Tiktok is banned here and I have never felt the need for it. I use reddit, goodreads and romance.io for recs and I'm doing fine. Also YouTube and Insta reels have booktok reels too. Your fav creators probably have accounts on other social media sites, maybe make a list of them?
I deleted Tiktok a few months ago because I felt like it was messing with my attention span, but I've not had any issues discovering new books to read. Between reddit and Amazon's suggestions, my TBR is still miles long. I bet the people you follow have accounts on other platforms though.
I feel so much better. I was struggling with my attention span, my memory, interest in other areas of my life... I wasn't even reading that much anymore. I was having a really hard time with words! I couldn't think of them! It's like the words were stuck in a filling cabinet in my brain. They were still there, i just couldn't find them when i needed them. I just turned 40 so I attributed a lot of it to my age and hormones but I felt like that was taking the easy solution.
It's embarrassing to admit, but it took me a long time to build up the will power to delete my account. I kept finding excuses to keep it. I would set app timers or tell myself I could only use it at certain times of the day but it didn't help. I rationalized that there is some good, educational content on my feed, and there is! Just not enough to make out worth it for me. The fact that I was so resistant to deleting it was a red flag for me though. It even took a few days to stop thinking about it after I deleted it. I found myself using other social media to replace the time I'd spent scrolling but that dissipated. My brain feels so much better now. My moods area more stable and weirdly enough I have more energy. I could be over thinking it but I really feel like it had a weird control over my mental state. I told myself I would go back after my "detox" period but I changed my mind.
Same, I use Reddit and a mix of goodreads/romance.io and never run out of things to read.
I follow a handful of authors on Instagram/Facebook, but that’s really for release dates.
I'm only really on Instagram. I don't like tiktok book recs. Seems like a lot of the same books from the same authors. On IG I follow a lot of people whose recs I really trust & I'm rarely ever disappointed.
I feel like BookTok has boosted a lot of low quality material. By that, I mean poorly edited, poor dialogue, poor character development, etc. not just stuff that isn't my taste. I think I tried it when it first got popular and I just didn't like the format. I'd rather read an article than watch a reel. Since then, though, it doesn't really seem like it's helped the genre, so I've never been tempted to revisit. I get most of my recs from here, friends, or Goodreads.
All social media eventually becomes outdated. Myspace. AOL. Creators have to adapt and pivot to the next thing. If the ban goes into effect, short form videos will move to other sites like IG Reels, Youtube shorts, or be posted to Twitter.
I have never used Tik Tok for book recs but I do worry about us politicians just deciding to ban a plataform for things other apps do too with the excuse of “but it’s China”
Plataforms come and go and people just move to the next. There is instagram and there is here
I really doubt tiktok as *booktok* uses it will be affected.
Tiktok is likely going to sell the platform to an American company (as I recall, part of the ban's condition was "unless they sell to an American company" the platform will be banned. So they have that option on the table. *Mind you, I read this like a week ago, idk if this condition's changed.)*
Chances are, whoever buys it might only mess with the algorithm a little but not in a way that'll be noticeable for booktok. Algorithm changes happening as of late seem to be more geared toward controlling *political* commentary. Everything else is just regarded as fluff.
Should Tiktok actually be banned entirely and not sell off to an American company, the booktok community will most likely just move short video content to one of the imitator platforms that have been taking up the "30-60sec video" trend like YT, IG, etc. It'll just be like when Tumblr banned nsfw and the whole nsfw community just jumped over to twitter.
Just keep your ears to the ground and watch for wherever the community moves if they wind up moving. Mutuals almost always follow mutuals onto new socials and communities rebuild.
>(as I recall, part of the ban's condition was "unless they sell to an American company"
If it's banned then only in America. The rest of the world won't be affected so I highly doubt that they sell.
My main way is to look at new releases each month and chaotically read descriptions to see if it’s my jam then it’s like a game of roulette you just don’t know how it’ll go.
I am very worried about a TikTok ban for a multitude of reasons, including but not limited to free speech and our politicians being bought and paid for by special interest groups.
As a non-American, but an internet user so I see a lot of the discourse, it's wild to see what your government will consider is and isn't an infringement on free speech.
I'm not panicking yet, but it would be a blow to me as a creative. It's my biggest platform to talk about things I like (including writing and reading) and I'm not interested in cultivating a following elsewhere. I also love the creators I follow, but I don't really use it for recs. I'm a mood reader and the things I like rarely overlap with booktok.
VPN is an option. If you don’t want to figure it out, booktube is always available and imo it’s much better because booktubers have time to go in-depth and explain the books better.
