Books I’m excited about reading.

Hi!

As an avid reader of book blogs and watcher of BookTube videos, I am constantly adding new books to my to be read pile. My shelves are teeming with books I can’t wait to get stuck in to and I thought I’d share some of them with you!

1/ Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

A cursed girl escapes death and finds herself in a magical world – but is then tested beyond her wildest imagination

Morrigan Crow is cursed. Having been born on Eventide, the unluckiest day for any child to be born, she’s blamed for all local misfortunes, from hailstorms to heart attacks–and, worst of all, the curse means that Morrigan is doomed to die at midnight on her eleventh birthday.

But as Morrigan awaits her fate, a strange and remarkable man named Jupiter North appears. Chased by black-smoke hounds and shadowy hunters on horseback, he whisks her away into the safety of a secret, magical city called Nevermoor.

It’s then that Morrigan discovers Jupiter has chosen her to contend for a place in the city’s most prestigious organization: the Wundrous Society. In order to join, she must compete in four difficult and dangerous trials against hundreds of other children, each boasting an extraordinary talent that sets them apart – an extraordinary talent that Morrigan insists she does not have. To stay in the safety of Nevermoor for good, Morrigan will need to find a way to pass the tests – or she’ll have to leave the city to confront her deadly fate. (Goodreads)

If you guys (like me) watch a lot of BookTubers, you may have noticed that everybody is absolutely raving about this book. I am always apprehensive about books which are compared to the Harry Potter series, because I don’t feel that anything would top it for me. HOWEVER, I have heard that – rather than being similar to HP – this simply captures the feeling that first time HP readers will fondly remember. It sounds so magical and imaginative and (seeing as my copy is arriving tomorrow) I am desperate to curl up with this. At the moment I am really craving completely immersive books and escapist fiction, and I think this will be an easy but incredibly entertaining read!

2/  A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

When, in 1922, he is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the count is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him a doorway into a much larger world of emotional discovery. (Goodreads)

This book came up on my Kindle as a suggested purchase, and after reading a quick sample I was immersed and am really looking forward to continuing. I’m not quite sure how to explain it but I love books that are written with elderly men protagonists. I also realised that – despite favouring historical fiction from the early to mid 1900s – I have never read any fiction about the Bolsheviks or Russia at this time. When I began reading this I was struck by a very subtle humour, and I am just really looking forward to this.

3/ Vengeful by V. E. Schwab (sequel to Vicious)

*THIS IS THE DESCRIPTION FOR VICIOUS, THE FIRST BOOK IN THIS SERIES, AS I DIDN’T WANT TO SPOIL ANYTHING*

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. 

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end? (Goodreads)

This is the sequel to Vicious, which I was surprisingly obsessed with when I read it! It was thrilling and complex and the characters were so bad they were good! I whizzed through this when I first read it as I found it so compelling and different to the kind of books I normally read. The sequel only just came out and I really want to pick it up. I am not a massive reader of series of books but this one is an exception. Probably a pretty fun and thrilling read for October too!

4/ The Radleys by Matt Haig

The Radleys are an everyday family who juggle dysfunctional lives. Except, as Peter and Helen Radley know, but their children have yet to find out, the Radleys happen to be a family of abstaining vampires. When one night Clara finds herself driven to commit a bloodthirsty act, her parents decide to explain a few things. (Goodreads)

It is no secret that I love Matt Haig’s books. Reasons to Stay Alive is one of my favourite books of all time, so I knew I needed to dabble into Haig’s fiction a little more. This seems like a good read for October especially, as it is marketed as being a bit creepy and has vampires (obvs). I have already mentioned in my blog hop post that I am trying to read a bit more urban fantasy, and so I think this is definitely continuing on the streak!

