Bookstagram, the bookish side of Instagram, has been around for a long time. With reading online spaces like AO3, fanfiction.net for example, and the Millennial Gen-Z social media sphere of X (Twitter), Pinterest, Tumblr, Facebook and Youtube, it wasn’t a surprise that when Instagram came around the book community would flock to the platform. Nowadays, with TikTok reels showcasing floor to ceiling book collections and all the best reads becoming a common occurrence on the app, Bookstagram has made a name for itself. With that come the users – the bookstagrammers – and their name is almost as notorious, but is this for good reasons or bad ones? Is being on Bookstagram a blessing or a curse?

Now, let me make this clear. I do not think there is a right answer. I don’t think there will ever be a right answer because we are talking about a platform that has given many people the space to voice their joys, their loves, their opinions, their frustrations, and so on. It has also been a platform which has allowed voices to be spoken over, that has allowed bullying to take root, that doesn’t do enough to provide a safe space for people to come together and discuss an issue or simply to discuss a book without facing criticism. Social media isn’t a friend and it isn’t a foe, but it is a tool that can be wielded in a way to come across as such. Please be kind and civil and openminded about any points I bring up, any points others address in the comments, and in any discourse online surrounding bookstagram and booktok and bookish social media. Please do not send any hate to any user or content creator, regardless of where you stand on the issue of Bookstagram, and please keep in mind that at the end of the day actions committed through a screen can have just as harmful and long-lasting an impact as in person.

Bookstagram has been changing with every algorithm switch-up, bringing faces in and out of the spotlight and expanding the outreach of bookstagram and bookish social media as a whole. With these algorithm changes, however, is an underlying condition with being a bookish content creator, whether by trade or as a casual personal venture. If you cannot keep up with the trends and the “aesthetics” of being a reader, then your content will either plateau or drop off entirely. By aesthetics, I am talking about the set-up of shots (books with perfect lighting and decor and staging), the setting of these shots (themes and atmosphere surrounding the book), the backdrop (which may or may feature one or more bookshelves full of books), and the many hashtags used to grad the right keywords and boost that SEO ranking. Trying to keep up with Bookstagram changes is a full-time job and if you want to be a familiar face on the platform, then its an unpaid full-time job.

Not only that, but the financial stress Bookstagram normalises is boarding on ridiculous. This isn’t a matter of “oh, those dumb kids blowing their money on books” because, lets face it, capitalism is rife right now with fast fashion corporations selling items for $2 and the “keeping up with the Joneses” influence having such a chokehold on our generations due to social media. Bookstagram isn’t at fault for this, and neither is Instagram for that matter. But doesn’t is make you a little sick to your stomach when you see reel after reel of book hauls hitting well into the hundreds, photo after photo of the newest releases getting left unread on a bedside table. This also isn’t the reader’s fault because everything is all pointing to the sign – keep up with the new releases and be relatable or aspirational or you will fall behind. We are forced to buy the books, do the hauls, take the photos, make the reels, because if we don’t we lose all we have worked for with our accounts.

There is good in the community. There truly is. Great discourse surrounding books and fandoms and character analyses, people celebration people, be it readers who felt empowered by a book, a debut author finally able to share their story with the world, an author’s experience sharing a stage or panel with a fellow author. Bookstagram has been able to directly link readers to readers and encourage diversity in text, discussions, books, themes of interest and issues to be addressed. It has been a place where people can come forward and share parts of themselves, parts of their books and their lives, and have friends and readers and these book communities respond with praise and kindness. We see the worst of Bookstagram sometimes because the rest of the community is chill and pleasant and there is so much love and respect in the community.

It is difficult to articulate all the points I want to make in a concise way because this dilemma with Bookstagram is so vast. There are so many point to be dissected and to cross-examine and so many perspectives to consider because for some it has been a blessing and for others it has been a curse. For those in the middle, it simply exists. I will be going into further detail with discussion posts in the coming weeks, maybe months, as well as scratching the surface of BookTok too because that’s its own beast. If you have any point you’d like me to discuss, please leave them in the comments and hopefully you will see them brought up in the upcoming discussion posts.