Illustration credit: Mitchelle Morah
Though there are communities of readers, writers and book enthusiasts all over the internet in various online spaces, the literary community on TikTok is the most prevalent across all platforms, and perhaps the most infamous.
BookTok, as the users belonging to this community are referred to, has risen in popularity within the last several years. BookTok is so influential, in fact, that some booksellers have begun to feature certain popular books in dedicated “As Seen on BookTok” displays.
Featured genres on BookTok include fantasy and romance, with sub-genres such as dark romance and “romantasy,” the intersection of romance and fantasy. Two of the most discussed works throughout BookTok include the “Fourth Wing” series by Rebecca Yarros and the “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series by Sarah J. Maas.
Though BookTok has been at the center of various online controversies, there is a certain phenomenon that I and many other members of BookTok have been noticing. A phenomenon that I feel compelled to speak about:
BookTok reflects the current rise of anti-intellectualism and the decline of media literacy.
Media literacy is “the ability to critically analyze stories presented in the mass media,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary. On its own, media literacy seems like a necessary skill to have as a functioning member of society. However, there is a movement that directly opposes and threatens the integrity of media literacy.
Anti-intellectualism promotes the rejection of objective truth told by experts in favor of personal ideas, regardless of the disparity between the two. The movement values traditionalist ideas over modern or progressive ones–for example, anti-vaxxers refusing to vaccinate themselves and/or their children despite the wealth of research arguing in favor of vaccines.
Anti-intellectuals argue against media literacy and consider reading as an elitist hobby that excludes the underprivileged who may not have access to higher education. However, that is not true at all. Though access to education is a real and valid issue, one does not have to only read the classics or other highbrow literature to be considered media literate. To be media literate means having the ability to consume a range of media and to engage critically with it.
BookTok creator @yannareads received online hate for claiming to have skimmed through most of the book “Six of Crows” by Leigh Bardugo.
“I’m fully convinced that half of this book was written in a different language,” Yanna says in a video reviewing the book, “because that’s exactly how I felt reading it.”
The necessity to skim over books, even those that one enjoys, only because of a lack of patience to sit through them is indicative of poor media literacy. But one may ask, who cares if someone skims over books when reading? Why is media literacy and the rise of anti-intellectualism important? What does BookTok have to do with either?
The BookTok community has romanticized the act of reading. They have made it out to be a fun, mindless hobby one can do in one’s free time, akin to baking or solving crossword puzzles, while completely erasing the importance of reading and being well-informed.
In addition, BookTok has essentially commercialized the act of reading itself, with BookTok user @on_thedaily_with_morgan even claiming to have read 1,000 books in one year.
“I read each book thoroughly and fully. No book was skimmed or skipped or not read in its entirety,” Bama Morgan said in a video addressing the controversy her initial video faced.
Though I am not here to refute the validity of the user’s claim of having read that many books, I will say that the amount someone reads, or even the genre someone reads, is irrelevant if one has not retained anything from reading it.
There are some spaces within BookTok that condense and trivialize books with major sociopolitical themes into simple stories about a strong female protagonist or a love story between two individuals, thereby ignoring the darker and more complex themes that are the main attributes of the books.
That is not to say that people can never read for pleasure and must interact with every complex theme they come across, but media is meant to be understood and analyzed on a critical level. You can either choose to interact with these themes or choose not to. It does not change the fact that there are, in fact, deeper subtexts beyond the surface level, within any given piece of media.
One area where the lack of media literacy manifests itself on BookTok is the argument of whether political discourse belongs in the community.
“BookTok is about books. Leave politics out of BookTok,” user @betweenthepageswithangel says in a video condemning the presence of political discourse within the community.
“We are here to share books that we all enjoy, we don’t need politics to ruin [BookTok],” another user says.
If there’s anything I have learned while studying for a Bachelor of Arts in English, it is that reading is, and always will be, inherently political. As aforementioned, there are political themes within every piece of media. It is only a matter of whether one acknowledges and engages with them. One could argue that it is impossible to keep politics out of reading, as politics informs and influences our daily lives.
Politics determines who can read and write; it determines what we are allowed to write about and the lives we live, which informs us of the experiences we draw from when writing. This explains why under fascist rule education is always targeted, and books are always burned.
Furthermore, the lack of media literacy among the populace is actively being used against us. Anti-intellectuals promote the preservation of their escapist reading while denying the necessity for engagement with any complex themes. While it is perfectly valid for one to read as a form of escapism, the reliance on escapism often results in real-life narratives flying over the heads of those who have not built the media literacy to identify them.
Though it is completely understandable why one would want a respite from the insanity that is our current fascist takeover government, it is important that we do not grow complacent. We cannot afford to be uninformed now more than ever.
BookTok as a community has the chance to defend against Project 2025’s attack on freedom of speech through the preservation and distribution of invaluable literature. We, the readership of BookTok, are being called to act in the defense of knowledge, and it is important we answer the call.