Celebrated creative Amy Kean has issued a warning to everyone involved in a creative pursuit: social media trends and the need for peer approval are killing creativity.
“Any kind of social media trend kills creativity. And the marketing industry’s obsession with trends year-on-year or on TikTok is actually making everyone less creative,” she told B&T editor Tom Fogden following her standout keynote session at Cairns Crocodiles, presented by Pinterest.
Kean’s session in Cairns focused on the need for what she termed ‘weirdism’, the idea that in order for society to move forward creatively, it is essential for people to be deliberately weird.
“This idea of average and normal has been used as a stick to beat us with in work and life,” Kean said on stage.
“The only good thing is that there’s always been rebels. Throughout history and culture, there’s always been people who have done things to be weird on purpose because they thought the culture needed it.”
Those pioneering weirdos included Salvador Dali, Lady Gaga (particularly so with her meat dress), David Lynch, the Spice Girls, Monty Python and more.
Social media, Kean said in her interview, is making creatives (and the wider population) think for themselves less and making everyone obsessed with peer approval.
The end point of this phenomenon, according to Kean, is “complete homogeneity”.
“Everyone talking the same way, doing the same thing, doing the same dances, using the same words until we’re all just one horrible world of the same,” she said.