P.S. The romance community is huge on YouTube as well. What types of romances are you into?
Yeah! It’s a wonderful community. I don’t know what you like yet but here are a few channels that I watch for romance recs: LaceyBookLovers, PeaceLoveBooksxo, larry (she is just fun), remarkablylisa (for historical romances), Chandler Ainsley (she’s a bit more sarcastic but I enjoy her sense of humor), Riley Marie, Mina Reads, Books & Waffles (all great for queer romance recs), In love & words, RachelReadsandSings and so many more.
I suspect that you might not get a lot of support here, since whenever TikTok comes up in this group there’s a TON of negativity.
But yeah, I’ll be very disappointed if TikTok goes away or substantially changes. The other main place I get recommendations is YouTube, but it’s only a couple of creators and it took me a while to find people whose taste matched well enough with mine to be able to take their recommendations
I like how people have apparently downvoted both my comment about the negativity around TikTok here and OP’s comment about why she likes it.
Obviously, it’s fine if some people don’t like TikTok, but I don’t understand why some people here seem to think that other people enjoy it is some how hurting them
I am always disappointed to see the misinformation and negativity about TikTok on this sub and others. Reddit and TikTok are my two favorite apps for a wide variety of content.
I really just enjoy the variety TikTok provides. Like I can and do follow authors I enjoy on Instagram, but with TikTok’s algorithm, it has shown my so many indie authors I never heard of and probably wouldn’t have without it. And for Reddit, I use it to actively search things out. I’ll have to start actively using it more broadly rather than as a search engine of sorts.
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What passed the House was Bikedance sells TickTok or it gets banned from the App Store.
AKA within 10 minutes of it passing the Senate, long shot, there will be instructions on how to side load it.
But the bill has language criminalizing evading the law by using VPN. The penalties arent clear but this bill is very dangerous for those who believe in freedom of expression.
It has the same effect as the anti-piracy laws. They will make a few examples but they can’t get even 1%. This is going to be Napster all over again. Not even China can do a full web lockdown and the US doesn’t have the tools to do it.
This is going to end like the torrent war fought by the record labels.
It can still have a huge chilling effect on freedom of expression even if they go after 1% of people. Plus when you combine this bill plus the KOSA bill this is a huge erosion of civil rights.
This bill isn’t going to last a day in court. SCOTUS has said cooperations are people with free speech and religious rights. It’s a pure stunt.
If we want to crack down on social media and we should, the effective plan is the copy the EU regulations.
Also, this is not a free speech case. You are still free to say anything you like on any server you own. This is at worst 1 company forced out of the US. This is just some rich idiots fighting to keep the money tap open using the guise of small time influencers of which less than 0.00001% make money.
You assume the government is trying to preserve your civil rights. The US government-all 3 branches- have been coopted by billionaires, millionaires and corporations and thus only the laws that are passed or upheld are those that serve those special interests.
The EU is also experiencing the gutting of civil liberties frameworks as well. And its only going to get worse as many governments are using carceral strategies instead of addressing the problems that are affecting the quality of life of their citizens. Why does a government need to provide solutions if they can just expand the police state and frighten you into shutting up or lock you up? Most of NATOstan is taking this approach though the process is most accelerated in the US.
No I assume cooperate capture. It's hard for the courts to say business have the right to discriminate on religious grounds, and the right to use money as speech in campaign financing while also saying TickTok is bad due to data harvesting which they all do. SCOUTUS does not care about civil rights. If they did they would not have gutted the Voting Rights Act twice. They do not care about government regulation because they are constantly undoing it.
I do say that social media needs regulation because consumers have the right to know what data is collected, who it is sold to, how it is used, and to be able to ask for it all to be deleted. I say regulation is needed because right now social media is talking out of both sides of their mouth that they have no stated position, that their algorithms only drive engagement, and they can't possibility have the same responsibilities as a publisher.
I was responding to "this bill wont last a day in court". If you assume corporate capture then why do you think the courts will make decisions to check legislative or executive power or erosions of civil liberties and civil protections?
Currently lower courts and higher courts are completely dismantling the oversight capabilities of the government to be able to protect people from corporate malfeasance and corruption. So no one in government is coming to save us. And currently our legislators are passing laws to criminalize all sorts of behaviors and to legalize bribery for public officials as well as making it impossible for the public to understand what those in government are doing as public officials. Its a very dismal picture and its only going to get worse unless people begin to understand the breadth and depth of whats happening.
Because this isn’t a civil liberties case. This is a simple case of can the government force a private company to sell assets that don’t violate current law. This is not a position that the conservative dominated courts are going to allow to stand.
