Figment.com is “an experiment in online literature, a free platform for young people to read and write fiction, both on their computers and on their cellphones. Users are invited to write novels, short stories and poems, collaborate with other writers and give and receive feedback on the work posted on the site”.
The brainchild of Jacob Lewis, the website was originally envisioned as a sort of literary Facebook for the teenage set. But Lewis found that young people weren’t interested in a copycat Facebook but really wanted “to read and write and discover new content, but around the content itself.”
According to the NY Times article Website for Teenagers with Literary Leanings (Dec 5, 2010), the website is a spinoff idea inspired by the recent phenomenon of young Japanese women who have become successful published writers after composing fiction on their mobile phones. An earlier article by Dana Goodyear written for The New Yorker about the Japanese phenomenon, declared the trend to be “the first literary genre to emerge from the cellular age.”
The information on Figment.com and the quotes are from the Dec 5, 2010 NY Times article Website for Teenagers with Literary Leanings (by Julie Bosman)
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