I was thinking to myself the other day how Facebook (and social networking in general) shows the level of creativity some people have within them when it comes to writing and actually, without these sites you probably wouldn’t ever get to see it.

There are many people who, despite being very quirky and word savvy, will never actually sit down and write something. This is mainly because they don’t have the time or inclination to do so and also, in my opinion, because they don’t believe anyone will really care what they have to say. Added to this, blogging is still somewhat of a dark art to many people outside of any immediate writing circle.

The first time social networking roused my attention for being a brilliant platform for creative writing was actually on MySpace (remember when that was popular?). I was flicking casually through a few acquaintances profiles and noticed how witty some of the comments people had written were. Words that I myself would never have thought to use, humorous adjectives that I couldn’t have come up with even at my most inspired, and photo captions that were as funny as they were downright insulting. The strange thing was that the source of these writing gems were people, who at a glance, seemed to have the intellect of a toothbrush. I just couldn’t understand it.

The confusion grew even more when I evolved (like so many have) onto the more advanced social networking phenomenon of Facebook. Here people could not only comment on people’s profiles and pictures but they could also create groups using the subject matter of their choice. As I pondered my first effort, others were effortlessly creating unique and socially relevant groups that captured the imagination of the masses. These groups had names like ‘I Secretly Want to Punch Slow Moving People in the Back of the Head’ and ‘A Cup of Tea Solves Everything’; simple points that unite thousands of people with similar beliefs and views.

I know for a fact social networking encourages better writing because I myself will not post a comment or message without thoroughly checking my work beforehand. It sounds sad, but I just know there’s some sarcastic swine just waiting to pounce on my every mistake with a follow up comment that starts with ‘Didn’t you mean…’. Is everyone like me? Writers must be surely.

The likes of Myspace, Facebook, Bebo etc get an awful lot of bad publicity for a number of (admittedly serious) issues normally involving some form child abuse. However, I think there is significant merit in people using social networking devices as they encourage active thought and creativity.

Cynics amongst you might say that because I’m a writer (or try to be) and am likely to have ‘writer friends’ then my social networking will always need to be grammatically correct and utterly original. I certainly see your point (and damn you for it). There are some that use slang and absolutely no grammar in their social networking comments. Young people in particular are guilty of both these things and teachers have noticed ‘MSN slang’ creeping into work on a regular basis. However, my point is not necessarily about just spelling and punctuation, it goes deeper than that (I’m very deep you know).

Social networking encourages people to think creatively and engage their mind, if only for a few short seconds of every long internet session. In my eyes, this can’t be considered a bad thing.