By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Social media has changed poetry, at least in terms of the sheer number of people who now read poems on a regular basis, or buy poems (Rupi Kaur’s collection Milk and Honey was a runaway bestseller). This has led to fierce debates about what poetry is and what it should be (see, for instance, Rebecca Watts’ takedown of the Instapoets), but whatever one’s view, it is undeniable that social media has led to more people than ever before publishing, and reading, poetry of some kind.