Piret Viires (Tallinn University)

Social Media Literature and Ephemerality

Since the first decade of the 21st century we have witnessed a massive emergence of new creative practices that are linked with the spread of social media platforms (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram).  In terms of literature we can see emerging new forms of born-digital literature like twitterature, Facebook and Instagram poetry, stories on Wattpad etc.  

One feature that is characteristic to social media literature is ephemerality. The paper is going to analyze the ephemeral aspects of social media literature and is arguing that social media literature as some other phenomena of born-digital culture can be characterized as temporary and disappearing.