“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.” ~F. Scott Fitzgerald
Mir Aadil
I find it important to start this article with a set of important questions to ponder upon. The questions are; why do we blame Social Media for the decline of quality in Literature? Why do we find ourselves in a space where we search for the ways to better the parameters for the improvement of literature? Why can’t we question ourselves that we should rethink the ways how we perceive the aesthetics of literature? Don’t you think that positioning social media and literature on opposite sides is to misunderstand literature? Isn’t literature itself a media? Isn’t literature a tool of communication like social media? Who decides the quality of literature? Has the democratization caused validation of bad literature? How much justified is it to blame social media for attention spamming? Has the growth of social media affected people who consume literature? Is it justified to stick to the literature that existed in the times of Queen Elizabeth and criticize today’s literature in that light?
If we go by the definition of Merriam-Webster, literature is the written work or simply some printed material that provides information about something. On the other hand, social media is a form of electronic communication through which people create online communities to share ideas, information and other content. If we look at both of them we will find that there is a link between them, a link that somehow binds them under one banner and that is information. From Renaissance to the age of digitization, the purpose of literature is somehow taken by social media i.e., the purpose of spreading information, the purpose of communication and most importantly the act of reflection of society.
Literature itself is a media, a tool to communicate with people. It is evident by the fact how during the reign of Queen Victoria, many prominent writers talked of Victorian Colonialism. Be it Rudyard Kipling or somebody else. It is important to note how literature was used by Britishers to lay an effect on its colonies. British grew in its rule and power during Victorian era and we should not be taking any credit away from literature in this prospect. If we see today, same thing is done by social media. It has become a medium of propagation. Aren’t we misunderstanding literature by placing it on the opposite side of social media? Literature itself is a social tool which is based upon the interaction of a reader and writer. Casey Brienza, sociologist and lecturer in Publishing and Digital Media at City University London says, ‘all media are the platforms of human communication and expression, and in this sense, all media, including literature, is social.”
When somebody thinks of “literature”, he/she automatically develops a notion and starts thinking of large libraries and a huge pile of books. Literature isn’t complete if it hasn’t been read and critiqued by the readers. And this phenomenon of criticizing has been brought to a next level by social media. Nowadays people are critiquing the books of many authors through social media, which means that social media has provided a platform to discuss various elements of books to a wide range of readers which was absent in earlier times. Social media has provided a literary platform for the dissemination of literature. The purpose of a book is to be discussed and that purpose is being actively served by the social media. The most important allegation laid on social media is that it has been held responsible for degrading the quality of literature. But the question is that how do we decide the quality of Literature.
We don’t find any literary work which matches up with the Shakespearean style of writing. It doesn’t mean that good literature is lacking in the society. It is totally subjective to determine which literature is good or not. A person who is reading Chetan Bhagat could call him a literary giant because the choices and taste of literature differ among people. It doesn’t matter whether there is any interference of social media or not, people who want to read him will only read him and make his books among the best-selling ones. Similarly one can read the works of modern literary giants like Maya Angelou, Arundhati Roy, Margaret Atwood, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Stephen King, Haruki Murakami and others, whose literary works are greatly appreciated and discussed. For me to elucidate what actually ‘good literature’ is, what actually is the definition of valuable and proper literature irrespective of what existed in past as the literature forges with time, is a herculean task. I have met a lot of people who claim that social media has restricted Shakespeare to mere tweet of 140/280 words and Aristotle or Plato to a 10 minute YouTube video. But isn’t this what we have become? With the busy life we have today, it somehow becomes difficult to find and reach a library. Isn’t social media giving us some sort of platform where we can at least engage with literature? Literature is meant to be discussed and platforms like Facebook help us form literary groups at a smaller scale in which we can ponder over literature and discuss its essence. Literature is the reflection of society in a particular space of time. We move on with the time, so does literature. Literature serves the purpose of reflecting the times we live in. The literature at the present times reflects the Hobbesian state of nature and the dilemma of identity, crisis and chaos. It reflects the dark time of many places around the world and discusses the problems like racism, casteism, corporate loot, and restlessness and despair among humans. It discusses our dystopian world and the flaws and hopes in it.
One cannot be stuck in the era of John Milton and see present literature in that mirror. Times change, so does literature. It is not so late that we should accept that in this age of digitisation, social media is the new face of literature where anybody can write without any limitations. Social media may not be called as ‘genuine’ literature but it gives us the tools and platform to express our ideas and it is up to us how we use it as Germany Kent, American author and journalist, says that if you are on social media, and you are not learning, not laughing, not being inspired or not networking, then you are using it wrong. I think we should now look above from the line through which literature is being judged and accept what modern world has brought us into. We are in need of the words of hope to overcome our despair as words and ideas can change the world, and social media is a marvellous tool for the dissemination of these ideas.
About Author: MIR AADIL BASHIR, Pursuing B. A (Honours) English Literature, Aligarh Muslim University, Email id: miraadilbashir@gmail.com