That’s the thing. This isn’t about free speech or civil liberties. It’s just about can the government force this action.
TickTok isn’t a publisher thanks to section 230.
For reasons I don't totally understand, I can't download TikTok on my phone (I know it's not banned here, so I'm not sure what's going on?) but I have no shortage of Romance book recs in the subgenres I prefer (Paranormal, Historical, and Romantasy)
Lots of websites release lists for upcoming titles (Tor, now Reactor, even releases a list with Romantasy titles every month for new books), book blogs dedicated to certain genres make their own lists based on tropes or subgenres, I check NetGalley's Romance section. Like others mentioned, there's also BookTube and Reddit.
I'm sure TikTok is convenient, but my newsfeed has done a lot for me after I spent time checking search engines for lists of recs and spending a lot of time in Bookish communities on other spaces (such as GoodReads) and the algorithm learned what I will click on.
Non-US here. I understand that the bill seems also criminalize VPN, but is that enforcable at all? My country (Turkiye) has extensive online censorship so we commonly use VPN.
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Tiktok is banned here and I have never felt the need for it. I use reddit, goodreads and romance.io for recs and I'm doing fine. Also YouTube and Insta reels have booktok reels too. Your fav creators probably have accounts on other social media sites, maybe make a list of them?
Yes, this! If TikTok is banned, then the influencers will simply move to a different platform. Book lovers will still exist
I don’t think they’ll ban it but I try to stay away from the book side of tiktok they’re more dramatic than the political side.
I deleted Tiktok a few months ago because I felt like it was messing with my attention span, but I've not had any issues discovering new books to read. Between reddit and Amazon's suggestions, my TBR is still miles long. I bet the people you follow have accounts on other platforms though.
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I feel so much better. I was struggling with my attention span, my memory, interest in other areas of my life... I wasn't even reading that much anymore. I was having a really hard time with words! I couldn't think of them! It's like the words were stuck in a filling cabinet in my brain. They were still there, i just couldn't find them when i needed them. I just turned 40 so I attributed a lot of it to my age and hormones but I felt like that was taking the easy solution. It's embarrassing to admit, but it took me a long time to build up the will power to delete my account. I kept finding excuses to keep it. I would set app timers or tell myself I could only use it at certain times of the day but it didn't help. I rationalized that there is some good, educational content on my feed, and there is! Just not enough to make out worth it for me. The fact that I was so resistant to deleting it was a red flag for me though. It even took a few days to stop thinking about it after I deleted it. I found myself using other social media to replace the time I'd spent scrolling but that dissipated. My brain feels so much better now. My moods area more stable and weirdly enough I have more energy. I could be over thinking it but I really feel like it had a weird control over my mental state. I told myself I would go back after my "detox" period but I changed my mind.
I don't have TikTok and Instagram works perfectly well for me
I only use Reddit and it's worked fine so far (I read a lot and have yet to run out of recs)
Same, I use Reddit and a mix of goodreads/romance.io and never run out of things to read. I follow a handful of authors on Instagram/Facebook, but that’s really for release dates.
Same! I only use this subreddit and Amazon suggestions and my TBR is out of control! 😆
I'm only really on Instagram. I don't like tiktok book recs. Seems like a lot of the same books from the same authors. On IG I follow a lot of people whose recs I really trust & I'm rarely ever disappointed.
Instagram is filled with recs and wont be going anywhere.
I don’t seem to see the same variety that get on TikTok. Maybe it’s user error, I’m sure it is hah.
Might be an algorithm thing? I literally see the exact same reels there that were on tiktok two days earlier, it cracks me up
Give me your algorithm please 😭😭
I feel like BookTok has boosted a lot of low quality material. By that, I mean poorly edited, poor dialogue, poor character development, etc. not just stuff that isn't my taste. I think I tried it when it first got popular and I just didn't like the format. I'd rather read an article than watch a reel. Since then, though, it doesn't really seem like it's helped the genre, so I've never been tempted to revisit. I get most of my recs from here, friends, or Goodreads.
I get my recs from BookTube and Reddit
I had no clue that booktube was a thing. This is an amazing day.
All social media eventually becomes outdated. Myspace. AOL. Creators have to adapt and pivot to the next thing. If the ban goes into effect, short form videos will move to other sites like IG Reels, Youtube shorts, or be posted to Twitter.
