Drawbacks and Benefits of Bookstagram

Bookstagram is simply the corner of Instagram where bookworms run rife, sharing reviews, photos and other bookish content. I joined back on New Year's Day, 2017, having been told that's where all the action is. After six years and almost 800 posts on that platform, I'll put in my honest two cents worth on whether it's all it's cracked up to be in my experience. I'll begin with the many drawbacks and finish off with the benefits that keep me hanging in there.    

 DRAWBACKS

* You're a minnow in the ocean. The sheer number of Bookstagram accounts is overwhelming and the platform has its share of polished, impressive creative 'Influencers' the same as any other. Your voice is quickly smothered in the tidal wave of bookish content. I'm sure many new bookstagrammers wonder where all these trillions of like minds were back in the day when we found ourselves to be lonely book nerds at school and parties.  

* Bookstagram is a poor platform for promoting lesser-known books. These tend to slide under the radar and receive a smattering of likes and very few comments, if any. I'm not sure whether this is because people simply scroll past books they don't recognise or because the instagram algorithms favour bestsellers which the majority are raving about anyway. It sometimes seems we have a choice between either highlighting unfamiliar books and being ignored, or talking about the same old stuff for a bit of engagement. 

* Joining Bookstagram will not attract readers to your blog. That's not how bookstagrammers roll. The reason for scrolling instagram is to maximise exposure to as many pretty book pictures and quick brain snacks as possible in the given block of time we've set aside. It's not for getting sidetracked by visiting fellow bookstagrammers' blogs. In other words, when we're seeking fast food, we're rarely tempted by the prospect of a more substantial, sit-down meal. I can attest to that. Often when several people have liked and commented on my instagram posts, blog page views remain static. There are occasional rare souls who make a decision to return and read the post later. Those are the lifeblood of blogs.

* Not only your own number of followers but everyone else's is always in your face. Since the platform itself is built to place a great significance on numbers, it takes a strong mind to ignore all of that. I know several of us claim we do ignore it, but do we really, when that figure is forever in our face like a big red nose? You may ask, 'Hey, how come this person has been on for a shorter time than me, but already has triple the number of followers?' If this type of question plays on your mind, it might not be worth being on the platform, for it has the tendency to become toxic. And pretending we aren't bothered if we really are is disingenuous and exhausting.

* Your numbers are not necessarily even accurate. That rising numeral that gives us the warm fuzzies may be distorted by bots, randoms with their own reasons for following all and sundry, and former legitimate bookstagrammers who have abandoned their accounts and left them hanging in cyberspace. A bookstagrammer I know in real life remarked how although she apparently has 3000+ followers, it's always the same twenty or thirty people who engage her with comments. I can say something similar, although my total number is less than hers.

It's sort of ridiculous to be proud of a delusion. 

* Opportunities for distractions and tangents are rife. Some bookstagrammers set up their stories with all sorts of fancy questionnaires, graphs and gimmicks, because that's what we believe will attract new followers. And perhaps it does. The more eager engagers out there may know better than me. Others may set up reels of people turning the pages of a book or pulling spines off library shelves. I don't totally get the appeal of reels when it comes to Bookstagram. Unless the illustrations are mind-blowing, why watch other people turning pages rather than turning our own? Some bookstagrammers try to win allegiance by holding competitions. I'd like a dollar for every time I've read the instructions, 'Follow me, tag at least three friends to follow me, don't follow and then unfollow.' Seriously, I'd rather people unfollow me than remain grudging followers. My bookstagram account is not a mouse trap, nor is it the Hotel California! If you're not stimulated by my content, then cheerio. But I never hold competitions anyway. My point is that all this hoo-hah and hoop jumping is time consuming. It detracts from the time we have to read books, which is, after all, the ultimate reason for joining Bookstagram.

* Grief over losing good friends can be sudden and real. On several occasions, great accounts I've followed have simply pulled the plug and disappeared. Or else they've lost their momentum and left their feed sitting there, unrenewed for year after year. And often we never hear a word of explanation. People have a right to leave instagram, but it's a reminder for those of us left behind that bookstagram friends are not quite the same calibre as IRL friends, however much we may value them. Other times, good friends may stop liking and commenting on our posts simply because they are no longer appearing in their feed. Algorithms change, and we can be the victims. Other than visiting and commenting on theirs to remind them that we're still here, there's nothing much we can do. And all the second guessing can do our heads in.

