Open letters are ubiquitous across social media platforms nowadays. I see them in my Newsfeed probably just as often as I see song lyrics in profile pic captions. Now to be clear, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with people who chose to do either of these things. I just believe that there is better way to express oneself. Though it can be a challenge (and it is quite a daunting foe to my own expression sometimes) I believe in creativity.

You can do it. You can express your own thoughts.

Achieving true creativity actually isn't a complex process. In fact all you need to be creative is two things: uniqueness and value. For something to be unique it just has to be new, the first of it’s kind, the pioneer into its industry. For me to express myself by shouting “Sprnly stups gilret tristle!”, I am demonstrating something that is incredibly unique. In fact, typed this exact phrase into Google and the all-powerful search engine couldn't find any document in the entire Interweb that contained those specific words in that specific order. This phrase, however, doesn’t really mean anything. I’m not getting any value out of expressing myself by saying it because no one will have a clue what I’m talking about. So the “sprnly” example is unique but has no value, and therefore it exhibits no creativity. Now imagine that I have a great opinion on something, but instead of jotting a quick paragraph or two ripe with value and detailing my unique stance, I find an applicable “Open letter” on BuzzFeed, slap it into a Facebook status, and throw in the caption “accurate”. As you can see, I’ve made the opposite creativity blunder: my expression has value but it is in no way unique.

This brings me to my next point; achieving true creativity is really difficult. Some people would even say that true creativity doesn't exist, and that all the good ideas have already been expressed. Quick segue to my life: I sit down at a piano just about every day and try to synthesize something. Most of the time I just end up jamming on some old classics, but every once and a while something new will pop up. I’ll play around with it for a while, tease the melody around a little, try it in a different key, try different variations in the progression; and I can usually end up with something that I kind of like. I can never analyze it too much though, because if I do, I’ll notice the several old classics that my brain fuzed together in this “new” piece. This phenomenon occurs similarly with the creation of opinions and ideas. No one really has a “creative opinion” per se. Any belief or thought that you have ever had is mostly likely a combination of opinions and thoughts you’ve heard from other people. This is exactly what open-letter-sharers are displaying the symptoms of.

Now I’d hate to make a blanket statement by saying that an ideology comprised of an amalgam of other peoples’ opinions could never be without value or is not unique. In fact, the different blends of opinions that make the ideology are what can set it apart and make it your own. For example, three people could come to the same conclusion by each following different logical patterns. Their final opinions alone would look jaded and imitative, but the true creativity and individuality exists here in the formation, where it was harder to label.

I would also never want to discourage anyone from their opinions on the grounds that they weren’t creative or new, because thats not exactly the point. We don’t decide our views based on what is the most unique we just agree with what we agree with.

So maybe achieving creativity, since it’s so difficult, isn’t that important. Maybe what’s important is having an opinion in the first place, actually expressing you instead of someone else. That being said, my goal in writing this is not bash open-letter-sharers, because I am a strong proponent of free speech and I would never discourage anyone from expressing themselves. I just wish that you all would express yourselves by writing your own letter, open or closed.

I’m not a proponent of the notion that some hipster (no matter how prestigious their English degree was) typing on their MacBook in a coffee shop can voice your thoughts better than you can.

Stand up for yourself! Take a stab at creativity, and if you fall short at least it will be your voice sending your message attempt. Next time you feel yourself about to share an open letter, think about why you would share it. What about that piece really struck a chord with you and why? I think after you've answered this you’ll have a clearer picture of what you believe. You can then post a fresh and original status typed with a ten-fingered vigor, and when I read this raw and organic prose, I will be overjoyed.