5/ Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

When Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home, long drives to explore the island, and quality time with the man she might one day marry. What she doesn’t know is that Nick’s family home happens to look like a palace, that she’ll ride in more private planes than cars, and that with one of Asia’s most eligible bachelors on her arm, Rachel might as well have a target on her back. Initiated into a world of dynastic splendor beyond imagination, Rachel meets Astrid, the It Girl of Singapore society; Eddie, whose family practically lives in the pages of the Hong Kong socialite magazines; and Eleanor, Nick’s formidable mother, a woman who has very strong feelings about who her son should–and should not–marry. Uproarious, addictive, and filled with jaw-dropping opulence, Crazy Rich Asians is an insider’s look at the Asian JetSet; a perfect depiction of the clash between old money and new money; between Overseas Chinese and Mainland Chinese; and a fabulous novel about what it means to be young, in love, and gloriously, crazily rich. (Goodreads)

Ordinarily this wouldn’t be my cup of tea, but I have heard so many good things about this book and the movie looks hilarious and so much fun. I have heard a lot of hype about this on YouTube (again, BookTubers are such enablers) and my favourite Instagrammer as of late (Laura Jane Williams) has described it as addictive and a must read, so there you go!

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I hope you guys enjoyed this post. I am definitely hoping to have a few more book reviews up on the blog in the coming weeks as I have been reading a lot of great books recently. The next one will probably be reviews of the two books I read as part of my genre blog hop! Stay tuned for that!

Crudo by Olivia Laing: Book review.

Kathy is a writer. Kathy is getting married. It’s the summer of 2017 and the whole world is falling apart.

Olivia Laing radically rewires the novel in a brilliant, funny and emphatically raw account of love in the apocalypse. A Goodbye to Berlin for the twenty-first century, Crudo charts in real time what it was like to live and love in the horrifying summer of 2017, from the perspective of a commitment-phobic peripatetic artist who may or may not be Kathy Acker.

From a Tuscan hotel for the super-rich to a Brexit-paralysed UK, Kathy spends the first summer of her forties trying to adjust to making a lifelong commitment as Trump is tweeting the world into nuclear war. But it’s not only Kathy who’s changing. Political, social and natural landscapes are all in peril. Fascism is on the rise, truth is dead and the planet is hotting up. Is it really worth learning to love when the end of the world is nigh? And how do you make art, let alone a life, when one rogue tweet could end it all? (Goodreads)

So I read this book with the hopes that it would be a relatable  (somewhat) examination of what it is like living in today’s climate, with the searing anxiety we all feel when we turn the news on, watching as the political world crumbles to shit. While this book did deliver on that, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

For me personally, the book felt like it had no direction. I get that this may have been a way of showing a jumbled up stream of consciousness, or it may represent the madness of the world we live in, but it just made it a less enjoyable read for me. While I did enjoy the writing, I found it flitted from thought to thought so quickly I didn’t really have time to process it.

With that being said, I did find that there were some passages that really capture how I feel about the world. These were written beautifully and eloquently in my view, but there were not quite enough of them to really convince me.

I’d recommend this book if you are a fan of the likes of Ali Smith and her writing style, or if you like books which are more about commentary than plot. I don’t think this is a bad book and I did enjoy reading it, it just isn’t the book for me.

 

Blog hop: exploring new genres

Hi! Back again.

I’m sorry for the radio silence. I started my masters degree last week and so things have been a bit mad. However, I am so excited to be taking part in something I have never done before as a blogger, and that is a blog hop!

A blog hop?

Yes, a blog hop! The lovely Charlotte, from Wonderfully Bookish (please check out her blog and her socials, she is great) came up with the idea of a group of us trying to broaden our reading tastes by reading and exploring new genres, or genres that we rarely read from.

The idea behind this blog hop is to encourage us as readers to engage in different genres, in the hopes that we will be pleasantly surprised by what we pick up! Also, for me it has already allowed me to discover some new bloggers, whose posts I can’t wait to read too!

So…what genre?

When looking at my bookshelves and my Goodreads shelves, I noticed a distinct lack of urban fantasy novels. I am not a massive fantasy reader, as I find the plots somewhat intimidating. I also tend to stay away from fantasy as I do not often partake in reading series of books, as I am very non committal. However, I have been trying to rectify this recently and have been reading some more fantasy, however none of it has been set in an urban setting.

What is urban fantasy?

Essentially, urban fantasy is fiction which takes place in an urban (or primarily real world) setting. Examples would include Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments series and even Harry Potter. Urban fantasy sails the line between contemporary and fantastical fiction. While urban fantasy does not need to exclusively take place in a contemporary, modern or real life world (for example in Harry Potter the wizarding and muggle worlds were quite separate), it is expected to hold some place in the world as we know (or have known) it.

