I just love that we try to be on the same page, David. Life is about human connections don’t you think? If the web is the way to do that then I’m all for it. These conversations validate the essence of human thought. “What are people thinking about?” It’s the glue that holds our society together whether it informs marketing strategies for Google or ideas for putting meaning into music.

Life is all about balance…the Ying and the Yang. I have no doubt you have demonstrated balance in your life! We all know how stretched you are and how gadgets can take over our lives:-) However, the World Wide Web allows us to be creative in ways that we never thought. I enjoy that “Freedom” as well. It’s a wonderful thing. I can get past all the “noise” to get what I want because I am offered a choice in what I seek out. (Although that is another topic altogether). (Reading “Search” by John Battelle at the moment):-) The only problem is that creativity can be lost if we are only fostering someone else’s dream and not getting off our butts and creating something of our own. You inspire me to do that and I thank you

P.S. Congratulations on reaching 5000! You most definitely must feel the love XO

I think it makes us more creative. I look at the web as a good way to share information, tons of information.

Some of my hobbies are fueled by things I’ve seen online. My Chinese brush painting instructor has a website, and I loved his work so much that I started taking lessons with him (I suck as a painter, but I enjoy it and it lets me explore my creative side a bit). I also make beaded jewellery, and sometimes get ideas for pieces from other people’s work, posted online.

I find it pretty easy to block out the junk…I try to be as specific as possible when searching for info online, and pretty much ignore ads and pop-ups (hate pop-ups!). Mind you, I also get very distracted when I go online, drifting all over the place and wasting time but that’s my own fault!

yvette: “Life is all about balance…the Ying and the Yang.”
i think that says it all.

the power of ‘freedom’ through the world wide web is so invaluable.

the web make you more creative or is it all just noise? it is just how we choose.

we have to control and keep the balance. you are so inspiring as well, david. thank you for that. ^^

The net is a double-edged sword for most people. Sometimes it feeds creativity and sometimes it steals it by wasting time. I agree that it’s all about balance and having to decide how we spend our time. It takes self-discipline to walk away from the screen sometimes because I know I can waste hours just hopping from site to site via links that interest me. Time flies by without me noticing it and I hate that.

I love how the web gives me the freedom to explore art, music, film and ideas from other cultures. It’s wonderful to be able to learn about other cultures from speaking with the people that actually live in them, too. Communication and education are good things and tear down barriers bewtween people. A lot of good comes from that, I think.

I do find that I can be inspired online, but I also find I need fresh air, sunshine, face to face time with people and solitude to feed my creative side as well. Whether we like it or not it all comes down to priorities and dealing with the balancing act daily.

I find it very difficult to manage my time online and not online. Look at me right now. Reading a blog when I should be practicing my instrument or catching up on reading for class.

The benefits of the technology are incredible, be it my Indian Classical music professor playing clips of live performances by famous Indian artists on youtube in class, or the mp3 file I emailed to my pop music history prof to accompany my paper this morning. Technology is [a] necessary [evil].
What I mean by this is that for some people, myself included, the most common tendency IS to use the new technology as a means of distraction…as you said. It’s not just about finding balance. It’s about personal control in order to maintain the balance. Then another important universal question arises: how do you motivate an unmotivated person (like myself) to take that control?

I like that you are getting me and people thinking about this kind of stuff. Cool blog, David Usher, I have bookmarked it.

To relate this back to one of your previous posts, I think the overload you’re talking about is one of the reasons walled gardens like facebook are so popular. You approve the friends/applications you want, and then information from and about them just sort of flows past you. It’s a little spot of calm in an information tempest.

