TikTok might have opened up space for a new generation of readers, but it’s certainly not a safe space for readers who care about content more than aesthetics.
#BookTok is a sub community on the popular social media app where content creators share their current reads in aesthetically pleasing videos, according to this webpage from SocialPilot.
Among the most popular books on #Booktok were Colleen Hoover’s “It Ends With Us,” a book about domestic violence and “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” a young adult fantasy novel by Sarah J. Maas.
The only problem with #Booktok isn’t the books themselves but instead, the way content creators market books and ignore the important topics.
I thoroughly enjoyed “The Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller, “Pride and Prejudice” which I read long before the start of #BookTok and “Daisy Jones & The Six” by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
BookTok introduced me to authors I didn’t know of before, such as Reid, and led to me reading her complete backlist which I appreciated.
However, the important content of several books – such as Hoover’s “It Ends With Us” which touches on domestic violence and abuse – is watered down by #Booktok.
#Booktok took books that touched on important subjects and used them to make aesthetically pleasing videos and competitions of who could read the most books.
Similar stories were marketed on #Booktok for its simple, primarily romantic tropes instead of the important topics discussed in these books.
I read several of Hoover’s books because of #BookTok: “It Ends With Us,” “Ugly Love,” “Maybe Someday” and more.
I didn’t read much of her books because I didn’t take to her style of writing, though she is a highly acclaimed author who sold more than 20 million books, according to an Oct. 9, 2022 article in The New York Times.
While I think she attempts to discuss important topics, her writing style is not sophisticated and the popularization of books like these led to their content being minimized.
All of a sudden, books are picked off the shelves based on what’s trending and not their content.
Certain books were romanticized so much that they led to increased marketability and the skyrocketing of sales for specific books, according to an Aug. 6, 2023 article by The Guardian.
TikTok recommendations drove up sales and reshaped the bookselling industry in a matter of weeks, according to the same article.
I won’t ignore the fact that #BookTok gave way to a new generation of readers who finally had a space to make books enjoyable and entertaining.
However, it had a big effect on the people who read books not because they are trending, but because of its content.
Breathtaking novels such as “The House of the Spirits” by Isabel Allende and "Beloved" by Toni Morrison were not featured on #BookTok even though these authors covered powerful themes of the struggle of women in patriarchal society.
The books that #BookTok creators did choose to market simplified and ignored their content and completely ignored classic novels in literary history.
I’m glad they didn’t touch masterpieces such as “Don Quixote" by Miguel Cervantes and “Emma" by Jane Austen, because it would have ignored the important themes of self-discovery both these authors covered.
The circulation of #BookTok dives into a deeper issue of marketing and consumerism in the United States.
Consumers are driven by what they see as aesthetically pleasing, even if it’s something they wouldn’t normally buy.
The aesthetic fidelity effect, known as the aesthetics of a product’s design, is a crucial indicator of consumer choice, according to an International Journal of Research in Marketing study.
Apart from the books the #BookTok community loved, there were also books that received backlash such as “Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov, which addresses the controversial topic of hebephilia.
Hebeplilia is defined as a sexual preference toward children ages 11 to 14, according to a webpage from Psychology Today.
However, the community failed to acknowledge that books like “Lolita” touch on serious issues, such as abusive and toxic relationships.
“Lolita” and other novels that were hated on weren’t conveyed like a soap opera, but as actual literature, sharing stories in the most human way possible.
There were also #BookTok content creators who positioned themselves as intellectually superior, reading classic novels such as “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley and “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde.
However, even these users hyperfocused on the themes and tropes explored in these novels, with heavy annotations that were posted on TikTok.
The more you annotate a book doesn’t equate to how sophisticated you are.
#BookTok had a negative effect on many readers, making it into a competition of who could read books faster, who could annotate more and who had the better book collection.
This sub-community didn’t destroy reading for me: if anything, it made me value it more because I realized the importance of reading books for their content.
However, this social media trend certainly had the power to take passionate novels and minimize their content, which truly stung the community of readers of content.
