Today’s community experiences an evident decline in cooperative and creative engagement, which is ironic in the age of the Internet. It seems that global connectivity does not let people truly connect since they do not spend time to formulate their thoughts and reflect on the ideas. Instead, global web users tend to share their first impressions and opinions on any subject. The situation is concerning since, in just one generation, people are losing essential practices of civilized information exchange.
One of the methods that can improve the case is the promotion of poetry writing among the younger generation. According to Conerly, writing and reading poetry can have a healing effect on people’s mental and emotional condition (22). Indeed, poetry allows the writer to contemplate his or her thoughts and transform them into a unique piece of art. It also lets the reader experience the emotions of the writer promoting compassion. In short, poetry is helpful for the promotion of thoughtful communication.
The negative effect of the Internet on the ability to organize thoughts is alarming. Nowadays, the younger generation prefers to socialize online due to anonymity and convenience promoting disrespect and irresponsibility. Instead of spending time refining the thoughts, people tend to share any spontaneous thoughts without the fear of hurting the reader and facing the consequences of being impolite and ignorant of the power of words.
Such a trend is dangerous for the democratic society since it rests upon the people being able to effectively communicate and have respect for everybody’s opinion. Without civil conversation skills and open exchange of complex ideas, the society degrades to the state of thoughtless consumers that are easily controlled. Therefore, global connectivity may be dangerous due to the promotion of meaningless communication, disrespect, and anonymity.
While the global network has an evident negative side, it can be beneficial for promoting poetry writing, and reading. When I was a teenager, I was fond of writing small poems. They helped me to express my emotions and structure my thoughts. However, I was afraid of sharing my writing with friends since it was not prestigious, and other teenagers made fun of me. The online promotion of writing and sharing poetry may help young poets come out of shade. While anonymity promotes disrespect, it may also allow people to share their art without the fear of ridicule. Therefore, the Internet can be used to help to develop a democratic society if poetry is promoted online.
Online poetry sharing will lead to the improvement of national prosperity through the increased number of social organizations and the emergence of new leaders. Poetry is a vocal art, and it makes people want to organize into groups and meet to read the poems to each other (Conerly 21). Such groups often discuss the social and political issues of the present and help to develop support or opposition to the concurrent tendencies in the development of a country.
Poetry is much more than just a method of self-expression; it is also a form of improvement and health management (Conerly 23). Therefore, the groups will support the appearance of new leaders of thought that can help to improve the modern society and political system. In conclusion, the Internet may be both harmful and beneficial for the contemporary society. One of the methods to promote structured thought and organized criticism is encouraging people to write and read poems through online platforms.
Work Cited
Conerly, Lee. “Poetry’s Power on the Mind and Emotions.” Fourth World Journal, vol. 1, no. 2, 2019, pp. 20-26.