Can social media skills be developed?

If “creative” writing can be taught, it implies that there is a method to even imagination, or at least its articulation. And given the current uproar in social media about “fake” posts, creativity is playing an increasingly strong role there. Social media is also probably the most commonly used forum now for self-expression, so some amount of skill development would probably be widely appreciated. Whether those enrolled for college degrees in literature are most in need of such enhancements is debatable, but more and more people are indeed measuring their self-worth in terms of the “likes” their social media posts garner. So, if there is a way to ensure abetter “score”, there will definitely be takers for such courses, wherever offered. Even marketers are being coached on how to be more “human” in their interactions with potential customers on social media platforms

In that context, Delhi University’s now deferred module on how to write Facebook posts was actually prescient — and probably more relevant than some components of the literature syllabus. Whether professors are best suited to teach such a “skill”, however, is doubtful. Hopefully, university administrations also know that the internet is full of websites offering exactly the same “knowledge” free — that too, without attendance hassles or examinations.