The books I’m reading

So I have decided to try to read two different novels, the reviews for which I will post in the coming weeks. I have chosen these books based on the fact that Goodreads has categorised them as being of the urban fantasy genre.

I have tried to pick a relatively new urban fantasy release, alongside one which I have heard lots about in the past!

1) Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic. (Goodreads)

This book has always intrigued me, but when I tried to pick it up a few years ago I couldn’t quite get into it. I’ve heard it be referred to as “Harry Potter for grown ups”, and while I think if you compare anything to Harry Potter it’ll never meet your expectations, and while I also do not see myself as a GROWN UP, I’m really excited to be try this if it will immerse me in a magical world.

2) Toil and Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft edited by Tessa Sharpe and Jessica Spotswood

A young adult fiction anthology of 15 stories featuring contemporary, historical, and futuristic stories featuring witchy heroines who are diverse in race, class, sexuality, religion, geography, and era.

Are you a good witch or a bad witch?

Glinda the Good Witch. Elphaba the Wicked Witch. Willow. Sabrina. Gemma Doyle. The Mayfair Witches. Ursula the Sea Witch. Morgan le Fey. The three weird sisters from Macbeth.

History tells us women accused of witchcraft were often outsiders: educated, independent, unmarried, unwilling to fall in line with traditional societal expectations.

Bold. Powerful. Rebellious.

A bruja’s traditional love spell has unexpected results. A witch’s healing hands begin to take life instead of giving it when she ignores her attraction to a fellow witch. In a terrifying future, women are captured by a cabal of men crying witchcraft and the one true witch among them must fight to free them all. In a desolate past, three orphaned sisters prophesize for a murderous king. Somewhere in the present, a teen girl just wants to kiss a boy without causing a hurricane.

From good witches to bad witches, to witches who are a bit of both, this is an anthology of diverse witchy tales from a collection of diverse, feminist authors. The collective strength of women working together—magically or mundanely–has long frightened society, to the point that women’s rights are challenged, legislated against, and denied all over the world. Toil & Trouble delves deep into the truly diverse mythology of witchcraft from many cultures and feminist points of view, to create modern and unique tales of witchery that have yet to be explored. (Goodreads)

I picked this book for a few reasons. Firstly, I do love a bit of witchy fiction (I’ve enjoyed reading historical fiction novels about Salem Witches and such in the last year or so). Secondly, I never read short story collections as I always get too attached to a story and I always want more! However, from reading the synopsis of this book (which came out at the start of this month), it sounds like it has a good mix of fantasy and contemporary themes, which I am excited for. Also, it is geared towards YA readers, and YA is another area of fiction I have been eagerly exploring this year. If I have time, I plan to read this as my second book for the blog hop.

What happens next?

Each of the bloggers taking part will have made a post (like this one) today. The next step will be for all of us to read the book(s) that we have chosen and to report back with book reviews at a later date. There is no set time for this, as we all have different schedules, reading speeds and commitments. Personally, I have some other book reviews to post in the coming weeks while I read these books, and so I am hoping to have reviews up by the end of the month. If not, expect them at the beginning of September! In that post I shall link my fellow blogger’s reviews also, in case you would like to follow up on their progress too!

Who else is taking part?

There are 6 of us taking part in this event, and I am extremely excited to read everybody else’s posts. As someone who is new(ish) to book blogging and the community I have not met or made many blogger friends (I would love to start chatting to new people!) and this is such a great way to get to know other people and interact with other bloggers. Yay! Please check out their posts about this blog hop, these are some great bloggers!

Charlotte from Wonderfully Bookish 

Fleur from Fleur’s Makeup Box 

Ellie from Foxy Travels UK 

Jade from Reading With Jade 

Kelly from This Northern Gal 

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So! That’s that! I hope you guys will stick around for the eventual book reviews from this blog hop. I am immensely excited and I really hope that I enjoy these books!

Also, please bear with me on the scheduling front. Once I fall into the swing of my masters and my new work pattern I will find a way to fit my posts around. I have so many posts coming!

 

 

Educated by Tara Westover: Book Review.