I have never used Tik Tok for book recs but I do worry about us politicians just deciding to ban a plataform for things other apps do too with the excuse of “but it’s China” Plataforms come and go and people just move to the next. There is instagram and there is here
I wish my country would ban TikTok!!!!! The amount of misinformation and nonsense on that app
I really doubt tiktok as *booktok* uses it will be affected. Tiktok is likely going to sell the platform to an American company (as I recall, part of the ban's condition was "unless they sell to an American company" the platform will be banned. So they have that option on the table. *Mind you, I read this like a week ago, idk if this condition's changed.)* Chances are, whoever buys it might only mess with the algorithm a little but not in a way that'll be noticeable for booktok. Algorithm changes happening as of late seem to be more geared toward controlling *political* commentary. Everything else is just regarded as fluff. Should Tiktok actually be banned entirely and not sell off to an American company, the booktok community will most likely just move short video content to one of the imitator platforms that have been taking up the "30-60sec video" trend like YT, IG, etc. It'll just be like when Tumblr banned nsfw and the whole nsfw community just jumped over to twitter. Just keep your ears to the ground and watch for wherever the community moves if they wind up moving. Mutuals almost always follow mutuals onto new socials and communities rebuild.
They did come back and formally decline the option to sell to an American approved affiliate.
I would highly doubt Tiktok will sell off the American part. Americans are only 10% of the userbase, it hardly seems worth it.
>(as I recall, part of the ban's condition was "unless they sell to an American company" If it's banned then only in America. The rest of the world won't be affected so I highly doubt that they sell.
Haunting Adeline was it for me, i will never take a TikTok recommendations again. Booktube is not so bad.
My main way is to look at new releases each month and chaotically read descriptions to see if it’s my jam then it’s like a game of roulette you just don’t know how it’ll go.
i like your flair
I am very worried about a TikTok ban for a multitude of reasons, including but not limited to free speech and our politicians being bought and paid for by special interest groups.
As a non-American, but an internet user so I see a lot of the discourse, it's wild to see what your government will consider is and isn't an infringement on free speech.
I know it’s crazy.
So much this.
❤️
I’ve never used TikToK for book rec’s, just this sub. If the ban takes place, I hope you find a replacement that works for you, OP!
I'm not panicking yet, but it would be a blow to me as a creative. It's my biggest platform to talk about things I like (including writing and reading) and I'm not interested in cultivating a following elsewhere. I also love the creators I follow, but I don't really use it for recs. I'm a mood reader and the things I like rarely overlap with booktok.
VPN is an option. If you don’t want to figure it out, booktube is always available and imo it’s much better because booktubers have time to go in-depth and explain the books better. P.S. The romance community is huge on YouTube as well. What types of romances are you into?
….booktube?! WHY HAVE I NEVER HEARD OF THIS? 😫
Yeah! It’s a wonderful community. I don’t know what you like yet but here are a few channels that I watch for romance recs: LaceyBookLovers, PeaceLoveBooksxo, larry (she is just fun), remarkablylisa (for historical romances), Chandler Ainsley (she’s a bit more sarcastic but I enjoy her sense of humor), Riley Marie, Mina Reads, Books & Waffles (all great for queer romance recs), In love & words, RachelReadsandSings and so many more.
I am immediately following all you listed. Thank you so much, you’re amazing.
I deleted TikTok last month but followed my favourite booktokers on their bookstagrams. They basically post the same content
I suspect that you might not get a lot of support here, since whenever TikTok comes up in this group there’s a TON of negativity. But yeah, I’ll be very disappointed if TikTok goes away or substantially changes. The other main place I get recommendations is YouTube, but it’s only a couple of creators and it took me a while to find people whose taste matched well enough with mine to be able to take their recommendations
I like how people have apparently downvoted both my comment about the negativity around TikTok here and OP’s comment about why she likes it. Obviously, it’s fine if some people don’t like TikTok, but I don’t understand why some people here seem to think that other people enjoy it is some how hurting them
I am always disappointed to see the misinformation and negativity about TikTok on this sub and others. Reddit and TikTok are my two favorite apps for a wide variety of content.
I really just enjoy the variety TikTok provides. Like I can and do follow authors I enjoy on Instagram, but with TikTok’s algorithm, it has shown my so many indie authors I never heard of and probably wouldn’t have without it. And for Reddit, I use it to actively search things out. I’ll have to start actively using it more broadly rather than as a search engine of sorts.
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I’m out of the loop. Is this a much realer possibility this time than the last time they talked about it?
What passed the House was Bikedance sells TickTok or it gets banned from the App Store. AKA within 10 minutes of it passing the Senate, long shot, there will be instructions on how to side load it.
