My creativity advent calendar 2024: Day 4.
“Would Lord Byron connect with you on LinkedIn?”
I was just pondering on what to put in Day 4 of this calendar on creativity when this arrived:
“Just what would the Romantic poets have made of social Media?
They’d have bloody loved it and used it mercilessly for all their creative outpourings.”
It’s a social media post by Andrea Constable and it made me laugh out loud and then immediately start imagining what sort of conversations I’d have with these illustrious, troubled souls.
Andrea does a social media profile for these stand out communicators: “Lord Byron would be on all social platforms, regularly go viral, and have a huge following - all under 25.
He was proper posh, so he’s immensely well connected on LinkedIn; writing thought leader pieces on why the British Museum should give back the Elgin Marbles and why travel is good for the artist’s soul.
Byron also has rizz; his TikToks are short-form videos of his unbuttoned, floppy shirts and too tight trousers. His latest squeeze is allowed to feature occasionally. Byron loves social media and is a media darling.
Shelley’s natural home is Twitter — or was. He lasted about three weeks before starting a leftist, eco-political campaign via Kickstarter.
His Twitter page was removed for tweeting “Damn your eyes, Sir!” at Elon Musk in all capital letters. Coincidentally, his ideal demographic for collaboration is also “posh and under 25”
Keats’s Instagram page features beautiful, moody, and artful photos of Greek urns and nightingales. He has a side hustle in scented candles for date night.
Poor, misunderstood Blake would have a small Facebook page. Meta’s disinformation rules keep flagging his page because he keeps posting about things he can see in trees which aren’t actually there. His Fb community adore him but wish he’d read the room before hitting post.
William Wordsworth is LinkedIn’s top influencer, probably because he’s the longest living Romantic poet. He uses social media to write about climate change and key pieces of London architecture. He gives excellent advice on planting spring bulbs and shares quotes about watery parts of nature, his volumes of verse are bestsellers.
I’d like to think that Oscar Wilde would be able to find his tribe on Social Media, he’d be fully appreciated and have a magnificent Pinterest full of elegant suits.
Would Lord Byron have a Social Media page full of selfies? For sure.
Would he connect with you on LinkedIn? He might if you post about your art or music or play or campaign.”
I wonder how Lord Byron would react when I tell him that his social media success was only made possible by his daughter, Ada Lovelace, and her work on the very first computer programme …
I’m blessed to work with wonderfully creative people like Andrea and to get to know what goes on inside their heads before they let their creations loose on the world.
To quote the inimitable Rick Rubin (more of him tomorrow):
We’re all creative even if we don’t think we are.
Art is making people feel something.
Much of creativity is just confidence.
Creativity is subjective. Hit publish & let the world decide.
We’re born creative.
Humans are imperfect, so imperfect art feels more human & that’s why it resonates more.
