The “applied poetics” of Instagram: the Greek Instapoetry landscape

ABSTRACT This study maps the Greek Instapoetry landscape by exploring a) the central formats and themes through which Greek Instapoetry becomes communicated, the most common hashtag sequences used and the predominant types of elicited responses, as well as b) the basic perceptions and experiences of Instapoetry practitioners. Findings evidenced how multiple individual forms of labour are involved in practices of content production, rendering thereby Instapoetry as a system of “applied poetics,” structured around the application of distinctive and individualised types of technological affordances for textual composition. Traditional understandings of poetry were found to be strongly upheld amongst practitioners, while the value of print was shown to be preserved as holding an additional merit. Poetic hashtags were found to be more related with visibility, in order to generate algorithmic classifications and were used mostly with strategic intent. “Ideal” instapoems were construed as short and comprehensible texts that address issues of love or point towards inspirational messages, able to elicit intense emotions in readers. Under this light, there is evidence to suggest that Instapoetry could be approached as a digitally distributed cognition ecosystem, in which affect plays a central role in understanding the cognitive processes underpinning interactions with Instapoetry-related content.