I don't give a fuck about "cringe." I truly don't. I give a massive fuck about the algorithimification of art.
A sing-song audio of "everything is content" being used to encourage creators to record their entire life into tiny videos day after day just for the privilege of being seen.
People referring to "feeding the algorithm" on sites that do not even function on algorithms.
Jump on this trending sound!
"X meets Y" descriptors going from a "don't use this in your elevator pitch" to "literally it's the only way anyone is gonna pick up your book."
Training up-and-coming authors to describe their book by tropes and aesthetics that are, golly, awfully easy to feed into ChatGPT.
It's the "Tok" of "BookTok" that is worrying. Not the types of books being read. Not the "cringe" (whatever that means for you). Not the people making the videos. I am a huge proponent of talking about books you love early and often. But the nature and landscape of TikTok - the things it pushes to the top - the way it encourages long-time users to think - looks and smells awfully similar to machine learning optimization.
To the point that reviews and recommendations sound more and more like prompts. To the point that we become more and more comfortable with viewing the worth of things based on what is shown to us, when, and how often.
Considering entertainment monopolies have a history of skewing numbers to send people where they want them to go, I'm just not a fan of priming the industry I love (both as a writer and a reader) to lead me around by the nose like that of my own volition.
Because what your FYP shows you is so easy to tamper with. What trends is so easy to game. Leaning into the fact that trending is a signifier of worth is just shooting ourselves, both as readers and as writers, in the foot.
