There's a story in today's New York Times (Week in Review) about whether or not "the literary flowering of Twitter may actually be taking place," particularly in the form of "Twitter haiku": 140-character poems. The Times's editors asked four prominent poets to try their hand at this evolving form; you can find their results here.
What do you think: a gimmicky flash-in-the-pan, or do the expectations and limits imposed by new media offer a new realm for creativity?
UPDATE: The comments thus far reveal some general bewilderment about the nature of Twitter. Interesting generational divide here! It takes me about ten minutes--and two tries, and much swearing--to text the babysitter about a minor change in the after-school schedule, but Twitter has been on my map of significant resources for a while now. (Full disclosure: I have a twitter account, but I have yet to enter the world of tweeting.) For all the bad press it gets, Twitter seems (IME) to promote less narcissistic self-narration than Facebook; a lot of people use it as a sort of super-interactive miniblog for personal interests, political involvement, and networking. For an example, here's a link to my colleague Ted Underwood's Twitter feed, which is public (which is why I feel comfortable linking to it here). As you'll see if you click on the link, he uses Twitter as a way to connect with other scholars who are active in the burgeoning field of digital humanities, particularly as it pertains to C18 and C19 literature; there's also some political chatter in there.
Deadline: Monday (3/28), start of class.
16 comments:
I do not know much about Twitter because I have never tweeted or read someone’s tweet. From my knowledge of it, people mostly use Twitter in order to follow celebrities and friends. Therefore, I do not think the Twitter haikus can be taken too seriously. I would say Twitter haikus are closer to a gimmick than a method exploring a new form of creativity. The typical audience for Twitter would not be interested in reading haikus over other recreational messages.
While I agree with Celeste about how short-lived this morphology of poetry will be, I think it's actually a pretty cool thing. What's so cool about technology these days is that there are a lot people use social media and have creative prowess, but aren't tech-savvy enough to create their own modes of social media. Therefore, they work within the bounds of the existing framework. I think it's cool to see what these people do in those circumstances, be it a Tweeted poem or a straight up web-application (which is a perfect example of this).
Disclaimer: I'm secretly appalled, because I miss written words; the Kindle kind of freaks me out. But I do think it's very cool that people are exploring the reaches of poetic form and social media.
I honestly don't really understand the concept of twitter but from what I gather, those who use it usually post their thoughts on it due to spur of the moment thinking, so I see it more of a gimmick than serious writing. Although I suppose Twitter can be used to "reach out" to the younger generation.
I think journalists are probably the biggest twitter users that I know of. There was once an event where I got more information from an unofficial twitter feed than I got from attending part of it, so I can understand how a journalist can enjoy it.
Dema, I share your appreciation of the written word - as much as I think the electronic medium is useful for distributing things that you might need to read (e.g. an academic paper), the printed and bound edition is still a much greater pleasure for me.
As for the poems on the NYtimes page - I like Low Pay Piecework by Robert Pinsky. Education is a tough field and having worked in schools I appreciate the difficulty of being a schoolteacher a lot more than I did when I was a kid. There is also a good rant on what being a teacher means - I think it can be found on Ted.com if I have the link right.
However, I despise the Teeny tiny poem for its use of 'enuf 2hold' '1 xllent' etc... Maybe it is just me, I don't even use these kinds of abbreviations in text messages. I hope this part falls out of fashion - it reminds me too much of the Orwell's 1984 and the removal of many adjectives so that you can only describe things as "plus" or "double plus" good.
Really Twitter poems? I never had been a fan of twitter. I feel that it is a waste of time because you are simply reading random thoughts and comments by individuals. But now people are using them as a way to display their poems? A blog would be best for that. Twitter just does not seem suitable and accessible enough if someone wants to do something like that. Everyone does not have a twitter account, but you can access a blog without having an account. I say leave the twitter post to the generation that appreciates it the most, and post things like poems and haiku on other outlets.
Personally, I think twitter is a perfectly valid new mode for literary expression. Every communications method has both its purely social/professional/political capabilities as well as a unique creative capability. Journalists post articles on their professional pages, why can't a poet legitimately share a poem via twitter? As for it's "flash in the pan" possibilities. As often as new modes of communication and creativity are developed, others become obsolete. One poster mentioned the advent of kindle and the prospect that it may one day replace the hard copy written works entirely. I think this just further shows that twitter is just one more new method which has as much validity for spreading an artist's creative works as the kindle has for making available digital books. Whether or not twitter lasts very long is irrelevant to whether or not it can be considered a new avenue for creativity at the present moment.
I don't necessarily know if a Twitter haiku will be a longstanding form of creative writing, but the idea of Twitter as well as new types of media and internet do pose so many more opportunities for creativity than ever before. One can tweet, blog, facebook, etc. to fulfill their creative energy! The only problem with these forms of communication is like RJB said above, that these things seem to eventually get to a point where they become obsolete and everyone moves onto the next big thing. While twitter haikus may be the "thing of the moment", the chances of whether or not it will stay that way are slim.
I agree with Celeste. Most people follow their friends or celeberties so the thought of anyone taking twitter poetry seriously is doubtful. Twitter is used for gossip and for people who feel the need to let others know what they are doing every minute of the day. I do not think people would write poems, let alone read them.
I don't understand Twitter at all, but I have been exposed to more than a few "unintelligent" tweets that circulate the internet. That being said, I'm glad to see this form of social media being used in such a creative way. It's refreshing to see creative minds adapting and using new forms of communication for their outlets. While I would never prefer this over printed material, that just points to the generational divide mentioned earlier. Who knows how prevalent this may be in a more social media-prominent future.
