When she moved back to Australia in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic after living in the United States, Hayley Shields than ever.
“I’d been working from home and running a business from home. I’d been very isolated,” the 23-year-old said.
“I had no one really to go to, no one to talk to, and it was taking its toll.”
Even when the pandemic was over, the beauty therapist and make friends in her local area and, like many young people, turned to social media.
Hayley became involved in reading communities on Instagram and TikTok, and connected with Anna Blake, who was starting a Brisbane-based book club for readers craving in-person connections.
The Brisbane Book Club regularly meets to discuss books and attend events, including ice hockey games. Source: Supplied / Anna Blake
The Brisbane Book Club has more than 2,300 Facebook members and regularly hosts meet-ups and social events, with many members now close friends.
“It’s not just about reading, we also go to sports events and have meet-ups where we just hang out and talk to each other, ” Hayley said.
“It’s so much more than just books and reading.”
From scrolling online to real-life connections
TikTok is one of the most popular and in the world and has become famous for viral dance routines, food trends, and skits.
But more recently, keen readers have taken to the app to share book reviews and recommendations, and the BookTok tag now boasts more than 239 billion views.
In the ‘BookTok’ and ‘Bookstagram’ communities, creators post videos discussing a book, with followers and other BookTokers often responding with their own opinions or reviews of the book.
There are communities dedicated to specific genres and authors, and the platforms have been credited with turning books into bestsellers.
While some users are content with these online interactions, for others such as Hayley, TikTok is a starting point for forging in-person connections.
For 23-year-old Jessi-Lee Jones, who also lives in the Brisbane area, physical book clubs offer a sense of community and social interaction beyond those online.
At Anna’s book club, she met a group of young women of similar age, and they now regularly attend events like concerts and sports games together.
“Getting to meet all the girls in person, everyone’s so lovely … we’re friends now,” Jessi-Lee said.
“I found it so much better (than social media) and it gives me something to do rather than just sitting on my phone or my iPad all day.
“I’m going to go to a hockey game with all these girls, or I’m going to go to a rodeo, things that I’ve wanted to do, but I was too scared to do alone, but then I didn’t want to invite some random off the internet to go with me. I’ve now made a whole group of friends.”
Jessi-Lee first came across the book club through BookTok, but it took several months of grappling with anxiety before she was confident enough to join a meet-up.
She says while social media can help with initial connections over a shared interest, such as reading, technology has had negative impacts on her mental health in the past.
“I find if I sit on it for too long, I’m not getting things done, I’m not going out, I’m just using it as an excuse to sit there and do nothing all day long and not actually go out and meet people, and then I get really anxious and really depressed,” she said.
Jessi-Lee Jones said her mental health and wellbeing have improved since joining a book club. Source: Supplied / Jessi-Lee Jones
Having the option to take book clubs from social media to real-life meet-ups has improved both her social life and mental health.
“I’m feeling a lot less anxious when I go out into social situations because I am surrounding myself (with) people who understand what it’s like to have mental health (issues), but also want to get out and do fun things and be encouraging for everyone,” she said.
“It’s lovely to be around that sort of thing.”
Can BookTok and book clubs help reduce loneliness?
Jessi-Lee’s experience with anxiety and loneliness is not uncommon. While young people are more connected than ever, they also feel more alone.
The latest Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) report from the University of Melbourne found those aged 15 to 24 had the highest proportion of loneliness in Australia.
In 2001, around 18.5 per cent of 15 to 24-year-olds were classified as being lonely; in 2020 and 2021 this proportion was 26.6 per cent and 24.8 per cent respectively, according to the HILDA report.
Young people report higher rates of loneliness compared to other age groups, according to the HILDA survey. Source: SBS News
Michelle Lamblin, program manager and senior research fellow at youth mental health organisation Orygen, said while there are challenges and risks associated with social media, it can be positive.
Lamblin said online communities like BookTok can provide a sense of connection for young people that they may not receive in their “real life”.
“Social media offers them the opportunity to connect with people who are geographically far away from them, but also there’s also a lot of communities online or social groups that they can join around their particular interests or particular identities,” she said.
“So certainly social media is about opening up a broader social horizon and being able to connect with people who you wouldn’t necessarily be able to connect with in your real life.”
Are young people reading more?
The Australia Reads National Reading Survey 2021 found that 75 per cent of the general Australian public indicated they read at least one book, in any format, once a year.
The survey found 37 per cent of Australian adults were regarded as “obsessed” readers, consuming at least one book every fortnight.
Australian author Diana Reid, whose first book Love & Virtue was published in 2021, said young people make up the majority of her readership.
She said TikTok does appear to have been a gateway into reading for many young people.
“I’ve heard from a lot of booksellers that they have really young people, like teenagers, coming into the store saying that they’ve found a book on BookTok and they’ve never been into reading before,” she said.
“Broadly it seems like it’s great because it seems to have made reading cool or interesting to a whole generation of people who maybe wouldn’t have picked it up otherwise.”
Australian author Diana Reid said majority of her readers are young Australians. Source: Supplied / Diana Reid
Research released by Deakin University in mid-March into “Teen Reading in the Digital Era” found that 54 per cent of teens read upwards of once a week, with fiction being the most popular genre, and print books preferenced over other formats.
Deakin University research fellow Bronwyn Reddan, who is the lead author of Social Reading Cultures on BookTube, Bookstagram and Booktok, to be released in April, said “bookish” social platforms were having an increasingly important influence on contemporary book and literary culture.
“The stereotypical bookish influencer is a young, white woman based in the global north, most often the United States,” she said.
“Readers who connect with bookish social media accounts do report reading more as a result and BookTok has certainly had a significant impact on book sales in recent years.”
