A lot of people like to dismiss Gen Z as being addicted to their phones —and they’re not wrong. To give them (and somewhat selfishly myself) some credit, it’s hard not to be when our generation grew up after most of the modern technology we view as commonplace today had already entered the mainstream. This, of course, has proved to be a double-edged sword— while we didn’t have to learn how to go from an internet-less to an internet-obsessed culture like many older generations, we have now become reliant on modern technology.
With this rapid plunge into the online landscape comes an understanding that a technologically-dependent generation naturally creates a declining interest in literature as a whole. This, however, couldn’t be further from the truth. In a 2023 report done by the American Library Association, researchers proved that rather than forgoing the novel altogether, Gen Z is actually buying and reading more books than the generation before them. One primary reason for this unexpected uptick, in buying books in print, notably, is made possible through BookTok.
BookTok is the name of a formerly niche, but rapidly influential, group of readers on TikTok who create short videos to recommend curated book lists to satisfy your every literary need. With the tag’s top videos easily racking up millions of views, it’s become simple to find the perfect book tailored to your specific interests, from beginner-level classics to masterpieces of French philosophy. Take creator @spartaleneuss for example. With over 100 thousand followers and a cumulative 8.3 million likes, she is best known for her hyper-specific book recommendations (e.g. “when you’ve watched too many youtube videos about cults” and “definitely there was love, oh but the circumstances”) and lists of novels that perfectly recreate the vibe of your favorite movie or film (e.g. “if you liked this movie, read this book”).
It’s important to point out that while the books being advertised on BookTok are widely varied in genre, most of them fall somewhere within the romance category. Although historically discredited as “trashy,” romance has had quite the revival amongst young readers, primarily due to the marketing power of TikTok. Take Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us for example. Recently made into a star-studded major motion picture, Hoover’s It Ends With Us was originally written in 2016 to little fanfare. However, in a perfect storm of TikTok gaining creative footing amongst Gen Z and a need for escapism in wake of the horrors of the pandemic, Hoover’s novel shot up in sales. Due to the book circulating on BookTok amongst devoted romance fans, It Ends With Us sold over 2 million copies in 2022 alone, propelling it to be the best-selling book of the year and allowing Hoover to sell over 8.6 million books total in 2022.
It’s clear that the promotional power of Tiktok, and social media influencing overall, is a force to be reckoned with—a force that has the power to reshape the publishing industry as a whole. In a world where we are becoming increasingly forced to be dependent upon technology, Gen Z seems to have the right idea. Rather than pushing back against the unknown, it’s important to learn to use social media for our benefit. For BookTok, this means listening to the appetites of actual readers to better understand how to prolong physical literature and keep it from being pushed under other forms of entertainment. It is imperative that for the survival of literature, and more largely art, we learn how to ride the wave rather than fight against it. G&S
IG: bella_tomaselli
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