Fran Pérez is a journalist who is now in his thirties. He remembers a very important day from his childhood. This day was scary for him. It was the day when his friends stopped playing fun childhood games. Instead, they chose to sit around, talk, or watch other people. Fran did not want to join them. When he said no, his friends called him immature. To defend himself, he said, "What’s wrong with you is that you have no imagination." These words were said more than twenty years ago, but they are still true today. Imagination is becoming less common in our lives.
Imagination is the ability to think of things that are not in front of us. It helps us create ideas and stories in our minds. However, many people say that imagination is getting weaker. We often talk about short attention spans and bad memories, but we do not talk much about imagination. Begoña Quesada is a journalist and the author of a book called "En defensa de la imaginación" (In Defense of Imagination). She says that we often forget how important imagination is. We think it will always be there, like the air we breathe. But it is clear that imagination is decreasing.
Measuring imagination is difficult. We can measure memory by remembering dates or facts. We can measure attention by counting how many pages we read in a book. But imagination is different. It is hard to measure. A study in 2011 at The College of William & Mary looked at the results of 300,000 tests about creative thinking. The study showed that our imagination has become weaker since 1990. This decline has been noticed by many people. For example, The New York Times wrote about how our culture is full of remakes and sequels. This shows that creativity is not as strong as it used to be.
In Spain, a study by ElectronicsHub found that people spend almost 35% of their waking hours looking at screens. This is about six hours every day. When we spend so much time on screens, we use less imagination. The fast and colorful content we see on screens does not require us to think much. It is different from reading a book or sitting quietly, where we can let our minds create new ideas.
The decline of imagination has serious effects. It can lead to less creativity and a greater need for outside help to think. It can also make us less empathetic, which means we understand others less. Quesada talks about this in her book. She explains that our brains change based on how we use them. Psychiatrist Gary Small has studied the frontal lobe of the brain. This part is important for memory, imagination, and thinking. His research shows that too much screen time does not use this part of the brain enough. It is like a house that is not used and becomes dusty.
Irenegarry, a singer, shares her thoughts about how our love for screens has taken away our imagination. She writes on her Spanish-language Substack, saying, "I don’t imagine the temperature of raindrops as they fall. I can’t think of how shoes feel or the smell of a bathtub with rose petals." She asks an important question: has watching too many videos made it harder for us to use all our senses in our imagination? Do we see so much that we have less to imagine?
Quesada, who spoke with EL PAÍS from Brazil, saw how important imagination was during the COVID-19 pandemic. She watched her children and saw that they had to be very creative to stay connected with family and friends. They also needed to keep themselves entertained without screens. She worries that if our reality becomes too dependent on technology, we might lose the true meaning of imagination.
Maturity is often when children stop imagining fun things, like being chased by monsters or pretending that sand is treasure. Unfortunately, this change can happen too soon when children spend too much time on screens instead of playing.
Recently, Mattel, the company that makes Barbie dolls, worked with OpenAI to create a product that allows children to talk to ChatGPT through a Barbie doll. This raises concerns. Will children who used to give life to their toys now depend on technology to make them talk? Quesada criticizes this idea, saying, "They have not understood anything. Children have always given personality to their toys without needing them to speak."
Fernando Valverde, a poet and professor, has also thought about imagination. His recent book, "Los hombres que mataron a mi madre" (The Men Who Killed My Mother), explores imagination in romantic literature. He started thinking about this after reading about the poet Percy Shelley, who said, "The great instrument of moral good is the imagination." This quote made Valverde think about how imagination helps us make good choices. He believes that by imagining how our actions affect others, we can be more empathetic and make better decisions.
Valverde has tried to help his students use their imagination again. In his classes, he does not allow any technology made after the 19th century. This means no cell phones, computers, or even pens. This unusual method helps students break free from their dependence on technology. He says, "The problem with imagination comes from our obsession with screens, where even group interactions are mediated by devices."
He explains, "I’m not against technology; it has its merits." However, he believes that this experiment has had very good results. "Without a clock, we must imagine time. Sometimes we finish early, other times late. We allow ourselves to flow," he explains. At first, many students feel anxious about being without their phones for a whole class. But as time goes on, they adapt, and their need for phones decreases. Social interactions also improve; students go from knowing five classmates to eighteen.
Both Quesada and Valverde stress the importance of reading to help us regain our imagination. It is not a coincidence that the Wikipedia page on imagination has a picture of Don Quijote, the knight who lives in an imaginary world. Quesada says, "Reading a book requires effort. It is active and needs patience as the story unfolds, turning the text into a landscape of its own."
In a world where screens and passive activities are everywhere, we need to bring back our imagination. As we live in this digital age, we should ask ourselves: how can we encourage creativity and imagination in our lives and in the lives of future generations? The answer may be to embrace the act of imagining, letting our minds wander beyond screens and into endless possibilities.