Disentangling the Link between Creativity and Technology Use: Individual Differences in Smartphone and Social Media (Over)Use

Abstract

The recent years have seen a dramatic surge in the use of smartphones and social media, with the latter likely to be a driving force for smartphone use disorder (SmUD) tendencies. Smartphones are popularly perceived to suppress creativity by occupying moments of free thought and stealing time from developing new ideas. This paper contributes to the ongoing debate by providing a concise overview of contradictory literature findings, followed by presenting new data. In a sample of N = 509, self-rated creative self-efficacy (CSE) was inversely related to SmUD tendencies and, in subgroups of different sizes, to messenger overuse as well as to the frequency of Facebook and Instagram use. Notably, there was no such negative relationship between technology (over)use variables and the quantity of ideas (fluency) generated in divergent thinking (DT) tasks. However, the subjective and objective estimates of creative potential were positively associated. A heterogeneity analysis, in which the sample was split by sex, age, population group, and device used to participate in the online survey, uncovered varying correlations between technology (over)use and objectively measured creativity within some subsample pairs. Notable findings included a positive correlation between idea richness and time spent online with a stationary device (laptop/PC), among women, students, and those who participated in the online survey with non-mobile devices. Conversely, lower fluency scores were associated with more frequent Instagram use among men, and higher WhatsApp use among older generations. Overall, this study reveals a multifaceted relationship between creativity and media use that challenges prevailing media and public perceptions, with the mostly small effect sizes suggesting negligible connections.