Tiktok & Poetry by Morwenna Tripp

The first Covid lockdown challenged the creative world hugely. Poetry nights and book clubs ceased to nothing. The world paused, waiting for the news that isolation would grow with each new rule.

Covid has impacted Mental Health significantly. Many struggled with its effects. The social side of creativity relies heavily on human interaction. However, our world paused, minimising our pub drinks to quiz nights on zoom.

Therefore, means of communication moved to the world of Instagram and TikTok. Poetry in particular grew in popularity as a way to express emotion. Joey Kidney is a published poet who uses TikTok as a way to advertise and share his work. His pinned TikTok currently hold 13.7 million views captioned ‘heartbreak that was worth the pain’. With 3.7million followers and 2 published books, he is well-known within the creative community.

A further benefit of social media is that there is an equal opportunity for all creative forms to share content. ‘Tik Tok dances’ and art have also been given a space to showcase talent and passion. The great thing about social media and the climate we’ve created is that people can be heard clearly. So many people feel marginalised and not heard, worsened by Lockdown. In a time when people felt alone, a media app used by millions created a community. Many say that the ages 18-25 are the most complicated years of someone’s life, let alone with a pandemic. Social media has then created a sense of safety in such uncertainty.

Isabella Dorta is another example of a poet who has risen in popularity via TikTok. Her poems are performance-based and grounded in real experiences of love and confidence. She is significant as her growth on social media helped her develop a book of poetry that was released on February 14th.

The pandemic caused huge uncertainty and personally, social media was a huge comfort. Not only in a creative space, but for many others.

Edited by Conrad Gardner