I’m (Finally) Back with Another Discussion Post aka Why I Don’t Have Bookstagram (ft. Me being controversial, again)

So I haven’t done a classic discussion post in years, but hi.

Hello.

I’m Taasia, and I like to post highly personal, controversial and/or strange discussions about books!

Maybe a few of you noticed, but I am one of the few bloggers out there who does not have Bookstagram.

And since I’ve had this idea brewing in my mind for a while, so I figured it was time to actually write it.

Also, as of writing this post, I recently co-won the Small Book Blogger Award from the Third Book Blogger Awards along with the lovely Olivia @ Purely Olivia! Thank you so much to everyone who voted for me & has supported me, beyond grateful and feeling so soft 💖 I love you all so MUCH. It all feels surreal.

And to all the people who just started following me because of that, thanks for stopping by. I hope you all enjoy the blog & like it enough not to unfollow.

So with that out of the way, let’s talk about today’s topic – the reasons why I personally choose not to have a Bookstagram.

My photography skills … really are not something

It is a running joke in my family that I cannot take pictures to save my life (especially of people), and honestly? They have good reason. While my photography isn’t ~that~ terrible, but it really isn’t something I want to embarass myself in front of the internet for, because photography isn’t a natural talent of mine.

Aesthetic who?

You know all those people who just naturally seem to have a perfect, cohesive aesthetic? That is absolutely not me. For the life of me, I am hopeless at maintaining a cohesive aesthetic. You all should see my personal Instagram, lmao. (Wait nO I truly hope you all don’t see that mess, because your eyes should be spared that misery.)

In case I haven’t made it clear, this area is … not my strong suit, to say the least.

It gives me less time to do blog posts/Tweet/read

Even if I was good at taking photos and all that, I just don’t think I would like the process of maintaining a Bookstagram that much, and would honestly much rather take the time to do things I love, bookishly-speaking, such as writing blog posts, read and Tweet/interact with you all on Twitter. (Even though Twitter can be exhausting sometimes, but that’s another topic for another day). And for me, it’s depth over breadth.

The difficulty of growing a Bookstagram

While growth on social media accounts as well as any content-creating platform is generally difficult, Instagram is perhaps the most difficult platform to grow on. While I personally don’t care about stats that much, I do think it is still a factor that needs to be put into consideration. The lack of growth that my Bookstagram account is likely to have will likely demotivate me to Bookstagram, and I don’t have the same passion to get me through that, personally speaking.

The consumerist & materialistic culture of Bookstagram

I briefly touched on this in my ARC hoarding post, but the bookish community has been known to subconsciously preach a consumerist attitude towards the owning & hauling of physical books, and Bookstagram is the bookish platform where this is most prevalent. And this attitude has always made me highly uncomfortable.

At this time, not to really hot take or what (even though that is what I have literally been doing the whole post) I am just not in a place where I want this to see that constantly in my feed. Yes, they look gorgeous, and yes, you can run a Bookstagram with ebooks, but this links back to growth, because it is known that physical books get a lot more likes than ebooks.

I just don’t have time

I know this is a highly self explanatory goal, but I’ve just never had a lot of time. While Bookstagram has its perks and seems awesome, it is something that takes a lot of time and maintenance, and not to be that person, but it’s a platform that you don’t receive monetary compensation from. While I personally find maintaining this blog worth it (because I love it enough), sadly, I’m not one of those people who find maintaining a Bookstagram (with no compensation) worth it.

And since moving to my new school, where my workload, commitments and extra curriculars are going to shoot up, I will have even less time for it, and I just really need to focus on school in these last two years (yes, I just started my first day of A Levels at the time this is going up (aka junior year for all you Americans), and it is … painful thus far).

Tangents aside though – on to my next point!

Not really a platform for me … for now?

This is probably the biggest reason why I don’t Bookstagram, and while it seems like its own separate reason (which it is!), it’s also pretty much a combination of all my reasons tied together. These factors just combine to create a good case on why I don’t have a Bookstagram, but never say never, right?

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So, do you have Bookstagram? If so, how are you liking it? If not, why don’t you have a Bookstagram? Do you agree with any of my reasons here? What are your thoughts on Bookstagram (and the community as a whole?)