There's Still Hope for the Future

2/21/2013

Any curmudgeon out there will tell you the problem with the kids these days is a sense of entitlement. I think that's what every generation says. "You mean, some bus comes to your house and picks you up for school? In my day I had to walk 20 miles, along a snow mountaintop, to reach the 10-mile-away point . . . ."

The second thing they might tell you, is that more and more youngsters aren't doing their homework. That is, social media ruined our true connection with people & the spoken/written word. If no one's reading and writing, they're losing out big time. However, that's just not the case.

I've roamed around the web a few times, and now there seems to be a combination of recreational social media use and, of course, the homework. And guess what? Youngsters are online and writing more than ever.

Sites like Book Country, Cowbird, Movellas, and Watt Pad are seeing the largest incline of users since their creation. These sites offer a variety of venues for various types of writing. As of late, Movellas and Watt Pad have been some of the most predominate sites, featuring countless short fiction writers and poets.

The big idea here is that younger audiences - primarily teenagers - are writing nearly every day. In fact, sites such as the aforementioned are taking those who never write out of free will and turning them into writers and avid readers.

Convenience

Part of why those youngsters are picking up their books and pencils (or keyboards) might be due to convenience. For instance, Facebook offers a venue for all social aspects of life, although mostly those favoring consumerism.

However, sites with the same social properties but without the large focus on bullshit have brought a fuller purpose to social media. To avoid becoming lost in the shuffle like so many other social networking sites and to prevent entrance into a disinformation disaster, sites like Cowbird, etc. only let you express yourself via story.

And it's all in a computer-friendly format. We're already participating in the global conversation, so why not go a little further than the status quo checklist statuses of many other sites?

A couple clicks, a couple ideas, a couple words, and you got a story published online. What's more, you get feedback from other users.

Peer Pressure

Certainly there's an aspect of competition between all writers and especially more angsty folks, the biggest pull of social writing networks is feedback from a sea of other writers, editors, publishers, etc.

In real life, there aren't too many people you can both trust and receive honest feedback from. Mom & Pop are going to love it. Your friends will look for one of the extremes (great/terrible findings). And teachers/professors are far too busy to look at all your work thoroughly.

But online you can at least trust the people reviewing your work are likely to provide more constructive feedback. There's always a Hemingway amongst us, but if a writers rips on other writers, there's surely going to be some reciprocity.

These are some of these reasons I think the youngsters are digging literature more. If you have any additional thoughts, I'd be happy to hear them out in the comments or one of my 1,000 social network pages.

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