Can Social Media Restore Zajal?

There’s a Daily Star article about how Youtube and Facebook are causing a Zajal “tentative comeback”. It’s an interesting read, especially when one learns about enthusiasts like Fady:

“This is pure poetry,” opined Fady Hanna Sharara on one of the dozens of Facebook groups dedicated to zajal. “May God bring back those days where people used to express pure feelings and love, with no divisions among Lebanese.”

But I’m not as optimistic as Fady. Think of this for a moment: People are using new forms of social interaction (Facebook) to attempt to restore old forms of social interactions (Zajal).

The reality is that those facebook groups only serve the goal of feeding us a sense of nostalgia (you know, the stuff you feel when you watch old YouTube ads and songs). Zajal had its days. It was there to fulfill certain social needs of old generations, but we no longer have those needs.

I think the art will survive, but only for the enthusiasts like Fady.