18 Creativity

You might already be sensing that the process of self-exploration described above is a creative one, as it most definitely is. Writing your observations and thoughts and how they relate to other observations and thoughts can ignite your imagination and expand the possibilities of what you can accomplish—personally, academically, professionally, and creatively.

In so many ways, as modern humans, we are consumers, probably more so than we ever have been in the whole of human history. And in the information age, we consume media and information more than ever before. Every day, we consume texts, email messages, television and radio programming, YouTube videos, movies, music, social media, print media, advertisements, and more, and the current rate of media consumption doesn’t appear to be slowing anytime soon.

But you need to possess some writing skills in order to move beyond the consumer status to become someone who produces ideas and media of your own. Writing is one way that you can make sure that your voice is heard among all the other voices in that media stream. Writing not only helps you make sense of the information that you consume, it also helps you develop and shape those ideas in a way that makes them useful, entertaining, or thought provoking for others.