Category: Social Media

Booktok: A Community of Readers Rekindling My Love For Literature

1/1/2025

by BriAnna Sankey

When you read a good book, one that leaves you absolutely stunned--all you want to do is share it with someone! Preferably someone who has already read it, and understands your emotion behind the most specific scenes. Most times though, we find ourselves calling up a friend and forcing them to stay on the phone for an hour as we explain the whole plot of the book, and continue to give a thirty minute analysis breaking down the book in its entirety. Now I don’t know about you, but my friends would probably hang up after 10 minutes of word vomit because they aren’t readers. Since I’ve joined BookTok, I’ve seen how it brings readers together in a world where they can share their excitement over popular books and new, emerging titles. This sense of community is influential to the public because everyone wants to be “in” on the conversation. FOMO is no joke.

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Verse Couture: Fast Poetry in Unfashionable Times

6/1/2024

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by Sean Wolff

Did you know there’s a correlation between the state of the economy and fashion trends? During the economic crash in the 2000s, sales in lipstick soared significantly. While this correlation may seem arbitrary at first, this trend becomes clearer when observing the simultaneous decline in sales of women’s clothing during that period. Many women opted for buying lipstick and other cosmetics as a cost-effective means of accessorizing, rather than investing in new, expensive clothing.

This correlation signifies that certain trends can serve as symptoms of larger societal issues. Over the past five years, poetry has experienced a resurgence. Similar to the rapid rise of fast fashion, there has been a surge in what I've dubbed "fast poetry" – or poetry that lacks depth (think Atticus or Rupi Kaur). Celebrities have joined this trend, releasing their own collections of (not so great) poetry.

Stacks of books with various colorful covers. A large white sign with black writing says poetry.

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

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Writing for Accessibility: Don’t Use Alt Text for Memes, Please

5/1/2024

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by Kelli Hughes

If you’re like me and 59% of Gen Z, watching TV must include subtitles. Sometimes the audio mixing for a show is especially poor, muddling the dialogue and making it difficult to parse. Sometimes I can’t tell who is talking because of an especially large cast to keep track of. And sometimes, after a long day, I just need the clarity subtitles offer.

A Scrabble board with various black tiles with white letters scattered around. In the center, the word caption is spelled out with Scrabble tiles.

Photo by Monica Flores on Unsplash

As a hearing person, while I appreciate the affordances of subtitles, I do not need them to experience media. But that isn’t the case for everyone. Nearly 15% of adults in America report difficulty hearing, and 8% of Americans report some degree of vision loss. Where one person listens to the TikTok their buddy sent them for a laugh, another person requires closed captioning so they can read the joke on their screen. Without the proper use of accessibility tools, several users are excluded from the same experience.

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Writing & Entertainment: Your Opinion Still Matters

5/1/2023

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by Bryce Morris

Since the summer of 2017, I have been writing my own social media reviews on Instagram based on pop culture topics such as film, television, comic books, and video games. Before I write my Instagram reviews, I avoid any other reviews or comments that may influence my opinion before I view the product myself. It can be difficult to prevent others from influencing my opinion. In favor of collective opinions expressed on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook becoming the determinant, the sacred days of everyone having their own distinct opinion seem to be fading into the background.

Photo by Joelle Nebbe-Mornod on Flickr

Social media sites have opened the floodgates for users to produce reviews and begin discussions of their own. Most social media users are so keen to have followers and an artificial sense of community that they will not hesitate to share misguided content. This can range widely, including news footage, articles, celebrity gossip, political prospects, and even reviews directed at several forms of media. Quite literally anyone, myself included, can go out and create a review with their smartphones or computers now, which is a scary ability that is already harming the world of entertainment. Everyone has a right to their own opinion, but when that single opinion actually stands in as the opinion of several others, then it becomes an issue within the world of creative expression.

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Social Media and Writing: The Benefits of Variety

5/1/2022

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by Garret Castle

Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash

The amount I write varies from week to week. Despite my attempts to form a routine, my writing is still left to necessity and whim. But there is one consistent means of writing in my life: social media. The scope of my social media usage is primarily limited to Reddit and occasionally Twitter. While there are times when the discussions I get involved in make me regret writing the original post or comment, I have found that social media has been a positive boon to my writing and has helped me grow as a writer. While social media can be used to reinforce unhealthy habits, I believe it helps promote literacy more than it hinders it.

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Booktok: A Community of Readers Rekindling My Love For Literature

Verse Couture: Fast Poetry in Unfashionable Times

Writing for Accessibility: Don’t Use Alt Text for Memes, Please

Writing & Entertainment: Your Opinion Still Matters

Social Media and Writing: The Benefits of Variety

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