Poems About Social Media by My Students

Grown ups are very fond of moaning about how young people today allegedly 'have it easy'. I don't agree. I think the lives of young people today are much more challenging than they were when I was at school. Back in my day, if you were bullied you could at least go home and shut the door. If you fancied someone who didn't fancy you back you could go and hang out with other people, and forget about it. Nowadays we are all so perennially 'connected' that such things are not possible. Social media is a 24/7 business. I delight in ignoring most of it now, but I dread to think of the toll it would have taken on my mental health had the likes of Snapchat and Whatsapp, and even Facebook, been available when I was at school. With this in mind, the students at my weekly lunch club wrote poems based on their perceptions of social media. Some of them were a bit weird, but they all contained interesting and astonishingly poetic observations.

Social Media by Safiyah

Social media is where you can stalk

all the Youtubers.

Social media is where you can upload

whatever you want:

pictures, videos, comments.

Social media is where you can talk

to your friends and family.

Social media is where you get bullied,

from the mean comments

to the rude edits on photos.

Social media is my life.

My everything.

Talk by Taniya

I’d give my target away

I’d even give you my gravity today

Just talk to me okay?

You never talk to me

And you never even face me

Your eye is on the diamond

But let me be your silver lining

Don’t just text

Or you’ll be gone from me in a second

You never come when you’re needed

So I ask you one thing…

Let me be your phone

So you’ll never leave me alone.

Media by Sathana

The earth

The eye

The world

The seasons

Me

You

Why

When

How

Who

What

Where

I

Can’t

Cope

Anything

Living

Dying

Nope

Both aren’t

Options

Media

Manipulation

And finally,

Propaganda