If oral cultures are “praised for their naturalness and naïveté” while “writing … marked an evolutionary advance” (Chamberlin 19), it is easy to forget that literature begins with a story. As Chamberlin says, “This kind of thinking … encourages people to treat other societies with a blend of condescension and contempt while celebrating the sophistication of their own” (19). This type of thinking is also a contradiction. All cultures involve oral and written forms. Social media is an example of where the two intersect to blur the division between story and literature.
Social media allows people to interact with story and literature in innovative ways. In Lesson 1:2, it is said that a listener has more power over a story than a text that is read, because written words are permanent. If a reader wants to change a story then they must become writers themselves. However, through social media today, this does not have to be the case. If “We live our lives as a tale that is told” (Chamberlin 124), then all of us have a story to tell.
I discovered that Wattpad is a good example of rethinking the divide between story and literature. Wattpad offers “Storytelling Redefined” by being a social platform where readers and writers can interact with one another. Writers can publish their story for free (without a conventional publisher) and readers can read these stories for free. Furthermore, readers do have the power to change the story by leaving their comments and feedback for writers. Writers then can also change the way their story is told, just as how storytellers may not always tell their story in the same way. This video presents some of the challenges Wattpad faces as a business, but it also brings a fresh perspective on how social media enables the intersection of story and literature. Even orature is part of Wattpad. In the Philippines, Wattpad releases users’ stories in the form of a TV episode. The structure of storytelling is almost cyclical; a story turns into a book, and then turns into another story form through a TV episode. In this paper, the authors suggest social media as a way for publishers to reduce the risk for readers when making a potential buying decision (Lis 202). With Wattpad, because all the books are free, the risk for the consumer is minimal and the return is unmeasurable.
Reading on Wattpad, or through any other form of hypertext, allows the reader to go beyond just the one story in front of them. Hypertext allows the reader to choose where they want to go or not. Thus it means that readers may never stumble upon a certain story unless the hyperlink catches their attention. For example, if I tell you to click here for a story, you might not care unless I told you it’s the #1 New York Times bestseller! So while the hypertext is not a text until you click, you might be persuaded to go to that text in some cases more than others even though there is no risk.
Certain stories that may not be picked up by publishing companies can find a way to readers through social platforms like Wattpad. But those in charge of laying out the hypertext should also be wary that they are part of the storytelling process too; they can lead people to stories or dissuade people from them. The benefit of social media is that it allows the sharing of stories on common ground and it helps us rethink story and literature in an innovative setting.
Works Cited
“About Us.” Wattpad. n.p., n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2015.
“All the Light We Cannot See.” Goodreads. n.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2015.
Chamberlin, Edward. If This is Your Land, Where are Your Stories? Finding Common Ground. Vintage Canada. Toronto. 2004. Print.
Lis, Bettina. “Using Social Media for Branding in Publishing”. Online journal of communication and media technologies 1.4 (2011): 193-213. Web. 13 Jan. 2015.
The Verge. “Can Wattpad’s DIY writing empire survive Amazon?” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 18 Apr. 2014. Web. 13 Jan. 2015.
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