Social Media and Creativity

Question: How can social media help teens build a creative mindset? 

Answer: This is an excellent question! Research shows that social media can be a great source of creativity for teens. In fact, 71% of teens say that social media is a place where they can show their creative side. Are you curious about why? We dive into some specific examples found in the research below. 

• YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook are amongst the most used apps to communicate, exchange information, and share knowledge and ideas. This kind of knowledge sharing, including sharing ideas, experiences, and skills through social media, has been shown to boost student creativity.  
• In one study, college students used social media to find new information, learn in different ways, and connect with peers, which can improve collaboration, teamwork, and communication skills.  
• Another study found that using social media can help students be more creative and involved in their schoolwork. The study found that social media use is associated with higher levels of intrinsic motivation (or motivation that is driven by internal satisfaction rather than external rewards or consequences), as well as with creativity and being more engaged in learning. This study highlights how social media can be used as a tool for developing creative mindsets, exploring new ideas, and learning collaboratively, particularly when students feel intrinsically motivated.  
• Talking to teens about their social media use also helps to understand how social media can support creativity. Three teens from a youth advisory board shared perspectives about how their technology use changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The students noted that “quarantine” and the shift to online learning during the pandemic encouraged them to adapt their social media use to engage in hobbies and maintain connections to friends and peers. For example, they shared GIFs, memes, and messages with friends, watched “Snap” stories, and tried new DIY projects as creative ways to stay connected and up to date with information. 
• Social media can also be a powerful tool for learning and can boost creativity by promoting collaboration, reflective thinking, and inspiration. One study found that students using Instagram “Reels” for an English-language digital storytelling project used creative elements, such as textual elements (like subtitles and on-screen captions), background music, photography (like “angle” techniques for filming), and scene transitions. This creative approach helped to increase their motivation, engagement, and ownership over their project and showed that using authentic creativity-driven approaches can benefit education. 

Features that Support Creativity 

Many social media platforms have built-in functions to promote creativity. These features support teens in creating their own content, such as projects, videos, and presentations, in addition to learning from others by watching tutorials, demonstrations, or examples shared by peers or other creators. For example, teens can record a video on YouTube and then upload or share it, and they can also visit YouTube to watch videos made by others. Some of the functions that support creativity include:  

• Recording: Helps users keep track of their ideas and work, capture new ideas, and document their progress.  
  • Example: "Photo" or “video”-based platforms, such as Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, have features where users can take photos or record videos, add filters/captions, and then upload them immediately or at a later time.    
• Storage: Users can save and organize their work and easily revisit their projects to make changes or improvements.   
  • Example: Pinterest’s “board” features are a good example of storage in social media, which lets users organize their work and ideas. In addition, Instagram and TikTok’s “drafts” feature allows users to save their videos or posts after recording to edit later.  
• Instant Sharing/Information Exchange: Many platforms allow users to upload or share their work, easily give and receive feedback with peers, and see new perspectives or ideas for inspiration.  

Resources and Tips 

If, after exploring the potential benefits and risks of social media, you are interested in using social media to boost creativity, here are a few social media platforms and examples of how you can engage with them in creative ways, both in school and at home.  

