When Characters from Popular Social Media Fiction Books Start to Feel Like Templates

I do not personally find my book recommendations from TikTok, but I know millions of readers do. It's how some authors have become overnight successes, and it's something that several people have said to me, that 'maybe one day someone will recommend your book on Booktok!' and at first I was excited at the prospect of that happening to me, but now I'm a little bit uncertain if that is what I actually want. 

Let's take a closer look at how modern fiction is now being shaped by the "trends" of social media. Before I begin I want to give credit to the original poster, lit.by.adam on Instagram, for getting me to think deeply about this topic after he posted a seven page carousel of this topic. I will be going off of his slides and giving my take on them.

Point #1: Why does so much of modern popular fiction feel so empty?

lit.by.adam says "The stories are often drenched in pointless spicy scenes or toxic, manipulative relationships, yet framed as aspirational or romantic. What's rewarded isn't nuance or beauty or depth- it's intensity, speed and shock value."

I agree with this. Some of the most viral books are leaving young, impressionable readers with all of the shock/trauma and none of the emotional examination and recovery of such things. Art is obviously subjective, and people read for a lot of different reasons, but when the author is going for maximum visibility across social media, it feels like they are more concerned about having the most content to provoke quick reactions from clips about their books. 

TikTok's algorithms reward engagement, with clips reaching the widest audiences when clicked on or interacted with in the first 10 seconds. Research shows that the platform prioritizes content such as fear, lust, outrage and intensity because these emotions keep people scrolling (Radesky, 2020). And now books are being promoted and consumed in this way. As digital platforms also reward authors monetarily per chapter read, it encourages authors to write with pacing that's fast, addictive and filled with cliffhangers. It may not necessarily have been written how the author envisioned it, but now many publishing houses are prioritizing a book's viral potential over it's literary quality. 

Point #2: Attention Spans and the Neuroscience of Shallow Reading

The way people consume content is rapid. Video clips play for 1-3 seconds before we swipe to the next one looking for that immediate emotional payoff. This trains our brains to expect emotional impact without the proper lead up, trauma without reflection, and surface level comprehension. 

Well structured literature demands our brains to slow down, to do the hard mental labor of proper reading. It asks us to be patient, to invest emotionally in a character's journey, and give deep thought to the way the book plays out. But novels with long descriptions or layered characters struggle to sell when compared to the more sensationalized modern fiction we are seeing more and more of. Our short attention spans simply won't tolerate a book that requires deep concentration and thought. People who spend all of their time on social media are used to seeing public vulnerability, trauma sharing, and suffering. Now they've come to expect their books to deliver those same hits, and quickly. 

Point #3: Why Does it Even Matter?

lit.by.adam says he doesn't believe every book needs to be a literary masterpiece, and he doesn't want to shame people for liking these kinds of books. He goes on to explain that the worrisome part is that when the most visible and marketed fiction is built around shallow gratification that society has been so conditioned to expect, there is a concerning connection to a decline in literary education and the publishing industry. 

I agree. One of the best things about being in my book club is that we take turns choosing what book is read by the group, thus forcing us to read things we might not normally have picked off the shelf. We read historical fiction, nonfiction, and fiction (all genres). We plod through books that maybe started out slow, but had a great payoff in the end. One we worked for, and the author properly took us through as they were allowed the space to write a book that maybe didn't conform to current popular standards. We meet and discuss the books together, learning new perspectives and understanding how it impacted us all uniquely.

lit.by.adam suggests going to your local library and trying to find the strangest book on the shelf, then of course reading it! You may just find the next book you couldn't live without, and no one on social media had three seconds to influence you to buy it. 

I would love to hear your thoughts on this! Have you ever been influenced to read a popular book from BookTok only to be left feeling empty afterwards?