Should I Stay or Should I Scroll?
Should I Stay or Should I Scroll?
Is TikTok a friend or foe?
The hours vanish—where do they go?
They promise connection, thread by thread,
But all I feel is hollow instead.
Heads bowed low, a quiet sea,
Of glowing screens—do they see me?
In this parade of endless swipes,
Am I a spark, or lost in the hype?
They call it a web, a place to belong,
But where are the voices, steady and strong?
The laughter shared, the tears that mend—
Where does it start, and where does it end?
Am I a post, a fleeting view,
A line forgotten, half-read through?
Or a voice that shouts, unheard, unseen,
Drowned out by the noise of the machine?
Is it the loudest who claim the throne,
While the quiet ones sit all alone?
Should we look up, let our hands fall,
Or bow our heads and lose it all?
Time slips by, a thief unseen,
Are we alive, or trapped in a screen?
My friend sent me this photo, and we started talking about how no one really interacts in public anymore. It’s not that people are unfriendly—just that everyone seems lost in their own little world, heads down, scrolling, earbuds in. We move through life surrounded by others but rarely engage.
That conversation led me to write this poem: Should I Stay or Should I Scroll? It’s about the way social media promises connection but often leaves us feeling more isolated than ever. We post, we like, we comment—but do we really see each other? Are we living in the moment, or just passing through, one swipe at a time?
It made me wonder—what would happen if we all looked up, even for a second? Would we notice the person next to us? Would we start a conversation? Or has the screen become too familiar, too comfortable?
