Paperback's Pondering's: Why I Can't Seem to Get the Hang of Bookstagram

Paperback's Pondering's is a weekly discussion when I take a topic and well, ponder about it! This week, I'm diving into the world of bookstagram.

It's a popular form of social ,media in the bookworm world: bookstagram. Just by searching up the tag #bookworm on Instagram, thousands upon thousands of aesthetically pleasing book photographs will show up. Some people even use bookstagram as their prime social media tool in the book world. I decided to give it a shot about a month ago when a few fellow bookworms convinced me to join. Sadly, I can't seem to get the appeal of it.

Rewind to late March when I was at a book event and almost everyone in the line was raving over bookstagram. Some talked about how amazing the community was, how they were able to make friends with authors through the site, and how easy it is to get noticed by publishers this way. Everyone got me hooked on the idea, and with me being in a photography class this semester, I felt like it would grow my knowledge on it as well as make some new friends.

I have now realized that bookstagram is not for me, at all. I soon found myself stressed over how often I had to post, as I saw the people I was following post at least once a day, as well as whether or not I had to join monthly photo challenges or not. Being a busy student, I barely have time to put together a nice setup for one book, let alone 30 per month! While I have a great admiration for those who put so much time and effort into their photos, seriously these people are like superheros, I could never do it myself.

The main thing that people seemed to love about bookstagram was the community. Some said that they had found their best book buddies on the site. I'm always looking for new friends to rave with about books, but I found it very hard on the site to make friends with people when you're just starting out. Most more popular book accounts would follow me, I'd get excited and follow them back, only to be unfollowed LITERALLY MINUTES LATER because they just wanted to expand their followers. I'm not trying to be rude or bash bookstagram, but I never have that problem on my blog or Twitter.

I find it hard to have proper conversations through bookstagram. On Twitter it's so easy to jump into a conversation and keep it going, but a conversation through the comment section of a photo just doesn't seem as organized. I find it a lot harder to let the conversations keep moving.

I guess what I'm trying to get here is, that while I have an amazing respect for all things bookstagram and I'm sure that there are lovely people on there that I would love to meet, Twitter is my main and favourite form of communication. I just find that with my experiences, everyone is a lot more open to each other, and it just overall seems a bit more my type. While I still keep my bookstagram to like the EVER SO GORGEOUS photos I see on there, and while I'll still keep my account for when I'm in the mood, I don't think it will be a major form of social media for me. I just don't feel very comfortable there.

I want to know what you think! What do you like/dislike about bookstagram?

Emily @ Paperback Princess