Rajendra Prasad and Tina Shashikanth had an interesting discussion on “what is the role of the writer in today’s digital world”. Rajendra Prasad is a widely read new generation Kannada poet. He is also a writer and editor of Kannada magazine called “Sankatana”. Tina Shashikanth works as a journalist in Namma Bengaluru city, her poems deal with variety of thought processes especially scientific.
We have watched some rapid developments for literature in social media in the last couple of years. The use of these platforms are stronger than ever these days. Social media is helping to reach the audience worldwide through multiple platforms. Much of our lives is spent on the internet and we are always found connected on social media. Social media has given us an opportunity to stand out from the crowd and achieve viral status online. Kannada literature has got a huge exposure through social media.
Rajendra Prasad mentioned, “In earlier years when social media was not introduced, it was difficult for budding authors to post their poems or articles in magazines and newsletters. The artists had a difficult time in reaching out to the publications to publish their work. Social media has made it easier. Every artist has their own online blogs, profiles, and the pages where they can post their work without any difficulties and reach to the maximum set of audience.”
Adding to that, Tina Shashikanth mentioned the stories that people used to write for 1 or 2 pages has converted into short stories in today’s era which are well described in 8-10 lines. The stories and poems are being restructured by the new generation authors. Reshaping the thoughts has become a new fashion. It’s less time consuming to read/write and attract the youth’s mind easily. A short story written with good backdrop gets more likes than a story written with 500-1000 words. Literature requires time alone and a heightened degree of concentration. But with social media, people don’t require much time to post something over the online sites. Literature is being restructured in the writer’s mind. The thought that hits the mind are penned downed straight into a social media. The gap between writer and publisher has erased.
Rajendra Prasad believes, many of us spend most of the time on social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and spend most of the time on it. Social media gives you many options to grow in various ways. We as artists need to utilize the opportunity to grow and establish our identity. Social media also helps us to connect to the audience in real time and know the different kinds of reactions.
The content available on Wikipedia about Kannada literature is less when compared to other languages. We take most of the information from Wikipedia but never think to add information to it. We need to start adding information on the Wikipedia especially about Kannada literature. The knowledge needs to be shared and social media platforms should be used for sharing.
About the Author: Swapna Patil is an author of adventure travel and romance. “Why stay at one place and talk about it, when you can make your whole life more interesting by traveling and narrating those stories in words” is the motto she lives by. She is also a trek leader and flirts with words on the top of mountains and chooses poetry over prose. She currently writes for TheSeer.