Selfies and shelfies on #bookstagram and #booktok – social media and the mediation of Australian teen reading

ABSTRACT

This article explores how selfies and shelfies on the digital platforms Instagram and TikTok contribute to the dynamics of intermediation for Australian teen readers by presenting two contrasting case studies. The first features Australian Bookstagrammer @BookBookOwl whose social media accounts feature aspirational content in which identity construction is attached to her expertise as a bookstagrammer and book lover. The second is the TikTok account of @hana.might.read who frequently posts using the #booktok hashtag and whose posts are personal and reader-identity focused. The article aims to explore selfie and shelfie practices as examples of social media posts that potentially mediate book and reading culture for Australian teenagers. The article investigates how the examples exist as social media entertainment [Cunningham and Craig 2019. Social Media Entertainment: The New Intersection of Hollywood and Silicon Valley. New York: New York University Press] which incorporate and rely on traits of micro-celebrity [Abidin 2018. Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame Online. Bingley: Emerald Publishing], performativity [Butler 1990. Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge] and relational labour [Baym 2018. Playing to the Crowd: Musicians, Audiences, and the Intimate Work of Connection. New York: New York University Press] as a key ingredient of their success.

KEYWORDS:

• Teen reading
• selfies
• shelfies
• Instagram
• TikTok

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Duets allow users to build on another user's video on TikTok by recording their own video alongside the original as it plays.

2 Stitching allows users to take a section of someone else’s TikTok video and use it in their own video.

3 ‘Repping’ on platforms like Instagram involves promoting products for a company either to receive free products or for payment.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council under the Linkage Projects scheme [number LP180100258].