Poetry is good for you. It's a form of
writing that uses less to say more; it's an economy of words. Feeling
and emotions poured out on paper in carefully chosen words, beautiful
in their simplicity, are left for the reader to interpret and
decipher. It's and ancient form of expression.
In modern times, with social networking
sites like Twitter allowing only 140 characters to get a thought
across, one would think that it may make people and the world more
poetic, or at least more careful of the words they use. Sadly, no.
Instead we get hashtags.
Every generation has it's vernacular
and slang. Regions have dialect or colloquialisms. These help to
differentiate and define groups; to create an identity. The scourge
of social media and specifically Twitter, has given the world a large
platform from which to speak. It's a platform so full and crowded and
with everyone all speaking at once, that most things get lost in the
constant drone of voices. The time frame we have for being noticed or
heard is so small that we have to find ways to get more complex or
long winded ideas out faster. Enter the hashtag.
With a hashtag people are able to sum
up entire concepts or groups with as few characters as possible.
#BringBackOurGirls implies that you support and want the return of
the Nigerian school girls kidnapped for attending school.
#BringbackourSonics implies that you are a die hard basketball fan
and want the Super Sonics returned to Seattle. #bff when attached to
picture implies that your best friend for life is also in the picture
and the person you most enjoy being with, never mind where you are or
what you're doing, that will be hashtagged as well.
The hashtag conveys a message without
the use of all those sloppy words that get in the way of using more
hashtags. They serve a purpose, however. When a user is limited to
only 140 characters to say things, there needs to be a way to
condense thought down to an easily read slogan. No one takes the time
to read anything anymore so why take the time to write anything if
it's not going to read in the first place?
In fact, most probably wouldn't bother
reading this seemingly long winded article that could easily be
summed up with a hashtag such as #nomorehashtags or #hashtagnewspeak.
Some of us still enjoy the old fashioned art of language. I'm sure
our English teachers would all cry a little if they knew how little
we used what they taught us. Never mind the fact that most adults
can't properly use they're/their/there or your/you're, but it seems
we've given up altogether on writing when the deepest things we can
think of are #goodtimes.
Poetry is the economic use of words to
get complex concepts across, done with beauty and art, writing is
less stingy with the words but no less beautiful or artistic.
Hashtags are just plain lazy language.
