Explained

For this project I created a poem/social media post. I was inspired to use poetry so as to bring out the irony in my content. The subject I chose to focus on is fake news and how desensitised our society has become to the media in general.

The main focus behind my post is expressing my own opinion on media freedom and how this generation is reacting to it. Given that we were born into and raised in this digital era, it is something that we have become accustomed to – we don’t know a time before technology. And although media freedom is definitely a luxury which should be appreciated, it is merely treated as a necessity. Being able to express yourself freely to anyone and everyone through media platforms is essential in having a democratic society in which everyone is equal. Allowing people to communicate and share thoughts and values with each other is needed to maintain a sense of freedom and calm.

Nowadays more than ever before, the media is something everyone is aware of. This means that social media platforms especially have become a hub for just about anything. Because they are so readily available to us and so accessible, our first instinct is to take out our phone and post whatever we think and whatever is bothering us – just because we can. And this mentality is especially seen in Maltese people.

What my poem portrays is exactly that; we’re always online, constantly present on one platform or another. We post so much content that you can’t distinguish between what is real, what is valuable and what actually matters. And the worst part is that nobody actually cares because posting everything is the norm now and it matters more to be accepted and do as they do rather than to think and evaluate the thoughts behind your actions; this is symbolised by the sheep walking in a straight line at the bottom.