• Pinterest is a free online creative space that can be used to save “pins” of images, videos, and products to personal “boards” ranging from photography and baking to outfit ideas. 
  • For school use: Teens can use Pinterest to create boards for different subjects, such as math or chemistry, and save pins with learning and study resources for schoolwork, such as diagrams or illustrations of challenging concepts. They can also find study schedules, routines, and productivity tips to help them set goals.  
  • For personal use: Pinterest can help teens engage with hobbies such as visual arts and crafts (following boards related to drawing, painting, DIY projects, etc), cooking and baking (trying a new recipe or aesthetic food presentation ideas), and music (playlist ideas, sheet music, or tutorials). Teens can also use Pinterest for personal projects (like room redesign, self-improvement or self-care tips, and outfit ideas) and collaboration (joining boards or groups that have similar topic interests, such as fashion or art).  
• Instagram is a free photo, video, and message-sharing app where users can upload or create videos or images using filters, text, emojis, and other features.  
  • For school use: Teens can use Instagram to follow educational pages that post study tips and tutorials, as many teachers and tutors post content to help break down complex topics into short-form, easy-to-understand material. Instagram’s storytelling (music integration, interactive polls/quizzes, etc), digital art (“drawing” tools), and photo editing (filters, subtitles, and background removers, etc) tools can help create projects and add visual imagery.  
  • For personal use: Teens can use Instagram to help connect with peers and friends as a social sharing and networking site. Teens may also use Instagram to highlight or share videos and photos of hobbies or daily life, or follow accounts related to their creative hobbies and interests. If there are hobbies or activities that interest you, try searching for related content! 
• YouTube is a free video-sharing website and app where users can create, share, or watch online videos uploaded by a variety of creators, ranging in topic and style.  
  • For school use: YouTube can be a source for visual tutorials, educational materials, and videos that break down complex topics into simpler concepts. Teens may also use YouTube to create and share educational projects or videos to help teach others.  
  • For personal use: Teens may use YouTube to explore creative hobbies or watch videos (both short-form and long-form content) related to their personal interests, such as sports or gaming, and subscribe to channels or content creators that focus on these topics. They may also post content related to their hobbies or other creative interests. Like with Instagram, if there are hobbies or activities that interest you, try searching for related content. 

Want to learn more about these platforms and others? Check out our Glossary of Digital Media Platforms, which provides an overview of commonly used social media apps. This guide can help you better understand their features for a more positive online experience. For more tips on how to control what you see in your feed, check out this previous portal response.  

You may also want to review “The 5 Cs of Media Use” to help you think about how to best engage with social media in a way that encourages creativity while minimizing the risks. When it comes to using social media to boost creativity, consider paying special attention to both “content” and “crowding out”. 

• Content: Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, and other social media platforms contain different types of content, such as tutorials and project ideas across a variety of hobbies. Engaging with content that supports your interests can help you to discover, interact with, and save new ideas that you can use for your own projects. Try to prioritize this kind of content that encourages your creativity over lower-quality content, such as “clickbait” or “brain rot”. 
• Crowding Out: When used intentionally, social media can help support your offline creative habits and skills through tutorials, videos, and step-by-step instructions. It’s important that you use online engagement and social media to support your creative pursuits in person rather than replacing in-person hobbies and activities entirely. For example, watching a painting or sewing tutorial can help you practice this skill, but check in with yourself to be sure watching these videos and other content does not stop you from painting or sewing in real life. 

References  

• Anderson, M., Vogels, E. A., Perrin, A., & Rainie, L. (2022, November 16). Teen Life on social media in 2022: Connection, creativity and drama. PEW.    
• Arif, M., Nunes, M. B., Qaisar, N., & Kanwal, S. (2019). Knowledge Sharing Through Social Media and its Impact on Student Creativity. European Conference on Knowledge Management. 
• Bal, E., & Bicen, H. (2017). The purpose of students’ social media use and determining their perspectives on Education. Procedia Computer Science, 120, 177–181.   
• Ceh, S. M., Rafner, J., & Benedek, M. (2024). Creativity in digitally mediated times: How digital tools support creativity across domains. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts.    
• Chai, J.-X., & Fan, K.-K. (2017). Constructing creativity: Social media and creative expression in design education. EURASIA Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 14(1).    
• Fadiran, B., Lee, J., Lemminger, J., & Jolliff, A. (2021). How our technology use changed in 2020: Perspectives from Three youths. JMIR Mental Health, 8(9).    
• Gulzar, M. A., Ahmad, M., Hassan, M., & Rasheed, M. I. (2021). How social media use is related to student engagement and creativity: Investigating through the lens of intrinsic motivation. Behaviour & Information Technology, 41(11), 2283–2293.    
• Lutfiana. (2026). Project-Based Short Video Creation for Instagram Reels: Enhancing Multimodal English Production Among EFL Learners. Journal of World Science, 5(1), 57–70.    
• Prothero, A. (2024, April 3). Students think social media is fine, but teachers see a mental health minefield. EdWeek.    
• Sun, X. (2020). Social media use and student creativity: The mediating role of student engagement. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 48(10), 1–8.   

Age: 6-17 

Topics: Social media, students, creativity, creative mindset 

Role: Adolescent