Blog
23 of April of 2022
Social Media and Books: An optimistic perspective
By Literacidades
Social media, particularly Instagram, represent a privileged territory in which the proposal of greater attention to reading and books can reach more people in a direct way. The creation and dissemination of literary content are a reality that has existed in Portugal for several years, but in the past three years, they have acquired exponential visibility, attracting the interest of publishers, writers and, above all, readers. There is a proliferation of profiles dedicated to literary dissemination of different styles, driven by content creators with heterogeneous characteristics and with different purposes.
While some of these creators maintain their virtual presence as a leisure activity to which they dedicate their free time, others, like Literacidades, do it from a professional point of view. And this was the main change in the paradigm of online literary dissemination: from an early stage more uncompromising, the activity has expanded to professionalization, leading to the emergence of content producers whose training and dedication go far beyond the hobby frontier and are now considered in the same way as other dissemination agents when it comes to encouraging reading and books.
By becoming more professional, the activity of online literary content production gains another dimension. Readers identify with the type of literary proposals that one or another content creator offers and feel motivated to try them out, interacting during this process with the content creator to share their experience with a particular book.
We, at Literacidades, don't believe that empty statistics can be used to catalog reading habits. Never, as today, has there been such a large number (and not percentage) of book readers. Literacy, the democratization of access to books, and above all the diversification and plurality of publications mean that those who want to read today are free to do so and have a wide range of choices that did not exist twenty years ago. Our perspective on reading can only be optimistic.
Therefore, nowadays, social media and literary content creators play a decisive role in capturing the attention of users and they act to normalize reading, showing the possibilities that a book can bring to those who want to read it.
Social media, particularly Instagram, represent a privileged territory in which the proposal of greater attention to reading and books can reach more people in a direct way. The creation and dissemination of literary content are a reality that has existed in Portugal for several years, but in the past three years, they have acquired exponential visibility, attracting the interest of publishers, writers and, above all, readers. There is a proliferation of profiles dedicated to literary dissemination of different styles, driven by content creators with heterogeneous characteristics and with different purposes.
While some of these creators maintain their virtual presence as a leisure activity to which they dedicate their free time, others, like Literacidades, do it from a professional point of view. And this was the main change in the paradigm of online literary dissemination: from an early stage more uncompromising, the activity has expanded to professionalization, leading to the emergence of content producers whose training and dedication go far beyond the hobby frontier and are now considered in the same way as other dissemination agents when it comes to encouraging reading and books.
By becoming more professional, the activity of online literary content production gains another dimension. Readers identify with the type of literary proposals that one or another content creator offers and feel motivated to try them out, interacting during this process with the content creator to share their experience with a particular book.
We, at Literacidades, don't believe that empty statistics can be used to catalog reading habits. Never, as today, has there been such a large number (and not percentage) of book readers. Literacy, the democratization of access to books, and above all the diversification and plurality of publications mean that those who want to read today are free to do so and have a wide range of choices that did not exist twenty years ago. Our perspective on reading can only be optimistic.
Therefore, nowadays, social media and literary content creators play a decisive role in capturing the attention of users and they act to normalize reading, showing the possibilities that a book can bring to those who want to read it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Literacidades is a profile created in 2019 by two avid readers, Álvaro and Ludgero, who seek views on Literature, proposing a vision of books inserted in a space where diversity of content and interactivity with readers are the essential points. Their Instagram page has already surpassed 10 thousand followers, becoming one of the most relevant in Portugal.
