Booktok Has Some Issues...Let's Talk.

Hey everyone! I hope you all enjoyed this video and I hope that it can open up the floor to some productive and respectful discourse. I know it can be a bit of a touchy subject, but I tried my best to approach it from my perspective in a thoughtful and considerate manner. Let me know what your thoughts are about Booktok (good or bad!) and thank you so much for watching! xx

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[alliewithbooks]

Hey everyone! I hope you all enjoyed this video and I hope that it can open up the floor to some productive and respectful discourse. I know it can be a bit of a touchy subject, but I tried my best to approach it from my perspective in a thoughtful and considerate manner. Let me know what your thoughts are about Booktok (good or bad!) and thank you so much for watching! xx

[kitschannette]

I can’t do tik tok, I’m in my late 30s and I prefer long format content on YT. I do have to scroll longer to find YouTubers of color talking about books. Every thumb nail is a young white girl holding books🤷🏽‍♀️ and I do watch those videos but it gets boring. I want diverse authors and diverse content creators. I think about creating my own channel out of frustration. Love your content Allie❤

[readbykate]

I had to get rid of tiktok last winter.. I was spending so much of my time on there and I felt like everyone was morphing into the same person with the same style, and ideas, and likes, and dislikes and it started to feel so so toxic for me. this was a great video and I totally agree with your take!

[jennireadsmaybe]

I completely agree!! Mainstream BookTok avoids criticism from the wider community or make makes it a "if you criticize this one thing it means you hate me/are bullying me." Also, I love how you phrased it as being more centered around escapism, because so much of the comments around not wanting to read diversely support the narrative that if you're reading for escape you don't have to read diversely.

[bentheoverlord]

This was a fantastic discussion :) Excellent vid !
I've always found the algorithmn argument to be a bit in bad faith. Like for me I get a good diverse set of books and content creators but that took a lot of time and effort, Meanwhile my friends and family who are just getting into booktok are getting more cis hetero white romances on a whole and also not many creators who arent also cis white hetero, and its taken them weeks and weeks to finally curate stuff they want to read.
The critique one really hits close, Ive found that its become really hyperbolic where valid critques are being ignored for either "this is the best book ever, if you say anything bad you are a hater" or "this is the worst book ever, if you like it you are a bad person".
Another issue I currently have with booktok is the ads, about half of the booktok content i get is still just someone advertising a book that they are selling in a link which I find quite icky, especially when its every book they are reviewing.
That being said I prefer booktube just because I like my content to be a little longer form, and although booktube has its "standard videos" I find them to be less like they are selling me something.

[CoffeeOverApples]

YES! i agree! This is why I just get louder with my opinions. It is too much of an echo chamber.

[JayGTheAwkwardBookworm]

I refuse to download tiktok. I know I will spend hours scrolling so I don’t even let myself go on it 😂

[PoppyMorreale]

Also I appreciate you shining a light to people who don’t experience and issues there valid

[cani.j]

That's why I will never be on TikTok 😌😌😌.
Lovely greetings from Berlin, Germany :)

[lulucollins]

Im not on tik tok but i do end up seeing some of the book tok because they get reposted on youtube and i have noticed i frequently see the same creators, same books and author been recommended. Honestly i try to aatu away from Barnes and noble booktok tables the few times i have read some of those book i regret it.

[sagekay]

I feel like content creators and influencers need to understand that if you’re recommending a product (books, clothes, makeup, brand), you are effectively co-signing every single thing that the product creators say/do. If you’re recommending and calling something your favorite product of all time, you are saying “this is something I agree with and think other people should engage with”. Is that 100% a representation of the influencer? No of course not, and critiquing things that are valid (like problematic behavior) is not an attack. But not FULLY consuming the product and doing the due diligence of researching what they’re promoting is an issue. If skill share turned out to be a shitty company, would we, the consumer, not expect every influencer to denounce them? And if they didn’t would we not call them out for that? I think about that a lot.