For those who aren’t aware, “BookTok” is a TikTok subcommunity for book lovers and writers to make friends, discuss their most loved novels, and explore new content. Some argue that this community is beneficial because it inspires young people to read more, which we need as technology increasingly influences education. However, I think that BookTok as a community is having a strong negative impact on young readers due to the form of content that tends to circulate and become popular. For many young teens, social media is a primary aspect in their social lives. It is critical for making friends, learning cultural norms, and developing emotionally. When trends and popular culture circulate inappropriate themes and material, it can be incredibly damaging to young people’s behaviour and mental health.
The main genres that BookTok engage with are romance, young adult, and typical fantasy-style media. While at a basic level none of these are harmful, the lack of engagement elsewhere is preventing young readers’ intellectual expansion into more complex and better quality writing. Even worse, the categorisation of romance has now changed. On social media, BookTok has popularised a subgenre of “dark romance”, which is simply a thinly veiled glorification of misogynistic, toxic, and abusive relationships. Not only are these unhealthy themes very harmful for the mental health and social development of teens, but they are also often intensely explicit. Many of the books recommended on the platform unexpectedly feature scenes and themes of abusive sex, controlling behaviour, and exaggerated sexual violence. The reasons why this type of content ought to never be remotely close to children should be self-explanatory, but many adults on the platform don’t seem to understand that, as “dark romance” has begun to be normalised and internalised.
It’s so important for young people to read, but BookTok is having a strong negative influence due to the popularity of unsafe, explicit material. Other sites like GoodReads are far better, correctly categorising engaging and good quality novels. Ultimately, when it’s unhealthy, harmful material, it’s better to not be reading at all.