Apps like Letterboxd and Goodreads are currently all the rage. Photo courtesy of Rappler. 

SADIA KHATRI | OPINION COLUMNIST | sskhatri@butler.edu  

For most, consuming any form of media in today’s technological age is not complete without the use of an app that tracks their consumption of said media. From Letterboxd to Goodreads, these apps have recently developed quite a dedicated fanbase. 

Apps and platforms that focus on tracking media consumption have become increasingly popular in recent years. Referencing and tracking one’s media consumption on social media has also become incredibly popular. We are living in an era where social media is deeply intertwined with the literature, films, art and media we consume, making critical thinking when consuming media all the more important.  

But can social media and apps like Letterboxd and Goodreads be used to genuinely engage with media or are they just another way to be performative about the media we consume? 

Junior criminology-psychology major Ireland Crabtree has been a Letterboxd user for a few years and has found it to be a helpful platform for finding community. 

“I just feel like it brings people closer together,” Crabtree said. “It makes you find a community of people who maybe like similar movie genres … I just think it’s fun, and you get to see what your friends watch and what they like.”

Letterboxd allows users to keep track of the films they watch by allowing them to log, rate and review films. Users can add and follow friends, celebrities, film critics and influencers. Letterboxd allows its users to select their top four films to have on display on their profile. The app has become remarkably popular recently, especially among Gen-Z users, and has developed a stronger presence in the media.  

In a similar vein, Goodreads has amassed its fair share of loyal users as well. Goodreads, similarly to Letterboxd, allows users to log, rate and review the books they read. Goodreads has been around for about three years longer than Letterboxd and has a larger user base as well. Where Letterboxd has around 13 million users, Goodreads boasts over 150 million users. 

Clare Wohlschlaeger, a junior music industry studies major, agreed that using an app like Goodreads does change how she interacts with the books she reads. 

“I notice as I’m reading a book, I’m thinking, ‘Oh, my rating just dropped to this. Oh, my rating just raised to this because of this,’” Wohlschlaeger said. “I think if I went in without knowing that I’m gonna come out rating [the book] and giving my opinions, then it would maybe be a better experience for me because I’m going in blind.”

Having to rate or review something after completing it can certainly impact how we engage with media. Though it might positively impact how critically we are engaging with our media, it could also make media consumption feel a lot more transactional and performative.   

Sophomore secondary education major Henry Bickel noted that sometimes social media adds a unique form of pressure. 

“I think [social media] … gives us a lot more pressure to feel a certain way about something you see,” Bickel said. “If I watch something that I see as being praised on social media and I don’t like it very much, I feel more of a pressure to kind of give it more slack, even if it’s not really how I’d feel about it.”

Sometimes, it feels like we consume books and films for the sole purpose of logging onto social media or any other app to talk or boast about it, as opposed to using social media solely for tracking purposes. Social media and apps can help us broaden our media horizons, but it remains important that we engage with any given piece of media critically and intentionally. 

Despite concerns about how Letterboxd and Goodreads — in addition to social media in general — might negatively impact how we engage with media, these platforms have also had many positive effects on media consumption. 

“Social media has had a positive impact on reading,” Wohlschlaeger said. “I think Tiktok specifically … [has] gotten a lot more people into reading … It’s always a good thing to read. You could ask probably four random people on this campus, and they’d probably say they haven’t picked up a book unless it was required in years … And there’s a cute little community of book readers [too].”

In a time where anti-intellectualism is on the rise, anything that pushes people toward reading more is good. If it takes an app or a social media post to get more individuals to read, that is a win in my book. 

In the context of Letterboxd, Bickel has found that the app has increased the average person’s access to thinking about film more deeply.  

“I do think that it has definitely made film criticism a lot more of an open thing for everyone to be able to do,” Bickel said. “I think that my suggestion would be to use [Letterboxd] not as a social media, but as just a personal tool.”

Letterboxd has allowed the average film lover to find a community surrounding movies that would otherwise be tough to find. From its lists of films to the celebrities on the app, Letterboxd makes it easier to learn about and appreciate films. 

While logging books on Goodreads and films on Letterboxd is absolutely fun, media consumption is more than just tracking what we consume. We need to be diligent about how we are interacting with the media around us. 

“I think that a lot of the performativity around it can be really toxic,” Bickel said. “And it can be a little bit counteractive to the actual consuming of art, because it gives all of the pressure to how you react to it and how other people are going to react to how you react to it, and not actually letting yourself experience what the art actually means to you.”

It will always be important to engage with film, literature and other forms of art and media in ways that are intentional, critical and genuine. Social media and other apps have certainly made media consumption more fun and accessible, but that does not absolve us of our responsibility to consume media in non-performative ways. 

Social media and apps like Letterboxd and Goodreads should help us become more engaged with the media we consume. When there is a lessened emphasis in society on the humanities and connecting with the arts, it is imperative that we make deliberate efforts to mindfully and intentionally interact with media and art.