My daughter was a creative genius, and then we bought her an iPhone

I think the basic question is: Are you consumer or producer? When you program or using excel or writing a blog posts, you grow as a person. Apps can be both, so It's more about the ratio. You can try to make nice & creative photos for your Instagram profile or just browse and see what others are up to.

The problem is that kids will tell you that they will produce and learn, but then spend most of the time consuming, which will slowly kills their creativity.

And now after saying all that I realize when comparisons are made of US to developing countries the same harbingers to creativity and innovation appear where if a situation in America can be resolved through a particular means, the lack of such means become an obstacle to the similar rise of developing countries.

Then I got a better PC and spent time trying to make website to earn money because everyone was doing it.

I failed. AdSense didn't pay me anything. I realized it was more profitable to make a blog on how to make money online than go try if yourself.

I built my first gaming rig. Played few games and got bored after a few months.

I ended up watching death note on YouTube through recommendations.

Finished 500+ anime within a year. It was the best past time after school.

Got bored of that. This time, I though of making money using software. Worked with WordPress, earned some cash fixing people's site and optimizing them by removing useless plugins, adding yoast SEO, improving cache and moving people from shared hosting on GoDaddy.

I started to tinker with PHP code and themes like Divi, adata. Then I wanted to build a CMS. Looked up stuff and it felt complicated so after trying for a few weeks, dropped the idea.

Now I got into novels and manga because I was running out of anime. Probably 700+ or so titles. Enjoyed that for a bit. Finished Chinese, russian, Japanese, etc light novels using Google translate. It was fun. I was addicted.

Now something clicked again and I purchased courses on udemy for 90% discount (yeah it is always discounted). Finally, I knew enough programming after few weeks to create a CMS. I did that but it turned pretty poor compared to WordPress.

Joined an online non-profit therapy group. Listened to people and gave advice...in retrospect, k shouldn't have done that.

Joined discord, spent time there and well learnt more about weird internet cultures and spheres.

Started to get worried about future. Spent time researching health insurance, FIRE, investment and saving strategies. Opened broker account on few online sites using my dad's identity. Landed on r/wsb. Spent few weeks researching and stalking people there. Concluded it was nothing more than gambling. I started buying equity. Built a decent portfolio. Then diversified with Forex and SIP index fund.

Roughly more or less how I spent my teenage years. There are lot of other small and things I did but will be too personal.

Every generation of parents thinks their kid is the smartest and then they become teenagers and suddenly they're moody and want to do things that their parents don't approve of. That's the basic fact underlying this. Any argument you make about kids changing when they become teenagers needs to have this realization at its core. Once you realize that, then you can start to make judgements about whether or not their behavior is cause for alarm or not.

Yes apps are addictive, because they're designed that way. But I can tell you what else is designed to be addictive: literally everything. Do you think Doritos taste the way they do by accident? They don't fall off the Dorito tree tasting like that. Or what about the chip companies that has the slogan "betcha can't eat just one" or "once you pop, the fun don't stop"? Likewise, why do TV shows and movies never line up with reality, even if they're based on a true story? Because they were designed to be more interesting than reality. Why do episodes always end on a cliff-hanger, or people leaving a theater say "man they really set that up for a sequel"? Because it was designed to be addictive. Why do most songs last about three minutes and have two verses and two repetitions of the chorus? Because the producer knows that's the most addictive way to write a song.

I mean literally everything: Why is bread and milk at the back of a grocery store? Because they know you're going to buy that anyway, and if it's at the back, you'll need to walk past a whole bunch of other things that are all designed to be addictive, with colorful marketing signs designed to maximize engagement. Why do automakers make cars with smooth gear changes and plush leather seats and feature-filled entertainment consoles and a jillion speakers? Because that keeps people happier in their car and more likely to buy another one of those cars in the future. Why do people love dogs? Because humans purposefully designed wolves into the perfect human companion, and everything about a dog was designed to increase user retention and engagement. Why does cola have caffeine added to it? Because caffeine is addictive. There is literally no other reason.

"It's designed to be addictive" isn't an excuse, because everything is designed to be addictive. So start with "my child is turning into a teenager and teenagers like different things than children" and then subtract "everything is designed to be addictive" from your reasons. How do you talk to your children when they want more Pringles or a(nother) dog or to stay up late watching TV, or when they're upset that their first car doesn't have Bluetooth audio? I'll bet this author wouldn't write an article shaming their kids for that.

No, definitely not “of course”. Creativity is not defined by the technology or even the result, but is a... well, property of a process. I - personally - can snap a video without being creative at all, and the video may happen to be good. Like how a talking parrot can drop a joke at an appropriate moment, without understanding it at all ;)

It all really depends on what goes in one’s head as they do something.

That is - to recognize if the kid (or whoever, age does not matter here) is creative just talk to them and learn what the heck are they thinking. Like asking to share what’s their passion for that hobby, or teach how they do it - even the most basic replies would quite probably involve some descriptions of the logical processes running in one’s head.

(I do not mean to argue if your kid having a passion for recording videos is creative or not. Just saying that it’s not universally applicable “of course”.)