With the rapid rise in social media in the last 15 years, many people wonder whether it is destroying our reading habits and encouraging individuals to spend more time online than immersed in a book. I think this is a slightly unfair suggestion, as there are many ways that social media is promoting rather than discouraging reading.
Social media does pose a big distraction in our everyday lives. I spend hours endlessly scrolling, and find I have to make a conscious effort to put my phone out of reach to be able to focus solely on my book. Perhaps for younger generations, this distraction is so normalised that they have less desire to switch off their devices and read.
However, the substantial amount of online content about reading and literature suggests social media is not having as detrimental an effect on reading habits as people might think. Think BookTok, BookTube, and the hoards of people who share their book recommendations and hauls. There are millions of videos under #BookTok, and this has given immense fame and popularity to series like Heartstopper and authors such as Emily Henry, Colleen Hoover, and Tessa Bailey. These sites provide a quick, easy way to increase the hype around books and get viewers enthused about reading them. I always feel much more excited about reading a book, especially if it is by a new author or a different genre than I’m used to, if I have heard good things about it online, and trust this more than faceless reviews on sites like Amazon or Waterstones. Even if I see a friend post an Instagram story with the book they’re reading, I am compelled to ask about it and find out their thoughts, which we probably wouldn’t talk about if it wasn’t shared on social media.
Having drifted from reading whilst I was at secondary school but getting back into it more recently, this is undoubtedly due to seeing so many books talked about online. My reading wish list is bigger than ever, and I am faced with a constant stream of recommendations which get me excited to finish each book and move on to the next. Whatever reservations people have about social media, it encourages many people to read more, despite simultaneously acting as a distraction.
Social media also appears to be drawing in new audiences who perhaps wouldn’t have been inspired to read before. I have lots of friends who have never been readers only start when authors like Colleen Hoover and Taylor Jenkins Reid became popular, as their books are more accessible to new readers. No matter what you think of these authors and their books, millions of people who would otherwise not pick up a book are reading them, which can only be a good thing. I picked up Madeline Millers’ The Song of Achilles a few years ago due to the hype and positive reviews I had seen on TikTok and YouTube, and I absolutely loved it, despite never really reading that genre. With more influencers talking about books, one can hope that the younger generation who have grown up with social media will also be encouraged to read more by their online role models.
Discussions about books have also become more accessible online, with users having the ability to comment on posts and enter online forums and discussions, as well as create their own content, whether that is blog posts, Instagram Reels, or YouTube and TikTok videos. People are not just reading books privately, but engaging with them and wanting to hear other peoples’ thoughts and share their own, which can only be a positive development.
There is definitely an element of overconsumption and quantity-over-quality underpinning online literary discussions, with creators frequently talking about how many books they’ve bought or read, rather than how much they enjoyed a specific book. However, that’s a topic for a future article!
Whether social media is making reading another trend which will fade out is impossible to tell. At the moment, I think we should embrace the changes being made and hope that social media sites continue to promote reading and shine a spotlight on new authors, as well as enable critical discussion. The success of lots of new authors has been greatly impacted by discussions on social media and things like #BookTok, and the new audiences being drawn to reading as a result shows social media as a positive tool in encouraging reading for pleasure, as opposed to something which is destroying reading habits as is often wrongly assumed.