Miscellaneous Monday - Use your imagination

[Barbara Szczesniak]

20+ years ago, my about 7 years old nephew was glued to his Nintendo Game Boy, playing some extremely important game involving moving nothing more than a few fingers.

Trying to get him to do something more active, we had this exchange:

Me: "You know, when I was your age, we didn't have Game Boys."

Him: (gasp) "What did you do?"

Me: "We used our imagination."

Him: "Oh. And you pretended you had Game Boys?"

So sad (and I fear that it hasn't gotten any better since). When I was a kid, we had 3 television channels and were kept blissfully unaware of what was happening in the wider world. We made up games and stories to entertain ourselves and others.

Where would we be today without the imagination of such people as Walt Disney, the Brothers Grimm, Dr Seuss, and Thomas Edison? What if Martin Luther King Jr. never had a dream? (yes, today is Martin Luther King Day in the US) 

Yesterday was National Imagination Day. Where do you see the state of (non-AI-related) imagination today? How do you/can we foster imagination in young people today?

via GIPHY

Happy Monday, all. Hope it's a great week.

[Andy Gladstone]

Great prompt @Barbara Szczesniak I didn't know that yesterday was National Imagination Day, so thank you for teaching me about it.

I fear that imagination is on the decline, which may be why innovation seems to be as well. Today we are inundated with images and ideas that are already so vivid and alive that it has stolen our ability to imagine beyond these artificial boundaries. It used to be that you could read a book and picture all of the scenery and characters as you wanted. But now so many books become films. What did I think a Hobbit or Gandalf looked like before Peter Jackson's version? Toys are no longer for imaginative play, they have specific uses. With the increase of AI generated content I am afraid that imagination will suffer even further.

We all need to disconnect from the plethora of screens and inputs we are inundated with and get back to the basics so we can rebuild these pathways in our brains.

[Barbara Szczesniak]

I know what you mean, @Andy Gladstone. I have been hesitant to see any movies based on my beloved fantasy novels since the first Dune movie. (The exception being the 1st Harry Potter movie, when I learned I had been mispronouncing Hermione in my head for 4 books!)

The number of TV shows and movies that are remakes, sequels, or continuations of old ideas speaks to the lack of imagination. 

I'm not sure how we can get our younger generations back on the path, but they do say that the first step is recognizing the problem.

[John Funk]

Kids love to role play and create "performances"! We were at some friends last weekend and their 5 year old daughter was bursting at the seams to do a song and dance show for us. Encourage that as much as possible - especially with groups of kids. 

[Barbara Szczesniak]

I'm glad to hear all is not lost, @John Funk. I don't spend too much time with young kids these days, but I remember my nieces and nephews putting together shows to entertain the adults every Christmas when they were young. 

[Tomislav Tobijas _Koios_]

This threw me back in time a bit - I just remembered how much I loved chilling on my backyard swing, listening to music, and coming up with cool ideas (I’ve always enjoyed building things).

As you grow up, I guess it becomes harder and harder to find time for yourself, especially as you're surrounded with numerous sources of information ('screens') which just draw your attention.

These days, I'd say I'm still innovative but it's less about pure imagination and more about 'scraping' ideas from what's out there and piecing those together.

Reading this reminded me of how much I missed feeling of reading a book or just putting on the headphones and gazing at the stars 🌠 

I've just decided that one of my personal goals for this spring will be visiting the local library, getting myself a book and just detach myself from everything for at least a couple of hours a week. So, thanks for inspiration @Barbara Szczesniak !

[Barbara Szczesniak]

Glad to have inspired you, @Tomislav Tobijas _Koios_. I read every day, but I do find myself playing games on my iPad when I could be reading. I think I'll try to reverse that a bit.

[Amanda Barber]

I always loved seeing the imagination of my students when I was teaching kindergarten. I was fortunate to have play time built into every day with a wide variety of options for kiddos. My favorite area (which was luckily right by my teacher table) was the block corner - the kids were so inventive. 

While my own kiddos are on screens more, sometimes more than I'd prefer, I do think they still find ways to show their creativity. They make movies and music, as well as art on their iPads!

Thanks for this great post, and it was interesting to read about National Imagination Day, @Barbara Szczesniak! 

[Barbara Szczesniak]

Thanks, @Amanda Barber. I'm glad to know kids are finding ways to be creative with devices—my nephew used to play a game where he designed amusement parks.

When my stepson was 3 (before there were devices), he would insist that I tell him a story, rather than read him a story, so I guess he was trying to foster my imagination. 

[Shawn Doyle - ReleaseTEAM]

I would say the creation of AI required a lot of imagination. 

[Barbara Szczesniak]

@Shawn Doyle - ReleaseTEAM, I'm sure it did. I think maybe it was spawned from the imagination of Isaac Asimov.

I'm still not sure how I feel about AI. Like most other technology, it can do great good and great harm. Recently, I have been trying to figure out how to set my devices not to use it automatically. I don't want to use extra electricity for a possibly incorrect answer to a question.