We cannot stay separated from social media for many hours, leave many days aside. Social media has included itself in our daily list of tasks. We have become accustomed to checking our FB feeds, Instagram feeds and Twitter timelines almost hourly or at least 5-6 times a day in case you are a busy person. We all want to know what’s happening with others and what others are thinking about us. Moreover, social media has also fused itself with creativity. Many creative writers are on social media exhibiting their skills at writing poetry or short stories or micro works. Yes, Social media has not only inspired many to write but also added new dimensions to the already existing genres of literature.

Social media and poetry, coming to the major point of this article, is not a good marriage. Everyone who poses as a poet on social media is not a poet. You will see many people sharing many random lines with abrupt or careful line breaks. Is everything you read online poetry? You need to ask this question to yourself and answer to your own conscious too.

There are many poets who became internet celebrity just because they wrote some random lines and shared on social media, mainly on Instagram. Young readers, who seldom had a taste of poetry in actuality, liked such lines and gave them a thumbs up. They kept writing more and more and became celebrity poets. The poetry they produce, however, remains within the ambit of social media and seldom reaches the classic audience. Why? Is poetry for social media different from poetry for common readers? A common reader wants to be entertained and enlightened with poetry… and social media poetry, to be honest, is about clumsy experiences of life that mostly is about heartbreak, pain, confusion and chaos.

While a larger part of the human population on earth is on social media and more and more will be there soon, we need to worry about poetry and social media marrying each other. If this happens on a serious scale, we will need to redefine poetry and also think about its ramifications once again. Poetry is meant to strike our conscious and remain there as thought for some moments, at the least. However, Instagram poetry or social media poems are instant. You keep scrolling and you forget. You find a new one. You like and you forget. Followers are considered as fans and also readers. And this analogy is all wrong!

by Rohan for Intellectual Reader