Tara Westover was seventeen when she first set foot in a classroom. Instead of traditional lessons, she grew up learning how to stew herbs into medicine, scavenging in the family scrap yard and helping her family prepare for the apocalypse. She had no birth certificate and no medical records and had never been enrolled in school.

Westover’s mother proved a marvel at concocting folk remedies for many ailments. As Tara developed her own coping mechanisms, little by little, she started to realize that what her family was offering didn’t have to be her only education. Her first day of university was her first day in school—ever—and she would eventually win an esteemed fellowship from Cambridge and graduate with a PhD in intellectual history and political thought. (Goodreads)

*TRIGGER WARNINGS: THIS BOOK MAKES REFERENCE TO PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL ABUSE, NEGLECT, MENTAL HEALTH, GAS LIGHTING AND SPIRITUAL TOXICITY*

I picked this book up after hearing a couple of YouTubers mention it and due to an interest in the psychology behind survivalism and the way that this can impact a child. This memoir is a fantastic discussion of not only living in a survivalist household, but living an isolated life with a narrow minded family, the pain and difficulty in separating yourself from your family, challenging the thought processes and beliefs that have been ingrained in you and seeking to better yourself.

This book was such an interesting and beautifully written read. It is essentially loosely split into two parts: the first recounting the bulk of Tara’s childhood and recapping a lot of the moments that Tara remembers as being pivotal in her upbringing, the second recounting Tara’s experience of getting into education and going to college and distancing herself from the life of her childhood.  Tara recounts so many troublesome experiences from her childhood in this book, but during the first half of the book her narration is such that it almost seems that she does not see these experiences for what they were. I found this a really interesting adjustment between the two parts of the book, where in the first half she is almost writing with that same childhood innocence or lack of understanding of situations. Overall, the writing style and narration in this book is eloquent and well constructed and so intriguing.

What I really enjoyed about this book was that Tara is writing a memoir while still in the midst of a relative separation from her family, which is a very hard and traumatic thing to go through. While many people choose to write memoirs in later life or years after a pivotal event, Tara is still going through and processing the separation and distance from her family. In addition, as much as some of the experiences Tara has had with her family are despicable and alarming, it is reiterated that Tara does not hate them and that she is very understanding and passive when she considers their way of life. There was no “cutting ties” moment, but the experience has been an ongoing process.

This book has a lot of  important comments to make on family and parental relationships in particular. It really challenges the notion that parents know best and illustrates how parents mould and shape their children. However, in Tara’s case, it also illustrates how there is still hope for people in situations of control to break out and become their own people.

I also really appreciated some of Westover’s commentary on feminism, mental health and other topics which everyone can widely relate to. In particular, I absolutely adore her discussion about finding feminism in her time at university and reading John Stuart Mill and finding a quote which brings her enlightenment in regards to women’s rights. Overall, the part of the book where Tara is becoming educated and learning about the world at the college, where she finally begin to understand her talents for academia and finds her home in this world really touched my heart. I can really relate to the passion for learning and social sciences and academia and such, and I loved reading her becoming a part of it.

This book is really captivating and different from any memoir I’ve read. The way in which Westover shares her experiences will have you hooked from start to finish and give you hope. Her story goes from being what her family have predetermined to being her own, truly remarkable journey and you really end up routing for her success, while at the same time grieving with her for the loss of her family.

I hope I have maybe convinced you to read this, but if you don’t want to take my word for it, take Barrack Obama’s, who stated:

“Tara Westover’s Educated is a remarkable memoir of a young woman raised in a survivalist family in Idaho who strives for education while still showing great understanding and love for the world she leaves behind.”

And with that, I shall see you next time!

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Short book recommendations: non fiction edition.

I’m a massive fan of short books! I find it a real talent when an author can create a captivating and enjoyable story in a small amount of pages. While I do like longer books from time to time, I  am far more likely to pick up a shorter book with a really captivating synopsis that I can whizz through in a sitting or two.

In particular, I’ve found that short books have come in handy during my attempts to introduce more non fiction into my reading. I realised that shorter non fiction books can be a great way to learn about a wide array of topics. So today I’m going to recommend five different non fiction books under 250 pages, from memoirs/autobiographies, to bedtime stories, to self help, to those about hard hitting social issues. Here we go!

