The Digital Stage

Social media transformed spoken word's reach. TikTok poets gather millions of followers, and Instagram poetry — short, visually designed poems — became a publishing phenomenon, with authors like Rupi Kaur selling millions of books that began as posts. Critics argue that a 60-second format sacrifices depth for accessibility. Defenders counter that any form that brings poetry to people who would never open a poetry book serves the art — the same fight that greeted the novel and the early cinema, both once dismissed as cheap entertainment.