TV And Mobile Use Is Exploding And It's Killing Our Creativity And Innovation

In a previous post, I laid out a number of ways your mobile device is killing your creativity and innovation. There is something strange that happens when we tune out and turn on our devices and gaze at them all day: we are less present for the moment, more susceptible to advertisements and consumption, and more interested in how we appear to others than being becoming who we uniquely are.

But how much time are we spending on media? And how often are we using our devices? Are we spending more time or less time?

In a report by Adweek, US adults are spending an entire hour more on media than last year. This is based on the recently released Total Audience Report by Nielson.com, which shows, among other things, that TV viewing remains on the rise. A large contributor to this is the rise of Netflix and the way it has changed how TV is watched. And with the success of a number of Netflix's original series, others, like Amazon for example, are getting into the biz too.

Another study done, reported in the Daily Mail, shows that the average mobile phone user touches his/her device 2,617 times per day--that's over 1 million times per year! The study was done by dscout, covering the phone usage of 94 Android users. On the heavy side, people were tapping their phones over 5,000 times per day. The average phone sessions per day were 76. The heaviest use is between 7am and dinner time, with heavy users still interacting with them past 3AM. Only 3 apps were responsible, on average, for phone use, with Facebook as the most common, followed by text messaging.

What does this research tell us? For one, we are growing more obsessed with media, especially TV and Facebook. The problem with increased TV use is it is known by experts to be the lowest brain-stimulating activity--lower than using the toilet. When we watch TV, we zone out--what it's intended to do. As TV viewing continues to grow each year, our collective creative output diminishes. This is a problem because the times we are living in are demanding more creativity from all of us. With Netflix, the ability to binge-watch shows is enhanced: you don't have to do a thing but ride the hookah-wave of televisual phenomena, which means you are more likely to spend more time watching it, rather than doing things that will actually stimulate your brain and new ideas. And while Huffington Post tries to tell you that watching TV can make you happier, we know that we are happiest when we are in flow and creating and stimulating our minds, which TV does an overall lows job at.

The problem with increased access to Facebook is that people are becoming more obsessed with what others are doing and spending more time posting content that they think others will like. How can one become a unique individual when so concerned about putting on a prefect image for others? We know that Facebook leads to heightened levels of dissatisfaction and despair--this is not freedom, and certainly not the freedom one needs to grow in one's unique talents and gifts.