*Disclaimer! As a lot of these books have several editions there are different page amounts for each one, so if it seems I’ve picked books that are over the 250 page mark in some editions, please note that they are under in others!*

1/ When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Length: 229 pages (Hardcover, Random House 2016)

This book is written by Paul Kalanithi, who at the age of 36 and on the cusp of completing his training to become a neurosurgeon is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. It is a really heartbreaking but beautifully written commentary on what it is like to be the doctor who stands between a person and death, and becoming the patient who has to come to terms with their illness.

I found this book so beautiful and – while sad – poetically written and extremely powerful. It discusses living, dying, what it means to live a life, love others and more. If you’d like to know my thoughts on this book in more depth I have reviewed it as well.

2/ Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo

Length: 212 pages (Hardcover, Particular Books 2017, first published 2016)

Guys this is such an inspiring book! Designed as a children’s short story collection, it is actually a collection of mini biographies about some of the most inspiring women in history, from Maya Angelou, to Amelia Earhart, to Frida Kahlo! Each mini story has a beautiful illustration of each woman, created by different artists. It is such a delight to read! It is such a cute way to quickly learn about some feminist icons and I can’t wait to read this to my niece one day to teach her that she can grow up to be a badass rebel girl too.

3/ Crossing the Sea: With Syrians on the Exodus to Europe by Wolfgang Bauer (Photography by Stanislav Krupar)

Length: 144 pages (Hardcover, And Other Stories 2016)

This book is not exactly a fun or enjoyable read, but it is an important one. Journalist Wolfgang Bauer and photographer Stanislav Krupar pose as undercover refugees in order to document the commonly experienced, horrific journeys of Syrian refugees. It is heartbreaking but unbelievably necessary, as it is incredibly important to be aware of the tragedies and hardships being experienced outside of our own individual lives. This book really changed my perspective of the Syrian refugee crisis, and is a really interesting and passionate plea for society to open their minds and hearts and feel some compassion. I wrote a blog post about this book if you are interested in learning more.

4/ Ice Cream for Breakfast: How Rediscovering Your Inner Child Can Make You Calmer, Happier, and Solve Your Bullsh*t Adult Problems by Laura Jane Williams

Length: 224 pages (Paperback, Hodder Paperbacks 2018, first published 2017)

This is one of my favourite books of 2018 and I think Laura Jane Williams may be one of my new favourite people. I mean seriously, go follow her on Instagram and Twitter ( Insta: @superlativelylj, Twitter: @superlativelyLJ), she is a hoot.

This book is a collection of lessons and musings that Laura has discovered while working as a nanny of three girls. After spending time with these children and watching how children behave and act in certain situations, Laura applies these attitudes and behaviours to adult life as a solution for dealing with our problems. I really loved this book, I found it so funny, fun and a really worthwhile, optimistic read. I have taken many of the tips in this book to heart and I try to utilise them in my daily life. Laura’s is very much in favour of people living the lives they want to live and the idea of accessing your inner child. This is such a quick and positive read, you’ll feel happier for having read it, I promise!

5/ Love Letters of Great Men by Ursula Doyle (editor)

Length: 144 (Hardcover, St. Martin’s Press 2008)

So I don’t know if any of you are familiar with the first Sex and the City film, but Carrie Bradshaw continually refers throughout the movie to a book of this title, but at the time it was just a plot device…it didn’t exist! However, Ursula Doyle took the idea and ran  with it, compiling the love letters of a number of history’s most prolific men into a lovely little book. This is an absolutely delightful collection, which provides a little historical background and context of each man, alongside the romantically written letters of Charles Darwin, Oscar Wilde, Beethoven and more. There is something really special about this book and the idea of reading about the more personal (and less professional) side of these men’s lives. I would recommend this if you are a bit of a romantic, and a historian who likes a bit of juicy gossip! Also, considering these are letters written by some of the most intelligent, creative renowned scientists, artists, musicians, authors etc. you can expect some beautifully written professions of love, which 100% top your average text message! I’ve written a review of this book if you’d like a more in depth idea of my thoughts.

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So guys, that wraps up my 5 short non fiction recommendations for you. Like I’ve already said, I love short books and I think they are especially fantastic in a non fiction format. So I hope you guys pick up at least one of these books, as there is quite a variety here. If you have any recommendations for me, let me know!

Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag: Book Review.

In this masterful novel by the acclaimed Indian writer Vivek Shanbhag, a close-knit family is delivered from near-destitution to sudden wealth after the narrator’s uncle founds a successful spice company. As the narrator – a sensitive young man who is never named – along with his sister, his parents, and his uncle move from a cramped, ant-infested shack to a larger house and encounter newfound wealth, the family dynamics begin to shift. Allegiances and desires realign; marriages are arranged and begin to falter; and conflict brews ominously in the background.

Their world becomes ‘ghachar ghochar’ – a nonsense phrase that, to the narrator, comes to mean something entangled beyond repair. Told in clean, urgent prose, and punctuated by moments of unexpected warmth and humour, Ghachar Ghochar is a quietly enthralling, deeply unsettling novel about the shifting meanings – and consequences – of financial gain in contemporary India. (Goodreads)

This is a beautiful little read. At 130 pages (in the Kindle editions), this is a short little story about a family who come into wealth from a life of near poverty. With this transition into wealth comes a lot of changes in behaviour and family dynamic, which Shanbhag recounts from the perspective of the son of the family, who is never named. His character appears to be somewhat uncomfortable about the way in which the family have changed as a result of their new found riches and I really enjoyed watching the conflict he was experiencing, while simultaneously engaging in it.

This book was really lovely to read, as the writing was wonderfully descriptive and emotive. This is one of the reasons that I love the highlight feature on Kindle’s, because I was able to save some of my favourite quotes directly to my Goodreads! I particularly loved the descriptions within the first few pages, where the protagonist is describing a coffee house that he frequents. The description was so atmospheric and so vivid that I could imagine myself sat in the place with a steaming cup of coffee, watching people go by. 

While I loved the length of this book (who doesn’t love finishing a book within 2 hours?) I would say the ending was quite abrupt in my opinion. I liked the ending, however I think it would have benefited from even an extra 20 pages to round it off. I felt that because the ending was rushed the point of the book wasn’t quite fulfilled. I also wish there had been a few more scenes of interaction between the main character and Vincent (the waiter at Coffee House who he describes as possessing an air of mystery).

I would recommend this book if you are interesting in family dynamics and the idea of  how money and items can change a person or a group of people. It’s a delightfully short read with beautiful writing, and I was very pleased to add a translated piece of fiction to my 2018 reads!

Social Media: A New Age of Conformity?

I hope you guys enjoy this (slightly different) post. I studied sociology and psychology  at university for four years and research is something I adore doing. I wrote this a couple of months back and I thought I would share it here to incorporate some new and random things into my blog! All sources are referenced at the end.

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The rise of the internet in the 21^st century has made it uncommon to find an individual who does not exist on at least one social media platform. Indeed, in 2017, Facebook surpassed 2.07 billion active users (Facebook: number of monthly active users, 2018), while Twitter averaged at 330 million users monthly (Twitter: number of monthly active users, 2018). These platforms, alongside popular websites such as Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube are large and diverse melting pots, with users of all ethnicities, genders and ages. As a result of the increased popularity and accessibility of social networking websites, the social psychology sphere has been presented with new areas of examination, particularly when considering social influence and conformity in an online age.

Conformity can be defined as a change in behaviour, internal views or attitudes caused by social influence and group pressures (Hogg and Vaughan, 2014). Pressures to conform arise from social norms, which reflect the values or desired circumstances of a wider, social group (Smith, Mackie & Claypool, 2014). To fulfil the social norms of a group individuals can conform in one of two, primary ways: by compliance or internalisation. Compliance is where an individual conforms to a majority despite no internal change in belief, meaning the change is temporary and exists for the benefit of a social group (Hogg and Vaughan, 2014). As a result, when an individual is not being observed or surveyed by the group in question, their behaviours may revert to reflect themselves more accurately. However, internalisation is where an individual conforms to a social norm, but experiences an additional, internal change in their attitudes and actions, meaning the desired behaviour exists regardless of the presence of a majority (Hogg and Vaughan, 2014).

