TikTok is one of the most used social media platforms on the internet. It is used for a lot of different things, but its main purpose is entertainment. During the COVID-19 pandemic, almost the whole world was stuck in their homes with nothing to do. Social media, TikTok especially, was often what most people turned to when they needed that source of entertainment.
People who loved to read began to make videos about their favorite books and started recommending them to others on the app. These videos started to gain more traction and more people started to realize that reading is another way to escape from the realities of the pandemic.
This section of the app is now called “BookTok,” and many readers go here to consume and make content. In my opinion, BookTok has had a huge impact on the reading community. There are some positive and negative effects of this.
There are many good things that have come out of BookTok. For one, it made people excited about reading again. I’m not saying that people ever stopped reading in the first place, but I feel as though there was often a stigma around reading. People considered it boring or weird. BookTok has helped people discover the kinds of books that they would like and the idea that there is something for everyone out there. I also believe that it has helped a ton of new authors gain publicity.
TikTok in general is a great way for people to promote different things. Authors are able to market their new books and know it has a chance to blow up amongst the BookTok community. The last positive outcome I want to talk about is the amount of book to movie/show adaptations we have been getting. There are tons of books that came out years ago that are now getting adapted just because of their popularity on TikTok. Some examples are “Firefly Lane,” “It Ends With Us,” “The Summer I Turned Pretty” and my personal favorite, “Daisy Jones and the Six.” Netflix also just announced the cast for the adaptation of “People We Meet on Vacation” by Emily Henry, and I could not be more excited.Â
However there are some bad things that have come out of BookTok. Romance is a very popular genre on BookTok. Many people say that the creators recommending these books are glorifying toxic relationships. There is a romance sub-genre called “dark romance,” and this genre tends to romanticize violence and assault. There are also a lot of kids on TikTokok. Even though you do have to be a certain age to get the app, they often lie about it. I have seen so many kids read these books that are extremely inappropriate. They contain things that not kids should be even thinking about at their age.
I also think that BookTok is ruining the content of books a little bit. People get so excited when they read a new book that they have started rushing the authors. Before TikTok, authors had time to think their next book through and write it carefully. Now they are getting pressured by a whole bunch of readers to get their books out as soon as possible. This is ruining the quality of the books and it makes them feel rushed.Â
I have a love/hate relationship with BookTok. It is great in a lot of ways. It got me and a lot of others excited about reading books again, after all. Still, there are some negative sides of it we need to watch out for.Â