Do you consider yourself to be a creative?
Artwork by Timo Kuilder
I believe people struggle with this identity because it’s not as simple as stating a fact. I’m 20 years old, I am a UNCW Communication Studies major, I’m an extrovert, I love dogs: these are easy. Saying you are a creative goes deeper than that. Being a creative, to me, is recognizing that you have a mind different from any other mind in this entire world. It is realizing that you are possibly the only person who has had those thoughts and all you want to do is bring your unique ideas to life. Your idea may be a brilliant plan for creating support and understanding amongst the people in your company, or arranging the pieces within a room in a new way to promote a more peaceful atmosphere. Your idea could be filming a documentary to promote awareness around an important cause or even producing a work of art from your imagination. Merriam Webster even describes the term with the example of “managing to get around legal or conventional limits”. Being a creative, or innovator, doesn’t entail being any sort of genius like Albert Einstein, Salvador Dali, or Steve Jobs. In fact, I think a lot of people are creatives who don’t even realize it.
I love the definition Tanner Christensen wrote for Creative Something’s blog. It states,”Being creative means solving a problem in a new way. It means changing your perspective. Being creative means taking risks and ignoring doubt and facing fears. I means breaking with routine and doing something different for the sake of doing something different.”
After a quick scan of the internet, I quickly saw that many people have an issue with the term “creative” as a noun. There are the people who claim that the word ends in –ive, logically making it an adjective. Then, there are the people saying it is unfair to describe others who get around the law or incorporate a new business plan as being on the same level creatively as an artist.
To argue the first point, speaking as a creative, I am going to reiterate the fact that I prefer to think outside the box. Under my circumstances, and grammar rules aside, (because what rules are made not to broken) the term creative is perfectly just. I believe that while language is used to communicate and understand, language is also used to illustrate. If the term “creative” as a noun better represents what I am describing, then that is the term I will use.
As for the second kind of person against the noun—the people who believe it is unfair to categorize others as possessing the same level of creativity as artists. Well, I realized most of these people are artists. Maybe they’re prideful of being more creative in their eyes than people of other professions. Maybe they are greedy and want to claim all terms relating to creativity as their own. To all those artists: I thank you for your work and love what you do, but I personally, do not believe that is the only kind of creativity.
If you still disagree with me and believe creative should stay in its place as an adjective, then I guess we will have to agree to disagree. No matter what you believe about the actual word, I think we can all agree that these types of people are important. We need more people in the world who will speak up and generate new outlooks. I want people to test my views, move me to see things I have alway looked at in a new light. No two people are alike and in a world with so many minds, nothing should be impossible. We have been taught throughout history that conformity is not the answer and the world is in desperate need of open minds and new perspectives. That is your cue creatives. I challenge you to ask yourself what makes you unique, what new ideas can you bring to the table and what are you inspired to create?
Artwork by Gökhan Kodalak
-Claira Carnevale
First of all, I love the artwork choices and I think they did a great job conveying your message. Secondly, I love your argument. In communication studies, we consider words as “symbols” and the symbol of the term “creative” is very clearly defined in your post. I had never thought of the term “creative” as a noun as a controversy, and it was really cool to learn about. The inclusion of grammar rules being meant to be broken was also pretty clever :). I am glad that you consider yourself a creative, and I really loved this post! Great Job!
I agree with you in the sense that creative could sometimes be a word hard to use. “I am a creative” is surely hard to prove. In my culture, there is a certain stigma with saying that you are creative. It usually means that people expect more of you when you voice your opinion. If you say something mediocre, people would think that you are arrogant to even think of yourself as a creative. I agree when you say that people sometimes mix up being creative and being a genius. There should be no stigma towards trying new things and not going in the traditional direction. The stigma is what is holding back people in my culture to be more vocal about their ideas, which eventually shreds down self-confidence. Everyone can truly be a creative. Even if not everyone cures cancer.
I think that this article was done very well. I consider myself as creative. A big part of my personality is to think about new ways of doing things. I work very closely with the entrepreneurship center and have tried to start 3 different business with different patients. I constantly think that I have to be the only person in the world that has had this idea. I never stop trying to be creative, thinking about new ways to do something. It’s a very important part of who we are, everyone is creative in their own way.
I agree with this article in the fact that the word creative is often looked at in an obscure way. Society is advancing in knowledge through technology and being more open-minded as people than thousands of years ago. With that said I agree when the article talks about not being “creative” enough or being scared to share creativity because we think it must be an abstract thought or look. To further relate creativity, if you look at the fashion industry or even the art industry many designers and artists take the word “creativity” and expand the horizons so far that the “average” person feels as though they cannot not compare or relate. In terms of creative thinking and ideas I feel there is a more approachable balance that can be reached. I also agree that instead of looking at the word creative as a dramatic concept or action, our society should feel comfortable and open to sharing new ideas and ways of thinking because overall there are no wrong answers when it comes to creativity. It is all how the individual looks at it.
COM 231 – Response – Jess Kelly
I agree with this article in the fact that the word creative is often looked at in an obscure way. Society is advancing in knowledge through technology and being more open-minded as people than thousands of years ago. With that said I agree when the article talks about not being “creative” enough or being scared to share creativity because we think it must be an abstract thought or look. To further relate creativity, if you look at the fashion industry or even the art industry many designers and artists take the word “creativity” and expand the horizons so far that the “average” person feels as though they cannot not compare or relate. In terms of creative thinking and ideas I feel there is a more approachable balance that can be reached. I also agree that instead of looking at the word creative as a dramatic concept or action, our society should feel comfortable and open to sharing new ideas and ways of thinking because overall there are no wrong answers when it comes to creativity. It is all how the individual looks at it.
I think this post is spot-on. For the longest time, I did not consider myself creative. My reasoning for no categorizing myself as creative was because I have not always done the same things as the creative people around me. Recently, I’ve realized that there is not a specific action or result that must be achieved in order to be considered creative. Ultimately, creativity is using original ideas (something each person contains), and creating something that is your own. The more I think about it, the process of how things are created is just important as the final product that is created.
I thought your take on creativity is very interesting. I never thought that being creative was that you have entirely different, and unique ideas and beliefs than any other individual in the world. I’ve always thought creativity was exploring your own mind and ideas and pushing the limits of those ideas. Yours it is a cool and creative take on creativity.
Personal identity is hard describe at any point in time because its a never ending process. People grow and change through experiences and perspective. Creativity can mean a million different things to any one individual but I think you’ve done a great job of explaining it’s place in society today. I agree that there’s a definite link between creativity and identity, as our own individual ideas are what set us apart from one another.