* Sometimes we may feel obligated to join in when we're tagged, either on a story or a general post. Conversely, we may feel miffed if we're not technically tagged, and wonder whether we ought to just jump in anyway. (The answer is heck yeah!) Both scenarios have the potential to cause us a bit of anxiety we would not otherwise have experienced. 

* FOMO is real. You're bound to come across occasional raving booksta posts about how a couple of friends of yours got together behind the scenes to 'buddy read' one of your favourite books, and you weren't ever told. Do you relish the opportunity to revert back to your most insecure, miserable High School feelings, even when you're middle aged? Bookstagram has the potential to bring back the saddest, most forgettable memories of our adolescence. But only if we let it. In many cases, bookstagrammers make an effort not to be cliquey by asking people to join their read-alongs. The more the better. 

BENEFITS

* You're a minnow in the ocean. This is the flip side of the first drawback. Something liberating happens when we realise we needn't take ourselves too seriously. We're doing nothing that hasn't been extremely well done by thousands and thousands of others. This frees us to take risks and be real in our thoughts and discussions, because nobody is really watching us. 

* We learn about many great books we've never heard about before. I've been immersing myself in the world of books since I was very small, and thought I'd come across most old treasures that might tick my boxes. Was I ever wrong! I have many bookstagram friends to thank for introducing me on different occasions to delightful novels I never knew existed. Thanks heavens for those brave bookstagrammers who ignore the second point on my list of drawbacks, and rave on about lesser known books anyway. And I've been able to pass it forward to others. The same goes for challenges. I'd never have known about the annual readers' challenge on the Agatha Christie website if I hadn't seen several other bookstagrammers mention it. Or the weekly Jane Austen and Lucy Maud Montgomery challenges I jump into when the mood strikes me.  

* It's a screen for new releases. There is so much media hype surrounding hot-off-the-press books, I enjoy settling back to see what trusted friends have to say about their first impressions. Depending on the overall effect, I might either rush to get hold of a copy of my own, or decide to forget it, at least for now. There are too many books in the world to read without getting swept along in the crowd, and finding we're not impressed. I don't know for sure, but I imagine I've been warned to steer clear of several rabbit holes.

* We have a record for our own benefit, and quite an attractive one. I avoided bookstagram for a long time, thinking I could never live up to the visually superior standards that had been set by others. However, making an effort to frame a book with a lovely background has helped to open my eyes to beauty of the world around me, whether it's the great outdoors or props in my own home. It needn't even be about the photos of all. I've come across several great bookstagrammers who use the same white or paisley backgrounds all the time.

* We can indulge our love of specific books. Whether it's Wuthering Heights, Middlemarch, Harry Potter or the Narnia Chronicles, just explore the hashtags to get hours of fun reading what tons of other fans think of the book. This could even form your silent reading on any lazy evening when you want to cheer yourself up. You might get a deluge of criticism too, but that's all part of the fun, and it's not such a bad exercise to see what the critics think. (We can do the same thing by scrolling reviews on Goodreads and Amazon of course, but without the benefit of the pretty pictures.)  

* There is far more interaction than I get from doing my blog alone. I always condense my thoughts for bookstagram from reviews I've typed for my blog. And yet the discussion it generates is always far greater than blog comments. I've honestly come to a point where I don't mind few comments, but I relish that boost of dopamine. I'm not going to play coy and pretend I can take friendly engagement or leave it. Let's be honest, it's disheartening to feel we're always typing into a vacuum. Passionate chatter is lifeblood to a bookworm. Bookstagram, in my experience, is where the bulk of this fun comes from. And it's time to ditch comparisons. Even if I'm not getting as much engagement as other bookstagrammers who spring to mind, at least I'm getting far more than I ever would from this blog alone. 

So I'm sticking to my little corner of instagram, at least for now. We'll be alright as long as we don't get bogged down in unanswerable questions such as, 'How come I got so much engagement for my post about Pride and Prejudice and hardly any for Persuasion, when I put in so much time and effort?' Perhaps the answer is that Bookstagram, being a little microcosm of life, mirrors the unpredictability of life. 

Are you on there? Let me know and I'll follow you? And please follow me, @vincereview, if you care to.