The most-watched show globally on Netflix last month was “Adolescence,” a fictional and disturbing drama about a 13-year-old British boy charged with killing a girl. The intense acting and film style (one continuous take per episode) explores the origins of such an evil act.
The popularity of the four-part series, however, lies largely in the boy’s lonely descent into the digital universe of misogynistic social media and cyberbullying. The show has revived interest in restricting teens’ access to the internet – such as Australia’s pending ban on social media for people under age 16 – as well as banning phones in schools.
Yet like a good plot twist, this cultural moment in film has a countermoment in another medium. Young people in the United States are descending on (physical) bookstores, driven not only because of the popularity of a video-posting site, BookTok, but also so they can enjoy the safe and inclusive community that many bookstores now offer.
Members of Generation Z and Generation Alpha are discovering what life was like before the iPhone, when reading books like “Lord of the Flies” and “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” came with the touch of paper, the smell of ink, and in-person conversation about the relevance of a coming-of-age story to teenage angst.
To be sure, the percentage of boys between the ages of 8 and 18 in Britain who enjoy reading has fallen over the past two decades, from 46% to 28%, according to the National Literacy Trust. The country’s prime minister wants “Adolescence” to be shown in schools to encourage “conversations” about what troubles today’s boys. Still, almost two-thirds of people between the ages of 16 and 25 say BookTok has nudged them to discover a passion for reading, according to a survey by the Publishers Association.
In the U.S., meanwhile, the biggest (and once flailing) bookstore chain, Barnes & Noble, opened or reopened 57 shops last year and plans to open at least 60 more this year. The entire book industry has been revived largely because young people are using BookTok, a subcommunity of TikTok, to review and share their favorite books and authors.
Many bookstores now display favorites on BookTok or organize social gatherings around those books. “Many stores have … truly become a go-to destination for kids and teenagers to gather after school,” a Barnes & Noble spokesperson told Business Insider.
Or as one college student, Karis Hudgins at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, wrote in her school newspaper: “The world of literature is now more inclusive and accessible than ever before.” Lonely boys, take note.
