TikTok has been known to be an app that allows you to express your thoughts, opinions, and feelings of various subjects, including literature.
Most recently, viral books such as “Milk and Honey” by Rupi Kuar and “Save Me an Orange” by Hayley Grace inspired a large wave of amateur writers to share their own pieces online and build a platform where one can show others the thoughts they can’t verbally convey. But the critical question is, should the poetry really be deemed as poetry?
It is not uncommon that people spark new passions and projects to entertain. However, this trend seems to continuously harm the idea of literature itself as many cannot successfully accomplish the complexity and symbolic elements poetry embodies.
Poems such as “Fate” or more commonly referred to as “the train poem” on TikTok appears more as a short story written about a young girl who is the protagonist, exploring a love interest and their story.
Yet, by the end of the poem, the young girl is suddenly hit by an oncoming train. It had garnered a significant amount of attention and was later regarded as touching and a great piece which I wholeheartedly disagree on.
The plot was redundant and predictable, mediocre at best, and I could not help but eye roll when similar poems popped up. It was least surprising when various other creators had made something similar thinking that it was skilled and appealing.
At its core, poetry is meant to evoke deep, unspoken emotions through creative yet carefully chosen words and multi-layered meanings.
Unfortunately, the viral videos lack that energy and nuance. Instead of challenging readers to introspect and dig into the thought provoking material, the TikTok videos often showcase shallow imagery and surface level themes. It borders on oversimplified and extremely superficial, thus in the process doing a disservice to the art form, further underscoring the idea that it is considered overrated.
While not all poetry on TikTok is devoid of depth, pockets of meaningful and intense pieces do exist, such as Sarah Gwen’s “Candy & Snatchers” poem, which successfully conveys the dreadful nature of growing up and being consumed with logical reasoning, anxiety and rationalization as the environment around you loses its wonder and spark simply because you are aging.
In Gwen’s piece, the holiday Christmas that once represented joy, imagination, and hope are traits that are no longer attainable, ultimately providing the realization that you need to overcome the “passage of time” and the nostalgia of the past, despite how haunting as it can be, because you will never return to your innocent youth again.
The majority of what I encounter lack the emotional landscape poetry needs and instead come off as scraps of texts or unfinished conversations turned into hastily poems.
In a digital age where speed over quality and instant gratification is prioritized it is unfortunate that this watered down form of self expression has come to overshadow the rich complexity poetry has to offer.