By Sydney Loder
Social Media has grown to fill the lives of billions of people. It effects how we dress, what we eat, our opinions on different subjects, and can even influence our hobbies. One of which include reading. The social media platform, TikTok, has had one of the greatest effects on reading when compared to any other platform. For example, when you walk into a large bookstore like Barnes and Noble or Books-A-Million you will be greeted by many tables filled with books. I assure you that one to three of these tables will be adorned with a sign that says, BookTok. The books assigned to this table are the ones who have received raving reviews from millions of people on the platform, but can they all really be that good? Speaking from personal experience, I have read plenty of books that fill the space of those tables, and yes, the majority of them are amazing. However, I have also picked up quite a few books that took me months to read because I didn't ended up liking them. This is the battle that I have seen many people face as they decide to read a book they have seen on TikTok. I believe one of the main causes for mixed emotions between readers and all books on BookTok is that we are forcing ourselves to leave our comfort zones. This is because BookTok shows us tons of different genres of books, not just the ones we normally tend to read. Therefore, when we go to pick up a book that someone said was good but isn't in our typical genre, we might not enjoy it very much. So yes, BookTok is quite amazing if you look at it for books you know you'll enjoy, and if you do decide to venture out, you may be met with some lovely books, or not. In the end it is better to judge the platform when you understand what your getting yourself into, which is why it's so hard for each individual person to judge whether BookTok is as amazing as advertised.
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