3:58 AM (Poem x Rant)

Tell me...
Is there a character limit to my approach?
Does the attention you receive
Lead you to believe
That your actions are above reproach?
Is articulation too much for the span of your attention?
If I go beyond 140 spaces,
Am I just "spam,"
And my interest isn't worth a mention?
Do you only want a love that you can share,
That you can retweet?
Do you only want a man that other women favorite,
So you can prematurely claim him to feel complete?
Would you then no longer like him
If he didn't inspire many to comment on what you all posted?
Intimacy is longer than six seconds,
And connections don't happen in a snap.
I swear sometimes,
It feels like all of this social media stuff is a trap.

We feel so important, so self-aware,
Yet there's details about everyone posted everywhere.
Our attention gets whittled down to the next update.
Only time our minds run normally?
When we're up late.
So concerned with the personas we create
That we can't even proficiently communicate
Or simply relate.
No one wants to simply be a post
A trending topic
A hashtag.
Relationships are so much more.
It's all about attention and status updates now, though
Far more than nurturing and developing a beautiful rapport.
A culture sharing and what's next...
A culture of serial dating and misleading sex.
Sharing ourselves like our pages
And no, that's not implicit slut shaming.
Quick to let our guards down because we want quick results.
Expedient vulnerability leading to even quicker heartbreak,
While the ones most deserving can't even get a fair shake.
Then there are those whose apathy is feigned
Paper walls up so high, emotions so restrained
So afraid of being hurt,
That they live in a land of familiar, maintained pain.
What an interesting state of affairs...
High stakes, higher pace.
People aren't profiles though.
Instead of seeking instantaneous, intense romance,
We need to learn to take things slow.
Coldly clicking, swiping, scrolling, and liking
But face-to-face conversation will always light fires that grow.