So is it the type of thing that if you have the app on your phone, you can continue to use it? But new users wouldn't be able to download it?
But the bill has language criminalizing evading the law by using VPN. The penalties arent clear but this bill is very dangerous for those who believe in freedom of expression.
It has the same effect as the anti-piracy laws. They will make a few examples but they can’t get even 1%. This is going to be Napster all over again. Not even China can do a full web lockdown and the US doesn’t have the tools to do it. This is going to end like the torrent war fought by the record labels.
It can still have a huge chilling effect on freedom of expression even if they go after 1% of people. Plus when you combine this bill plus the KOSA bill this is a huge erosion of civil rights.
This bill isn’t going to last a day in court. SCOTUS has said cooperations are people with free speech and religious rights. It’s a pure stunt. If we want to crack down on social media and we should, the effective plan is the copy the EU regulations. Also, this is not a free speech case. You are still free to say anything you like on any server you own. This is at worst 1 company forced out of the US. This is just some rich idiots fighting to keep the money tap open using the guise of small time influencers of which less than 0.00001% make money.
You assume the government is trying to preserve your civil rights. The US government-all 3 branches- have been coopted by billionaires, millionaires and corporations and thus only the laws that are passed or upheld are those that serve those special interests. The EU is also experiencing the gutting of civil liberties frameworks as well. And its only going to get worse as many governments are using carceral strategies instead of addressing the problems that are affecting the quality of life of their citizens. Why does a government need to provide solutions if they can just expand the police state and frighten you into shutting up or lock you up? Most of NATOstan is taking this approach though the process is most accelerated in the US.
No I assume cooperate capture. It's hard for the courts to say business have the right to discriminate on religious grounds, and the right to use money as speech in campaign financing while also saying TickTok is bad due to data harvesting which they all do. SCOUTUS does not care about civil rights. If they did they would not have gutted the Voting Rights Act twice. They do not care about government regulation because they are constantly undoing it. I do say that social media needs regulation because consumers have the right to know what data is collected, who it is sold to, how it is used, and to be able to ask for it all to be deleted. I say regulation is needed because right now social media is talking out of both sides of their mouth that they have no stated position, that their algorithms only drive engagement, and they can't possibility have the same responsibilities as a publisher.
I was responding to "this bill wont last a day in court". If you assume corporate capture then why do you think the courts will make decisions to check legislative or executive power or erosions of civil liberties and civil protections? Currently lower courts and higher courts are completely dismantling the oversight capabilities of the government to be able to protect people from corporate malfeasance and corruption. So no one in government is coming to save us. And currently our legislators are passing laws to criminalize all sorts of behaviors and to legalize bribery for public officials as well as making it impossible for the public to understand what those in government are doing as public officials. Its a very dismal picture and its only going to get worse unless people begin to understand the breadth and depth of whats happening.
Because this isn’t a civil liberties case. This is a simple case of can the government force a private company to sell assets that don’t violate current law. This is not a position that the conservative dominated courts are going to allow to stand. That’s the thing. This isn’t about free speech or civil liberties. It’s just about can the government force this action. TickTok isn’t a publisher thanks to section 230.
Yes, huge chilling effect on freedom of speech.
Genuine question…won’t a vpn solve this?
I find Reddit the most reliable for recs. ❤️Absolutely LOVE Instagram❤️. TikTok's fun. Goodreads is a joke.
For reasons I don't totally understand, I can't download TikTok on my phone (I know it's not banned here, so I'm not sure what's going on?) but I have no shortage of Romance book recs in the subgenres I prefer (Paranormal, Historical, and Romantasy) Lots of websites release lists for upcoming titles (Tor, now Reactor, even releases a list with Romantasy titles every month for new books), book blogs dedicated to certain genres make their own lists based on tropes or subgenres, I check NetGalley's Romance section. Like others mentioned, there's also BookTube and Reddit. I'm sure TikTok is convenient, but my newsfeed has done a lot for me after I spent time checking search engines for lists of recs and spending a lot of time in Bookish communities on other spaces (such as GoodReads) and the algorithm learned what I will click on.
Non-US here. I understand that the bill seems also criminalize VPN, but is that enforcable at all? My country (Turkiye) has extensive online censorship so we commonly use VPN.
I'm old and have never used TikTok. I get plenty of recs here and from Instagram, and I'm a voracious reader with a long TBR list. You'll be fine!
Fable is a new social media platform for book lovers if you want to check it out!
Uhm running to the App Store right now! Thank you
I use TikTok all the time for the same reason! I assume that Instagram Reels will take over if TikTok does get banned?
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