Personally, I find it very hard to balance my time. Today is a particularly bad day for balance as I have spent hours on the computer. Sometimes it feeds to my creativity (ie: finding cool songs to cover), sometimes I get caught up reading about someone else’s tragedy and sometimes I read nonsense to amuse myself like Perez Hilton. Once I get caught up in it, I find it very hard to break away. And then the headache begins!
So to answer your question, it’s a bit of both. And I need to work on my balance. Thanks for bringing it to my attention! Hello, my name is Noelle and I’m a computer junkie. I’m ready to take my first step and close the computer.

i am by no means an artist because always there is a small part inside of me that wants to keep things hidden. that said i think a true artist creates for the public and searching for that third eye as recognition. freedom of the web allows access to this, yes i agree. one that creates reaches a certain point i think they stop caring and give more than they hang onto. people sell their art indirectly as soon as it is created and given an opinion. caring becomes ten-fold. to me technology exploits this breakdown, there is too much a fine line that many believe as balance between how you are perceived and who you really are almost as if you are playing your own character. it is sad the hours i spend on the computer looking into another’s life and caring a lot when time is so valuable..but i guess that is like many things we do. compartmentalizing helps but one step out of context worries me. sometimes i think there is almost too much freedom, need and want doesn’t always meet up to make sense like when reading a book in the final paradox. i think an artist seeks answers and after so many are offered we forget the question. i love art don’t get me wrong but remembering a time i didn’t think about who i am i was more myself.

I think the web does offer so much, and because it is a universal and anonymous (to a certain extent, and even perhaps because it is somewhat distant) space, we are free to create and express and showcase our works and reach a larger audience. With this freedom, we break down barriers to creativity.

I believe, like anything else, we have a choice to moderate what we take in to prevent the noise. Noise is just anything that distract and not please us. But then, what is one man’s poison is another man’s treasure, even if probably everyone don’t like spam. The web could be addictive and any addiction becomes more of an escapism than a connection, and we must be careful of that, because when that happens, we lose touch with our creativity and our presence in ourselves and in the moment.

I do think yes, the web encourages creativity.

i think that the web does not make you creative entirely, at least not always. it can let you access to a lot of information that could spark or add to one’s creativity though. i think that the web has more capability as a post-production kind of tool. at least in my opinion.

I took a psychology course on creativity last fall, and having that in mind I think that the web would not have so great an influence on the creativity of an artist.

Creativity, for what I understand of it, comes from “within” the artist.

However, the web can certainly provide a lot of raw material from which one can get inspiration.

In my view, an other way to ask your question is how much information is too much, which information is really useful…and when should I stop surfing and get working?

It really all depends on how you balance your time — your life! If the internet is overtaking your life then it is time to take a breather. However, the internet is the way of the world for a new generation. It has opened doors for many, including celebrities such as yourself.

I can only speak from my own experience here and I can honestly state that if it wasn’t for the people that I have met on the Internet I would not have been able to do what I do everyday. I am sure of it, and what it has done is help build that creative spirit. I love and appreciate them eternally.

I used to get so pissed off at staff who left me piles of laundry for me to do on my next shift. I was getting snarly, but then I thought to myself how do I find the beauty, how can I do this with a smile, and it is hard to explain but in the piles, there is care, love, and passion. To me, it was in my attitude and to really think and realize this is Part Of It. It’s part of it. Escapism(to the office) means you are missing out on alot of the meaning and experience.

But, I know the balance for me is about love. If I am coming off the net looking pale and decrepit with big sacks under my eyes(and I have), chances are I was not where I was meant to be. I probably missed something, like a change in season.

David you’re so inspirational, you really make me think about things that I just go about doing. It’s awesome. It seems like technology takes up so much space and time in our lives. Information overload. They said that with computers it would make our lives so much easier and faster. Possibly, but it give us more time to occupy our time with more technology i.e. noise. It takes over. Have you ever thought about writing a book? I’m guessing that it would be very interesting.
By the way Happy Birthday. I hope you have a great one.

the web definitely leads to more creativity - it has the ability to inspire, to connect and to show that the possibilities are endless.

I’d prefer an overload than an info-lack. one simple test-question(from a recent magazine issue): “Internet is a world at hand. What about you?
a) you’re afraid to lose your independence, using it too often;
b) you don’t trust to this info-exchanging without borders;
c) the opening perspectives make you enthusiastic;
d) you have no certain mind about this.”
I make no secret, I have chosen the ‘c’ answer; moreover the net is my only exit to contemporary world and I can hardly understand those, who is using it only for ICQ as a pager, while it opens such skyline?!
The net unites us (compare to the 18 century), anyone who wishes can join, this makes me so excited! it’s really worth!

I find the web gets in the way of my creativity. For me creativity comes when I’m alone in my own thoughts and the web is a little like being alone in other people’s thoughts.

