Tweeting, Bleating, and Creating

IF A TWITTERER reads a tweet, and notices that said tweet has accumulated beaucoup likes, the twitterer is far more likely to follow suit and hit the like button. A twitterer whose tweet attracts likes is far more likely to like other tweets. Those who are well liked, tweetfully speaking, like others. The reverse is also true, research reveals. Unliked tweets are more likely to be unliked by, guess who - you. And when our own tweets are not liked, guess what you do? You do unto others as others have done unto you, or tend to, and you like other tweets not. There exists a massive Instagram culture in which thirteen and fourteen year old girls send selfies to one another, and praise each other lavishly on her good looks. Failure to give praise elicits a failure to receive it, and rudeness has occurred. This occurs with or without make up, regardless of hair color or style, facial expression, and regardless of whether any particular girl in question is actually attractive, or has mud spread all over her face. mutual reinforcement, positive and negative. On Facebook, a word which seems undeserving of capitalization, if one posts a picture of one's home, one's friends, real and in name only, start posting up with domiciles. When I send an email to a friend, invariably I receive a response of almost exactly the same length, exuding the same basic attitude. I don't often get emails unless I send one first. We already knew that humans mimic and reciprocate, now we know that this trait is reinforced and exacerbated by the internet. Primates perpetuate culture norms by mimicry. Cultural context informs and inspires the individual, providing the basis for individual creative enterprise. But creativity, ultimately, is a solitary activity, as all writers, painters, and musicians know. Our neighbors give us the basic tools, but in order to make an original contribution, we must go off by ourselves, use what we have leaned from others, and break free of that knowledge, that we might recombine it in our own very special way. Einstein said that he had had only two original ideas in his entire life, and that his scientific knowledge had yielded practical results beneficial to others only one or two times. He said he had mentioned to his wife that liver cannot be cooked by boiling it, because the boiling point of water is less than the temperature required to cook liver. Surely, his wife was grateful, and Einstein might have saved himself an upset stomach. Tweet away to your heart's content, and watch all the mindless television you want. but, in the back of your mind, where your thoughts are most fertile, your creativity lives, and it lives nowhere else. the next time you visit a zoo, and you find yourself being imitated by a chimpanzee, smile, but turn your head before you do. You wouldn't want to stifle anyone's creativity.