Social media gives people a mechanism to reinterpret their self-images, create and interact within new social circles, and to navigate their social capital (Yoo, Choi, Choi & Rho, 2014). This presents seemingly unlimited opportunities for individuals to grow and develop, while also facilitating the circulation of contrasting social norms and influences which would not be as accessible or influential in an offline world (Kende, Ujhelyi, Joinson & Greitemeyer, 2015). Where traditionally social influence and conformity are a result of physical and immediate social circles present in a person’s life, people now engage with views and movements which are happening across the world, with people they may not have met. This results in an expansion of the potential variables which may cause an individual to conform to certain ideologies or views.

While this area lacks research, evidence exists to suggest that the social media use and practices of individuals can be influenced by others. Egebrark and Ekström conducted a field experiment observing the patterns of use of 5, Swedish Facebook users and found that the probability of an individual ‘liking’ a Facebook post increased if 3 unknown users had also ‘liked’ the update (Egebrark and Ekström, 2011). The results also indicated that individuals were more likely to ‘like’ a Facebook post if at least one of their peers had also done so, suggesting that online conformity can be linked to numbers, or the relationships between individuals and other users (Egebrark and Ekström, 2011). Similarly, through analysis of the behaviours of 743 Facebook users it was also found that compliance, conformity and affiliation motivations considerably influenced ‘like’ clicking behaviours (Chin, Lu & Wu, 2015).

While an action as simple as ‘retweeting’ or ‘liking’ a Twitter or Facebook post may seem insignificant or harmless, social media conformity can have both individual and collective consequences. In recent years, social media has transformed political discourse, as well as people’s participation in social movements, raising subsequent concerns that conformity may affect these areas in a way it has not before (Gass and Seiter, 2015). While conformity traditionally arose from the influence of offline interactions with groups such as family members, classmates or colleagues, in an online world opinions and information circulate on a larger scale, arguably increasing the commonality of conformity. Indeed, a number of political outcomes in recent years are thought to be a result of social influence on social media, such as the activism surrounding the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom and the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States (Hern, 2017). It is argued that information (as well as misinformation) and easier access to contrasting public opinions online facilitate new forms of compliance, which can lead to the internalisation of new political or social beliefs, altering the way in which people act, causing them to yield to a greater, common view (Yoo et al., 2014).

Despite these concerns, there appears to be a gap in social psychology research where social media’s influence on conformity and social influence is under researched (Kende et al., 2015). A significant amount of research into the effects of social media focus on the impacts on consumerism, economics and politics. However, to fully understand the impacts of social media, traditional theories of conformity must be applied and modernised to fit a contemporary context. With this information, both the benefits and dangers of social media can be effectively established, which may encourage more mindful use of such platforms.

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References:

Chin, C., Lu, H., & Wu, C. (2015). Facebook users’ motivation for clicking the “Like”    button. Social Behavior and Personality: An international journal, 43, 579-592.
DOI: 10.2224/sbp.2015.43.4.579

Egebrark, J. & Ekström, M. (2011). Like What You Like or Like What Others Like? Conformity and Peer Effects on Facebook. (IFN Working Paper No. 886). Stockholm, Sweden: Research Institute of Industrial Economics.

Facebook: number of monthly active users worldwide 2008-2017. (2018). Retrieved from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/

Gass, R. H. & Seiter, J.S. (2015). Persuasion: Social Influence and Compliance Gaining. 5^th ed. New York, NY: Routeledge.

Hern, A. (2017, May 22). How social media filter bubbles and algorithms influence the election. The Guardian. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/22/social-media-election-facebook-filter-bubbles

Hogg, M. & Vaughan, G. M. (2014). Social Psychology. 7^th ed. Harlow, England: Pearson.

Kende, A., Ujhelyi, A., Joinson, A. & Greitemeyer, T. (2015). Putting the social (psychology) into social media. European Journal of Social Psychology, 45, 277-278. DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.2097

Smith, E.R., Mackie, D.M. & Claypool, H.M. (2014). Social Psychology. 4^th ed. Hoboken, NJ: Taylor and Francis.

Twitter: number of monthly active users 2010-2017. (2018). Retrieved from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/282087/number-of-monthly-active-twitter-users/

Yoo, J., Choi, S., Choi, M. & Rho, J. (2014). Why people use Twitter: Social conformity and social value perspectives. Online Information Review, 38 (2), 265-283. DOI: 10.1108/OIR-11-2012–0210