It is excellent for educational purposes though. If one directed their searches well they could learn just about anything University has to offer without the tuition. For that it is amazing, a gift, but for creativity? Clouds the brain, distracts.

@ Sarah “ i think a true artist creates for the public and searching for that third eye as recognition.” - I have to disagree with you here, I don’t think art needs recognition. I think it needs to be simply something created from the imagination. I draw and paint, on the rare occasion when I hang a piece in my home (because sometimes I need to be reminded not to forget that side of myself) when asked, I lie to visitors about the source. First because I feel knowing too much about the source colours the opinion and the effect it has on the viewer. Second because for me it was art while I was creating it, I don’t need the recognition of others to validate my creative experience. Art is subjective whether people like or understand it doesn’t change what it is.

The web provides simple access to information and art (or of course a means to sell / distribute). It can only inspire if you spend time thinking about what you saw / learned. It’s in the thinking not the finding that creativity is born.

Noise. simply noise. I get lost very often. I look for my email, after i go there, i go there and there… 3 hours later, still on the computer.AARRGggg its a poison , an addiction. But oh well.. i can’t pass a day without at least 1 hour of internet. Even in vacation, i ask if the hotel have the net. My god… im wondering what i was doing before ’90’s’ ,, hehe.. So. its noise, but in the same time, it can help for artists. To express stuff, to be shown everywhere. Around the world at one place, at the same time.

@Elizabeth Louise: I’ll have to agree with you re:”I don’t need the recognition of others to validate my creative experience.” Creativity and art comes from the heart. When you start to create based on what others will think it can cloud your innate sense of creativity. The artist doesn’t always have to create for themselves but if they are always looking for recognition then they will often be disappointed. If an artist is satisfied with what they have created then there is value in that. Once the art is out there, however, the full intent no longer belongs to the creator. Meaning comes from the perception of the viewer (while the artist shakes his head and moves on to the next piece of work):-) As artists we all hope that the viewer “Gets It”, but sometimes it’s more fun to save that little piece of intent for yourself.

Thus “Cloudid”…kidding Happy 42nd Birthday David Usher! (or is it 24?) XO

Happy Birthday David…I didn’t know and I’m so glad to took a short look on your blog to see that! Have a nice day and let good things comes to you.
Voilà!
So, for me, creativity is not connected with Web…
It brings me informations, distractions, pleasure, frustrations and it gives me the chance to follow some interresting people interracting with art or not. The inspiration is latent inside me and don’t depend on internet…for me it’s just another media. I like it and I could hardly stop it(web surfing)but it’s harder to stop writing…this is my art. Someday, maybe you’ll read somethings came out from my head and lay down on a real book…with real pages,in your real hands,not on web!

So, I kiss you, specialy for today, an happy birthday kiss of course!
Lalou.

ElizabethLouise-I appreciate what you said regarding the comment I made, what I stated definitely was not an absolute. I wonder why you lie though, I also hang some of my art around my home and though I try not to get clouded with opinion I can’t help it, there is no way around objective. I heard somewhere that art is a love letter to God. I’ve hung onto that belief over time and possibly this is why I started to paint when I used to only write which is easier to keep hidden. After creating something it is open to critique even from yourself, just like we choose to make something meaningful to us we choose to let it go otherwise why would we create. Even if we do our best to keep it closest I honestly think there is that small part inside of us that wants someone to look. When I said a true artist is looking for recognition I was meaning they are ready for the world in a way and it is more difficult…almost against the grain which few people notice or care to understand because in the reality of it we love ourselves most. Too much feedback can help or hinder depending on the person, and getting back to topic even though this is the technology age I still think we are quite behind it and not ready for the masses as we like to think.

@ Sarah - Not sure why I lie about the source, but maybe because to me creatively is very personal, the soul naked. This is my time, my escape which I selfishly guard. Recognition also inevitably brings expectation which I find restricts future creativity. Much like the internet, recognition is more noise that gets in the way.

On the web I appreciate the opportunity to experience the creativity of others, but I feel it distracts from and hampers my own. Too much at once, I like things simple and still.

[...] this recent post, he asks “Does the web make you more creative or is it all just noise?” Here’s my [...]