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World of Design: The Lost Art of Making Things Up
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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8122398" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>And if that were the only or even the most important point made, I would agree with you. But the core point made, every time the fear of new media arises, is that the new media are <em>simply bad</em>. Writing makes us incapable of thinking, because it causes us to only interact with dead ideas, not living ones. Mass access to paper makes us incapable of communicating in the classroom, as we dirty ourselves with chalk dust and use a consumable medium. The radio makes us disconnect from each other, the television makes us incapable of envisioning things, the calculator makes us incapable of doing math, the computer makes us incapable of <em>creative thought itself</em>.</p><p></p><p>Once you strip out that core point of the above article, what remains? The whole introduction (and final conclusion) is that modern media<em> atrophies imagination</em>. What other possible point could there be to the statement: "When we stop using our imagination, we are no longer “thinking” but only “seeing” – processing information instead of creating it"? The only possible point that could remain is, "Using tools (e.g. visual media, 3D modelling, etc.) <em>changes</em> the way we think." But this is vacuous; of course the presence of <em>more sensory information</em> is going to change the kinds of thoughts we have. If it didn't, we would be insensate in both senses of the word: incapable of observing, and incapable of thinking.</p><p></p><p>Either the OP's point is just <em>wrong</em>, because new media <em>do not</em> atrophy imagination, or it is <em>vacuous,</em> because ALL new things change how we think, media or otherwise.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Actually, it is quite with doubt that it has impacted our <strong>ability</strong> to remember things. The only thing you can say without doubt is that it has affected our <em>desire</em> to remember specific kinds of things instead of others. Having the written word, audio and later video recording, etc. has changed how we <em>evaluate</em> things for remembering. But we still have astounding women and men memorizing things, both written and spoken. Consider how much of a badge of honor it is among nerds like us (who play TTRPGs) to memorize Monty Python sketches--which are almost exclusively memorized from their sound, not the written words (not least because comedic timing in the spoken word is very different from the written one).</p><p></p><p></p><p>Seeing as how the author never mentioned social media, and was instead talking about visual aids and video games, this feels more like you have read a number of meanings into the text that may not actually be present.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I'm honestly not sure why you'd think that. Consider the creative uses of touchscreen elements (Nintendo DS), the rise of indie gaming with a variety of creative concepts (<em>Minecraft</em>; Supergiant Games' <em>Transistor</em> and <em>Pyre</em>; trans-genre games like <em>Crypt of the NecroDancer</em>), and even here at home in the TTRPG world, the creative design that's gone into relatively recent things like Apocalypse World (and all its PbtA children) and 13th Age (what with its Escalation Die, OUTs, and solutions to other thorny design questions).</p><p></p><p>Our--humanity's--art is not conformist on the whole. We are just as vibrant and creative today as we have ever been. You just have to know where to look--and be willing to consider things as art that maybe you wouldn't have five, ten years ago. Yes, there is a frustrating tendency from <em>mass media markets</em> to pander to nostalgia, but there has <em>always</em> been such a tendency as long as there have been people to pine for works of an earlier time. Yes, there's tons of shovelware and derivative crap....because, again, there always has been as long as there have been people to make things, we just have many many times more people to make them, AND many more of the people we have now have a chance to actually make something.</p><p></p><p><em>This</em> is why I dismiss the OP's article. Not out of chronological snobbery--"oh, he's just repeating an <em>ancient Greek</em> idea, how <em>quaint!</em>"--but because the core point has <em>always</em> been fallacious, creativity and new media have never been the death of any part of our ability to do, and be, what is human as implied here. They have led to change, yes, and adapting to that change can take time. But none of these things gives credence to the idea that the youth have been <em>corrupted</em> and <em>atrophied</em> by the new tools and ideas that arose after the OP grew up.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 8122398, member: 6790260"] And if that were the only or even the most important point made, I would agree with you. But the core point made, every time the fear of new media arises, is that the new media are [I]simply bad[/I]. Writing makes us incapable of thinking, because it causes us to only interact with dead ideas, not living ones. Mass access to paper makes us incapable of communicating in the classroom, as we dirty ourselves with chalk dust and use a consumable medium. The radio makes us disconnect from each other, the television makes us incapable of envisioning things, the calculator makes us incapable of doing math, the computer makes us incapable of [I]creative thought itself[/I]. Once you strip out that core point of the above article, what remains? The whole introduction (and final conclusion) is that modern media[I] atrophies imagination[/I]. What other possible point could there be to the statement: "When we stop using our imagination, we are no longer “thinking” but only “seeing” – processing information instead of creating it"? The only possible point that could remain is, "Using tools (e.g. visual media, 3D modelling, etc.) [I]changes[/I] the way we think." But this is vacuous; of course the presence of [I]more sensory information[/I] is going to change the kinds of thoughts we have. If it didn't, we would be insensate in both senses of the word: incapable of observing, and incapable of thinking. Either the OP's point is just [I]wrong[/I], because new media [I]do not[/I] atrophy imagination, or it is [I]vacuous,[/I] because ALL new things change how we think, media or otherwise. Actually, it is quite with doubt that it has impacted our [B]ability[/B] to remember things. The only thing you can say without doubt is that it has affected our [I]desire[/I] to remember specific kinds of things instead of others. Having the written word, audio and later video recording, etc. has changed how we [I]evaluate[/I] things for remembering. But we still have astounding women and men memorizing things, both written and spoken. Consider how much of a badge of honor it is among nerds like us (who play TTRPGs) to memorize Monty Python sketches--which are almost exclusively memorized from their sound, not the written words (not least because comedic timing in the spoken word is very different from the written one). Seeing as how the author never mentioned social media, and was instead talking about visual aids and video games, this feels more like you have read a number of meanings into the text that may not actually be present. I'm honestly not sure why you'd think that. Consider the creative uses of touchscreen elements (Nintendo DS), the rise of indie gaming with a variety of creative concepts ([I]Minecraft[/I]; Supergiant Games' [I]Transistor[/I] and [I]Pyre[/I]; trans-genre games like [I]Crypt of the NecroDancer[/I]), and even here at home in the TTRPG world, the creative design that's gone into relatively recent things like Apocalypse World (and all its PbtA children) and 13th Age (what with its Escalation Die, OUTs, and solutions to other thorny design questions). Our--humanity's--art is not conformist on the whole. We are just as vibrant and creative today as we have ever been. You just have to know where to look--and be willing to consider things as art that maybe you wouldn't have five, ten years ago. Yes, there is a frustrating tendency from [I]mass media markets[/I] to pander to nostalgia, but there has [I]always[/I] been such a tendency as long as there have been people to pine for works of an earlier time. Yes, there's tons of shovelware and derivative crap....because, again, there always has been as long as there have been people to make things, we just have many many times more people to make them, AND many more of the people we have now have a chance to actually make something. [I]This[/I] is why I dismiss the OP's article. Not out of chronological snobbery--"oh, he's just repeating an [I]ancient Greek[/I] idea, how [I]quaint![/I]"--but because the core point has [I]always[/I] been fallacious, creativity and new media have never been the death of any part of our ability to do, and be, what is human as implied here. They have led to change, yes, and adapting to that change can take time. But none of these things gives credence to the idea that the youth have been [I]corrupted[/I] and [I]atrophied[/I] by the new tools and ideas that arose after the OP grew up. [/QUOTE]
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