#BookTok's appeal on ninth‐grade students: An inquiry into students' responses on a social media revelation

Abstract

Over the last years, the hashtag #BookTok has been viewed more than 100 billion times on TikTok. Hence, both scholars and practitioners have plead for integrating #BookTok in the literacy classroom, expressing the hope that this digital subculture might flip adolescents' conceptions of reading and improve their reading motivation. This article presents the first empirical inquiry into students' evaluations of #BookTok in an educational context. Reporting a survey study among 142 ninth‐grade students in the Netherlands, who were introduced to #BookTok through a compilation video featuring the most popular Dutch #BookTokers, the article shows that the phenomenon especially appeals to students who already read for pleasure frequently. Evaluations by book avoiders, on the other hand, were overwhelmingly negative. Promisingly, though, students who can be described as “book doubters,” who do not read often despite a relatively positive reading attitude, frequently reported an intention to use #BookTok, both in leisurely and educational settings. Hence, the article argues that integrating #BookTok in literacy education might especially serve students fitting the book doubter persona. At the same time, the results underline the importance of differentiation in the literacy classroom, also regarding the use of #BookTok.

“She doesn’t consider it to be real literature”

“…While Calafato & Simmonds (2022) still emphasize texts in print, there have been recent pleas for the integration of non-paper literary practices in literature education. This includes research on the use of digital literature in the classroom (Simanowski et al, 2015), studies on the didactic potential of online reading communities like #BookTok (Jerasa & Boffone, 2021;Dera et al, 2023;Dera, 2024), and calls for literature education that considers embodied experiences of literary culture, such as all-city reads or literary tourism (Persson, 2015).…”

“She doesn’t consider it to be real literature”: Student Conceptions of the Term ‘Literature’ and the Notion of Literary Competence

“…While Calafato & Simmonds (2022) still emphasize texts in print, there have been recent pleas for the integration of non-paper literary practices in literature education. This includes research on the use of digital literature in the classroom (Simanowski et al, 2015), studies on the didactic potential of online reading communities like #BookTok (Jerasa & Boffone, 2021;Dera et al, 2023), and calls for literature education that considers embodied experiences of literary culture, such as all-city reads or literary tourism (Persson, 2015).…”