Kids are less creative according to study

So you may of heard in the news what adults have been saying all along -
Kids are less creative and more narrow minded than in years past (aka. when you and I were kids).

The gist of the study says that since records were kept in 1970, kids are becoming progressively less creative, resulting in less unique and unsusual ideas as well as being less humorous, less imaginative, and less able to elaborate on ideas. The decline was especially noticeable starting in 1990s (I believe this is when pop music became really popular).

Of course, creative is an innate trait in humans, but researchers suggest that schools and parents are not properly nurturing creativity in kids (i.e. learning in school that there is only one correct answer to a problem.) Other factors like "Standardized Testing", schools focusing on ACT/SAT scores and GPAs, plus reducing or completely cutting out time on the playground contribute to the cause.

The test were done using what is called a "Torrance test". However, even by doing my own test - via analyzing the trends in pop-culture - I came to the same results:



Maybe our less creative younglings don't mind Justin Bieber songs containing only 3 lyrics because they can't imagine anything more creative?

So what do you think? Are kids not as creative as their predecessors or are we being too hard on them? Also, the study was done on American kids, but do you think the same is true for kids of other nationalities?

It's because of education and our societal status quo more than anything else. Subjects like english, history, mathematics are seen as top tier hierarchy subjects while arts, dance and theater are at the very bottom and look downed upon.

Relevant video is relevant;

I believe that the current education system(in the U.S. anyway) works very hard to deter creativity. it's more about 'shut up and sit still', to prepare people for their wage slave futures.

Well it really isnt a suprise. Kids these days are so dependant on tech it basicly turns them into addicts that are useless if they cant use it. I mean basic math and research skills are somthing that were EXTREMELY important when I was going to school, but now as long as a kid can use a calculator and google the teachers really dont care.

I personaly dont blame the teachers though, its the school boards that make the decisions that lead to teachers having to act like this. If you cut time and money you cant really expect the teachers to do as good a job as they did before.

Actually, I am not sure if children are becoming less creative. However, regardless of whether it is indeed the case, I suspect society plays a part. Nowadays, parents want their children to succeed, preferably by obtaining good grades in school. Time for other more relaxing activities may thus be limited.

On the other hand, children may wish to live up to the expectations placed upon them. By being creative, they could be going against the norm, and in return, shunned by others?

Back when I was in 9th grade my teachers taught me value in creative thinking, but some of my other teachers think otherwise... The point is, creative thinking also develops from how our teachers challenge us, and how well the teacher is at teaching.

hmmmmm I was born in the 90's, does that mean I'm uncreative. Also about the chart, Justine Bieber can die in a fire, Jersey Shore is a show about tools and sluts being tools and sluts, I don't even want to know what that cartoon is, and Dean Cook is about as funny as and egg salad sandwich(that's Dean Cook right?).

Also you should take a look to the Technological part, when i was a kid sure i had fun with my game boy but i also play with my friends outside and do MacGyver stuff with all kind of stuff, now my little cousins just turn on their laptops and stay all day long on all the network circles.

Part of it is the school system. With less emphasis on enjoying more recreational type of subjects, such as the arts and physical activity, the more structured sciences are making children seen things in a very concrete manner. It also happens because of the way sciences tend to be taught, in that this is the end all way to see things and don't question it. Well, how they are starting to be taught now anyways.

Another problem is that parents are limiting the amount of time that children can just be children, something crucial in them becoming more creative. Those silly games that children do with their friends are actually quite crucial into how creative they become as it drastically encourages them to use their creativity during some of the important mental development times of our lives.

So it's just a combination of factors limiting creative growth in children.

And the same thing was said by your grandfathers and their grandfather... your music/art/tv/games suck are rotting your brains. Yes the school system is at fault for prioritizing retarded level based merit tests more then individual learning, complex theories, and art. Anyone with a brain can pass the CBEST test or STAR whatever it called since it been 13 years since highschool. My senior year they started the research and testing phase of the high school graduation test... which all california student need to pass to get that diploma ( even the special needs kids aka the mentality retarded kids and slow kids.. that the scientific term for them so piss off)... i was high and did it half ass and passed 396 out of 450 and i wasn't even trying.

These test only measure how much you can remember from what they were teaching from the pretest... they fucking told you and made you study the actual answers for the test. I learned more on my own then the 3 years i spend in highschool( said fuck it and took the state exam for graduating early.) because my parents( when they fucking cared about me or my brother to give a shit) reading, learning new stuff and being independent from what they teach with understanding the otherside.

The reason the kids are fucking stupid is because no one is raising them outside of spongebob and xbox live. my brother has a example:
I raised this fuck since my mom was working and my dad was a ass, we're 9 years apart in age.(29 me and 20 him)
I taught him to count read and play Nintendo, and the little fucker could play it with the controller under upside down and whip my ass.
Made him do his homework before playing games and made him read a book... everyday.
He know pre algerba in the 3th grade.
Highschool reading level in the fourth grade.
Knew where the fuck Canada was in preschool(60%of high schoolers can't find it... i not even kidding).
Gate program
scholarship to college
accepted to the internship with the FBI and should be in training in 2013.