I have never used twitter, I have used myspace and then facebook, but never twitter. From my observations of this form of social networking, I would that it is a huge assumption to say that it is anywhere near poetry. While I will admit that there might be some people who genuinely which to express their ideas and thoughts on current events or creative thoughts, most things I hear about are not even close to that. People who are followed on twitter are usually not the most intelligent and creative people, they are the celebrities. People who have a lot of stupid things that they are too immature to handle, people who have nothing interesting to say. My perception of the reason that people even have a twitter account if they are not famous is so that they can follow someone who is. They just want to know all of the juicy details and what is going to happen, and say that they were the first to fine out. Look at Charlie Sheen (I think thats his name), he got a million followers in like a day and trust me on one was following to hear about his opinions on poetry. They just want to hear him look like a fool, people on twitter are like animals looking for the next piece of drama to sink their teeth into. Seriously that dude would be the last person I would ever go to for any creative stimualtion. So in short I disagree twitter is not the a new form of creativity. Twitter is either to follow someone or to endorse products for money. Thats my opinion.
From my experience with Twitter, I don't Tweet, I feel that Twitter is kinda like Facebook except the only thing you do is post "statuses" and for those you can basically post anything you want. Some people share music lyrics, what they did for break, whether they thought a movie was good, etc. It boils down to self-expression. Back in the day, by which I mean like a hundred or more years ago, people expressed themselves through writing papers, poetry, and novels. I guess in this day and age, we have Twitter, which is kind of an impulsive form of expression and publication. I think this poetry thing, for the most part, is a movement (not sure what to call it) is driven by attention-seeking individuals who are kind of artsy. Not that I'm like judging them or anything because I feel like I could be one of those people who write a "deep" Facebook status in order to have my ego fed by people "liking" it and having people comment on it saying stuff like, "That's deep bro." While I'm sure there's some true artistic impetus in writing "Twitter Haikus" I think for the most part, it's the ego.
I have never really understood the allure of Twitter, but I think I've been too quick to discount it as a channel of communication. While the small character limit invites trivial postings, it also creates the opportunity for people to discover ways of utilizing its unique form in interesting ways. It seems like it's here to stay, so instead of berating the site for its shortcomings, why not find ways of making the most of it?
Haikus and other poetry posted on the site brings old forms to a new medium, and that's intriguing in itself. The poetry is no less legitimate solely because someone writes it on a site where that kind of expression isn't expected, and it's up to the users on the site to be receptive or not to the haikus. Yes, it does carry a certain gimmicky feel from what I've seen, but if something can get people reading more poetry in our digital age, I say great.
I do think that for the most part, twitter is a way for people to keep up with celebrity gossip, and to post pointless things about their own lives.
As far as the twitter poem, I don't think I can take it entirely seriously, even though some twitters can be entertaining and funny. As someone said before, tweets seem to mostly be posted as a spur of the moment thing, not something that the person contemplated about for awhile, so I think it is mostly silly.
However, I think there are times that twitter can be extremely useful. I created my twitter account in 2009, right after the protests in Iran began. As you all recall, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected as the Iranian president, and as a result, mass protests erupted all over the country. Almost immediately, phone lines, news sources, and the internet were controlled by the government, and it became very difficult to communicate/know what was going on. My family here in the US was having trouble contacting our family and friends in Iran at all, and I sort of made the account out of desperation after learning that many Iranians were beginning to use it as a way to protest the elections.
The US news channels were doing a pretty crappy job of even mentioning the protests until they showed the video of the girl Neda's death, which I believe was taken with mobile devices since the Iranian government initially failed to even acknowledge her death. I'm sure they were having trouble getting into Iran to cover the protests because of the government so it probably isn't their fault, but many Americans knew what was going on because of twitter. Although it was impossible to check sources and to know what was truthful, it really helped get a glimpse of what Iranians were going through. I think that it also changed the way Americans viewed Iranians as well.
So, while I think mostly twitter is pointless and a waste of time, I think that in times like this, it can be useful in informing people, or at least rallying support.
Just my two cents. =)
Eric basically said what I was thinking when it comes to what I believe the purpose of Twitter is. I simply see it as another social media outlet to post a different status about how you're feeling, what you're doing, or any other quote he/she might find entertaining. I (along with several people on the blog) believe that Twitter is also used to follow celebrities - and friends. I put friends separately because I feel as if the most active Twitter users are celebrities and the occasional friend that feels everyone must know about his/her location.
That being said, I believe that the majority of the uses of social media are too informal or, for lack of a better word, stupid in order to get much meaningful poetry/haiku's out of it. Not to say that it is not possible for someone to do so, I just feel that the most meaningful poetry I've seen on Facebook/Twitter is a song lyric someone posts on their status.
Honestly, Twitter is the future (or now) of information sharing. It's quick, accessible, and allows more than "just words." Sure, most people use it to follow celebrities' thoughts, BUT, as Shaun said, Twitter is used in its best capacity by journalists.
Journalists are able to put up breaking news or interview bits that were unavailable for whatever reason right to the internet. It's amazing, and in now way will this be a flash in the pan. One of my job interviews with a news radio station in Chicago asked if I had a Twitter because they need reporters to have them for precisely those reasons.
With that said, I find Twitter poems to at least be entertaining. They're probably not going to show up in anthologies in 150 years for students to read, but a Twitter poem can be a clever, and fun way for artists and regular people to share artwork to the masses.
Not to mention that this is a way to release your artwork for free. One can link downloads right to their Twitter account - one can link a download right along with their poem!
I myself do not have a twitter and what I know about it, I do not like. I think it's kind of dumb to just keep posting random comments about what you are thinking to the world. Why does everyone need to know you are walking your dog or going to the bathroom? I don't think any literary intelligent material can come from it. The only exception might be comic relief of celebrities tweets.
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