Book Review: social media isn't what's killed me by vanessa maki
I’ve been a fan of vanessa maki’s poetry, art, and visual poetry (which combines the previous two) for some time now – and since she’s a coven sibling of mine here at Pussy Magic, I wanted to review one of her chapbooks here. We’re an online publication, and we all spend a lot of time on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, so when vanessa sent social media isn’t what’s killed me to me for a review, it made perfect sense.
I enjoyed this book very much, and it must be said, I haven’t read anything quite like it before. The poems in this chapbook have a visual element to them: they are stylised as Facebook and Instagram posts, which expands their meanings enormously. The words explore relationships, and uncomfortable exchanges between individuals, as well as eating disorders, anxiety, suicide attempts, and other difficult aspects of being human. maki expresses all of these things in ways the reader can easily empathise with, for example –
“[you can love someone
& drown at the same time]” (from the poem ‘breathe for me’)
or
“waiting for death to kiss me on the lips
a reverse Snow White situation” (from ‘6 facts’)
And because the book is designed and presented as a series of online content (best read as a PDF on a mobile device for maximum effect, in my opinion – I personally got so much out of it this way), there is an immediacy here that goes beyond a standard poem’s already heightened emotional accessibility. The ‘like’ button is there, showing how many reactions a “post” has (or lacks) but of course, you can’t press it yourself; the ‘more…’ at the end of the text you can’t click, but I found myself wanting to see what lies beyond it; the ‘add a comment’ box, which again isn’t functional, but the nature of these poems-as-posts makes me feel like I should be reaching out to the author of them. These things combined with poetry itself ask us to examine how we use social media, and how we interact with one another on these platforms.
Taken together with the title, this chapbook serves as a refreshing point of view in contrast to those who say social media causes depression, anxiety, or a general sense of unhappiness. We go online and we share ourselves to varying degrees – some people’s feeds are entirely curated, other folks just are online who they are offline, and some are a little bit of both – leading many of us to come together in a kind of shared loneliness or confusion, or to combine our struggles. It isn’t Facebook or Instagram at fault if we’re depressed; those places are simply where these difficulties are highlighted for many people. And in vanessa maki’s poems, for all they ask us to consider about social media, the emotions and struggles and human experience take centre stage once again, as they so rightfully should.
For more information about this, or vanessa maki’s other work, please visit her website.
Born in Southern Ohio, but settled in the UK since 1999, Kate is a writer, witch, editor and mother of five. She is the author of several poetry pamphlets, and the founding editor of four web journals and a micropress.
Her witchcraft is a blend of her great-grandmother's Appalachian ways and the Anglo-Celtic craft of the country she now calls home – though she incorporates tarot, astrology, and her ancestors, plus music, film, books, and many other things into her practice. Her spiritual life is best described as queer Christopagan with emphasis on the feminine and the natural world. She believes magic is everywhere.
Find Kate on twitter and IG - @mskateybelle - and at her website.