Why because i, mom and good teachers taught him... not because we wanted to, not because we're his family or student... because it the fucking right thing to do. Now my brother is a egoistical, racist ass hole with a whipped pussy attitude with his girlfriend who has his nuts in a jar in her bedroom... but i don't need to worry that he can't find a job or succeed in life, and i'm doing the same with my kids. Also a artist and teaching photography in school.

I have a hard time believing a lot of these kind of studies. There will most likely be another study next year that will say the opposite.

I really do not think kids nowadays are less creative than we were or that our parents were. They are still human beings, and they should have the same overall capacities. It's not like there was that much natural selection in one or two generations.

To me this feels like any generation raging the newest/youngest generation. I hear that all the time and I always think it's stupid. My parent's generation think that my generation are lazy-ass people that always complain and can't get anything done. I'm in the twenties now and I always see people complaining about kids nowadays.

I'm not sure when this continuous bitching about younger people come from. I think it must be some sort of jealousy for not being young anymore, or for wishing to have access to the same technology.

Which is ironic since it is the spirit of science to question everything.

I'd also say the education system is to blame. The way I see it, education system nowadays is nothing more than a system to mass-produce wage slaves. We're forcing them to know all the things not to develop their minds, it is because vessels are needed to get the damn work done. It's also reflected in the attitude of most teachers nowadays. They're product of the same system and in turn, they're teaching just to get it over with. Nowadays we can rarely find teachers who become teachers purely because they want to teach anymore. It's a job no different than clerk or factory worker, people do it just to put a meal on their tables.

I love this dilbert strip, it profoundly describes what the school system does, and why it won't get fixed.

Well, the study doesn't say that kids are less capable of being creative. Like you said, "They are still human beings, and they should have the same overall capacities."

The problem is when compared to previous generations, they use and display their creativity less (the same being true for previous generations as well).

I feel our imagination wants to create new things but if we take in too many new ideas we lose the desire to create so think entertainment media is to blame for any imagination lost.

I used to be really creative till I got the internet and now I find it a little tricky. I'm sure if I cut my self off from it it would help but I may as well try hold my breath.

If you don't develop something, or develop it to a lesser degree you will lose a good chunk of the ability, especially if you lack developement at a younger age.

Much like languages. Sure you can learn languages at any time of your life with work. But if you didn't get it properly developed at a younger age, you lose a lot of your ability for it and it becomes harder as you go along to be able to develop what you have. And you will never be as proficient as you would have been if you had learned it at a younger age.

Kids may be less creative nowadays, compared to the past, but I doubt entertainment has had much of an effect. For example:



Pop music didn't become popular in the 90s. It's been popular since the moment it came out, which was arguably the moment music as we know came into existence. But avoiding that potentially treacherous conversation, let's say that pop music started being popular in the 50s - which it did. It was popular in the 60s, the 70s, and the 80s, too. It was different from what is considered "pop music" nowadays, but there are a lot of similarities. For one thing, music and lyrics that aren't too crazy or intense or deep. Listen to "Daydream Believer" by The Monkees and tell me if it's more interesting or philosophical than Justin Beiber's latest song.

It's the same with most fields of entertainment. Movies from the 60s aren't more creative than movies from the 90s, games in the 80s weren't more complex than the stuff that came out last year, and literature didn't fall from grace in the 70s (some would argue that it happened before the 20th century even started).

It's not about what entertainment is popular; it's about how we think, and the current state of education plays a large role in that. If we think that a box can only have six sides, then we are limited and it is harder to move ahead in bold new ways; however, if we learn that a box can have seven, eight, or eleven sides, then we can think outside the box (pun intended) and see things that are unusual and stray from the norm.

Public education, with its focus on standardized tests, is telling kids that a box can only have six sides, because when you're talking a test, there has to be an answer. At least, if you want a test that's easy to grade. But when every school in the country is taking the same test, you can't have in-depth essay questions. It'd take forever to grade them, and you can't set a machine to sort through essay answers and decide if a student has the right idea or the wrong idea.

I do not believe that kids are less creative now than ever. This is because while you may look at the mainstream view of ORDINARY children lacking in creativity, there are many faucets of creativity found in those not mentioned.You must understand that creativity was never viewed as anything important by the mass until now where we strive to find every fault in our neo-syncretic system. So do not think that there is less of it, its not meant to be found.

20 minutes of my life well spent. Thanks for sharing the video

Kids today are bloody morons.
When i started my secondary school, everything was alright, and then each year the new kids got more and more retarded.
Now working on the cash tills, I get retarded kids coming in who can't even add up the sweet prices. The prices comes to £1.33 or something and they put up £1. I kinda stare at them for a bit, thinking "Are you fucking kidding", but saying "I'm afraid you don't have enough money". And these kids aren't that young. They are definately more stupid.

In terms of creativity, they are definately more uselss...I can't remember the example I found recently, but I definately said to some kid "try using your imagination" and then sighed. When I was a kid, I used to pretend all the time and make up my own stories. Heck, the funniest game I played was called 'drunk and drugged animals'. I was always the giraffe who's legs had finally given into the heroine lol. I had toys to play with, but I always put them into action and create my own little fantasy world. My childhood was the pinnacle of creativity, but these kids now are just dense in so many ways!
I have more creativity in my finger than a kid of today does. Sure I've seen some polite kids that I think are just awesome for at least trying to raise the bar for their generation, but it's sad that they have to grow up with the nation of slow kids >:{
/rant