has booktok gone too far?
PC: Unsplash
Booktok: the place where the internet and books have combined into a force to truly be reckoned with. Ever since people began sharing their favorite novels and love of authors, their influence has reached out from our screens to create impact in our real world. Is booktok a harmless place of community, or is this wolf in sheep’s clothing indicative of a much more insidious, long lasting effect of social media?
Books have existed for as long as words have, which is to say an extremely long time. For centuries,people from different cultures and continents have told and published stories. And for as long as these have been around, people have been reading them. In our culture, reading has been seen as a desirable and “smart” hobby. So much so that there are people who have reportedly built careers on being “celebrity book designers” to give famous people more social cache. Additionally, books have also spearheaded social movements and changed opinions, such as “The Feminine Mystique” by Betty Friedman having been credited with largely starting second-wave feminism or Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” being credited for having started the American Civil War. In short, books have power. And now, as any reader or author will tell you, so does booktok.
But what is book tiktok? Well, it’s exactly as it sounds. It’s a place where readers and writers come together to discuss their love for books as well as rate and review them. While reading is a hobby that appeals to people of both genders, a majority of booktok’s usership is made up of women. This means that it has garnered criticisms rooted in both honest opinions and sexism. The idea that women cannot be serious readers has certainly fueled critiques of booktok, which has only been made worse by the fact that most books that go viral there are of the romance genre. However, this doesn’t mean that criticisms aren’t valid.
One of the most glaring flaws is how booktok has transformed the book industry to an algorithm. Books which had once been sold based on full ideas and summaries are now being sold based on tropes. Books which fall along categories such as “fake dating to lovers” or “enemies to lovers” all have found devoted fans. This allows them to be sold through the tiktok algorithm.
The algorithm is a powerful thing, it has made and broken books and authors. It is the reason one person might get on the NY Times bestseller list and another might be forgotten. The books that are finding fame also largely have the same problem as the clothing produced by fast fashion, hastily produced and put on the market at the speed of light.
As it dominates the book industry, it’s important to analyze the role booktok plays in book consumption and stop it from monopolizing an industry that, at its core, is founded on telling diverse perspectives and intellectual curiosity.