Whenever I hear the word the word "study," the image that pops up in my mind is that of a school - classrooms full of strict teachers and noisy pupils, an open area and formidable barb wires surrounding it. Lets not forget, the desks, chairs, pen, pencil, ruler and eraser along with the notebooks ! All of these, form the 'traditional' aspect of education, which has dominated our learning, but been losing its grip since the past decade.

'Virtual' learning, an unique opportunity that presented itself when the popularity of the Internet spread, and the digitalization era began. At first, it was restricted to sites such as Coursera and Edx, which provided a variety of online courses, that people of all ages, and from all over the world could participate it. Of course, it had its pros and cons, such as pre recorded videos that participants could watch again and again, but they could not interact with the professors or have their doubts solved by them always. Discussion boards have been used for that purpose.

However, with the rise of social media, and the increasing creative ways in which people use it, we see academic discussions increasing on these platforms. May it be Facebook Live, or heated debates on Twitter. Whether the forums on Goodreads or Wattpad are dedicated to fangirling about the latest novel released, or discussing the publishing part of it. Everyone has a chance to express their opinion, and share their knowledge. This is an incredible breakthrough in the field of literature, because no matter who you are - engineer, lawyer, therapist, or how old you are, 10 years or 60 years og age, you have the chance to learn something via single of multiple mediums in the digital platform.

Whatsapp is not only a part of social media, but integral to the digital lives of people. It informs them of current news, helps the trending music go viral, soothes their troubles in form of trivial jokes or inspiration stories. Nowadays, with the increase in group limits till 256 members, people get together and have created groups exclusively for discussing an academic or informative or literary topic. A step further has been taken by Professor M. M. Pant, who has started short courses using the group function of Whatsapp. One of the said courses being taught this week is 'Flash Fiction' by Dr. Jyoti Vora.

Such an event could not have been organized, if the technology for it was not available, along with the resourcefulness, in the words of Professor M. M. Pant -

"I think that communicating precisely and in brief is a very important skill in the present and future."

No doubt with the rate changes are happening in every field, we can expect more avenues and innovations, especially in literature, as its not only limited to books or digital sites that have them or talk about them. Its present in posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even in the messages on Whatsapp.