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by Ketaki Hoshing
We are living in a generation where we are not only doomscrolling through Instagram but also through books. There comes a time (un/fortunately) while cleaning your bookshelf when you fall into the deep well of the books you own, rethinking about whether you read them as literature or mistook them for your phone and scrolled through them. This also brings about the question of whether you chose the book because you wanted to read it, or was it chosen for you through those manipulating mind-changers we now call ‘algorithms’. Books and literature used to be a window of escape to new, unimaginable worlds made of words that would ignite a fire of change. Fast forward to now, where books have become a limbo of trends and a product of fast consumption made to suit the image of ourselves that we are projecting onto the world.
Did you know that there is a “booktok recommended” section in Crosswords? Even when Tik Tok is banned in India! It is jarring to think about the impact these subcommunities have had on literature as a whole; be it in publishing or getting authors out of their obscurity and making them a ‘New York Times bestseller’ overnight. Is it not ironic that social media, screens, and mindless scrolling are all influencing people to want to pick up a book again?
Sure, booktok has increased the rate of readership by a lot. Not only did they attract new and/or young readers to start reading but also helped burnt- out readers get back into the game.. And yes, they also have increased the overall sales of physical books and given a platform to new and upcoming authors but that's about it. I genuinely sat for 45 mins staring at a wall to think of one more good thing. (and spoiler alert, I couldn’t).
I recently noticed this trend of literature being classified into aesthetics; which comes across as a bit superficial, to say the least. Instead of finding nuance and depth in how we think about and categorise books, we are pulverizing it into a collection called “5 books for a rainy day”. While this may not seem like a critical problem initially, it must be taken seriously when it begins hampering an individual's decision making. The excessive book recommendations based on the cliche/not-so-cliche moods on your feed begin to spoon-feed choices to you, blurring the lines of conscious and sub-conscious choices.
As a self-reflective consumer, I have realised that most of the positive impact of booktok is owed to marketing. While the sales have increased, it would be disgraceful to just gloss over the commodification of literature. We as consumers have become too focused on the commodity instead of the content. While more authors have been getting a platform, many other authors – some of whom put their entire lives into crafting their book are losing out on that very platform because they do not have an efficient/crude sales team. Not to mention, the platform in question is supporting authors who write, no sorry, romanticize mature themes of abuse to a rather young and impressionable audience. The girls who are supposed to be fantasizing about boarding a train to Hogwarts, are now fantasizing about some abusive guy named Atlas (yes, I namedropped).
Our understanding of life, our decisions and opinions are often based on our surroundings and environment and the people belonging to that – including the books we read and the content we consume. We are aspirational human beings and the people who influence our perspectives and opinions are often considered with high regard in our mind. Now if these authors and their content lead you to aspire for things that aren’t in your best interest, things can go awry.
Which brings us back to the question: are we truly choosing the literature we want to read, or are we just following an algorithm that dictates what's 'cool'?
We have all done stupid embarrassing things to fit in with a group, whether it be reading a really popular “romantic” novel, because all the popular girls and their grandmoms were reading it, or reading a book with an unutterable title about some turtle's philosophy on life because the actual cool kids read books that no one's ever heard of. The only difference is that now, an algorithm dictates the coolness.
Hence, I urge you to pick up a book not because you had to- but because you wanted to. Read so it makes life more interesting, not because you needed to catch up with the next hot bestseller everyone’s been talking about online. Embrace and learn from the “bad” literature, not conform to it for social acceptance. It's absolutely okay to love some weird turtle's philosophy on life, to love the most cliched romance, to find a rush in what is considered the most boring novel ever, to hate a popular book and it is okay to love a popular book so much so that you write a fanfic about it (full support). All of this is okay as long as you are the one choosing the book and not because some marketing teams' deceptive strategies are working.
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