what they are doing is getting attention so they can sell product.

Think about it.  They’re monetizing getting attention.  And not just for the providers... but for the marketers as well.

While Instagram is the most notorious for encouraging people to get attention for marketing purposes, they’re certainly not the only ones.  YouTube is equally rife with “personalities” that do crazy and stupid things to get attention.  Same with Facebook and Snapchat.

And long before the World Wide Web ever came into being, there were TV and radio “personalities” that also did (and some still do) crazy and stupid things to get attention.  Jerry Springer, Maury Povich, Geraldo Rivera, and the late Morton Downey Jr. quickly come to mind.  And let’s not forget Howard Stern!  They’d all play the straight men to the sideshow freaks they’d have as guests, and they’d always get crazier and crazier.  The fact that most of them are still on the air, still doing the same zany things trying to get that ever-dwindling attention, only proves how addictive it is.

Hell, the President of the United States is the most notorious self-promoting clown act today!  He throws temper tantrums that crash financial markets!

But there’s something else that I’ve noticed going on at the same time.  There’s been a serious lack of creativity.

We are regressing when it comes to entertainment.  We’re recycling old shows and old movies.  Old shows from the 70’s and 80’s and 90’s are being rehashed.  Some even have the original actors coming back for more, while the rest are just recast with slight tweaks.  The folks in the CW just can’t seem to help but remake old characters with different ethnicities and sexual preferences.  I don’t have a problem with the diversity, but, come on guys.  Really?  You can’t create all-new diverse characters to work with the established ones?

How many times do we need to re-cast and re-tell the origin stories of superheroes like Spider-Man and Batman and Superman?  How many times do we need to re-set and re-boot “Lost in Space” and the “Fantastic Four” and the “X-Men” and “Godzilla” and “Friday the 13^th” and “Halloween”?

Warner Brothers recently announced that they would be doing a third sequel to the twenty-year old “Matrix” series, featuring two of the principle characters that were killed off during the last movie.  Why?  Why go back to a series that was ended and the storyline finished?

Do you know what made the “Matrix” stand out twenty years ago?  Cutting-edge effects and a creative story that challenged the mind.  It was original.  Trying to go back to that today, two decades later, would not be original.  It would not be creative.  Warner Brothers shouldn’t be trying to get back to the “Matrix”.  They should be looking for the next creative idea that would replace the “Matrix”.

Let’s get brutally honest here... we need to encourage more creativity in life, not rewarding people looking for attention.

I’ve been doing online columns for over twenty years.  I’ve been doing fan-made comics for ten years.  Yeah, I wanted this to be my financial future, but I’d rather have people read my work and appreciate it than just doing stupid things to get attention. I would rather be respected for my creativity than make a paycheck making an ass out of myself just to get attention.

And we see those kinds of people every day.  They’re the people we see on TV and the Internet and we ask why the hell they’re doing it.  Well, we know why.  It’s about the attention.  We have a president making an ass of himself, and an army of soothsayers and enablers making asses out of themselves justifying his asinine antics.  Why?  Because getting attention is just as addictive as being creative.

We are better when we are creative.  When we showcase our talents instead of just getting our names in the media.  When history looks back at someone like Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the near-future, they’re going to see an actor and filmmaker.  Someone who creates.  Not someone in the media making an ass of himself.  Compare that to the people you see in the gossip section all the time.  Which group would you rather be remembered in?