Shadowing Practice: TikTok DESTROYED Hobbies - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
1
I clearly have a bit of a coloring book addiction.
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I did some damage.
3
This is the third order I have placed this month.
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I got some on the TikTok shop.
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Got off the TikTok shop.
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I got both of mine from TikTok shop.
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The TikTok shop.
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Of TikTok shop.
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In my opinion, they're all worth your money.
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Do you remember when hobbies were just fun?
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You colored because it was relaxing.
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You read a book because you actually liked the book.
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Well, then TikTok came along and decided that hobbies weren't for enjoyment anymore.
14
They were for content.
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And somewhere in that shift, the joy disappeared.
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Because now you can't just do a hobby you have to perform it.
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And that performance comes with rules, aesthetics, and a giant price tag.
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Because TikTok doesn't want you to enjoy a hobby, it wants you to buy one.
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And the first hobby that TikTok ruined is coloring.
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Yes, coloring, that thing you did as a kid while your parents argued in the background.
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Well, it's back, but not in a good way.
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Because coloring now is kind of intense.
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Because right away it feels like there's this pressure to take it super seriously.
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TikTok immediately pushes you these super perfectly blended hyper aesthetic pages
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that make it very clear that this is not a casual hobby anymore, okay?
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This is art.
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And because everybody uses the same handful of coloring books, it somehow weirdly becomes this competition of who can color the exact same page better.
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And before you know it, you're not just coloring for fun.
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You're learning how to blend, how to shade, how to build a cohesive palette.
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Trying to do cool effects like everyone else and realizing I'll never be good at coloring.
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Oh my god when you spent all day coloring a page and you realize it turned out ugly.
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When coloring becomes too stressful because the other people are better than you and you get no views, so you just sit there slowly losing passion and talent.
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What do you mean you're losing passion over coloring?
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Like this is supposed to calm your brain, not give you performance anxiety.
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She doesn't know it yet, but the coloring she spent hours on will only get 300 views again.
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Dude, this was never meant to be like a competitive thing.
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You don't have to post your pages online.
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God, a hobby is supposed to be something you do for yourself in your spare time.
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It doesn't need to be filmed, edited, and validated by strangers on the internet.
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Stop comparing yourself to everybody else on here who does different styles, like, in their most immaculate, time-consuming way.
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I take hours to do one page sometimes.
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Sometimes I only take 30 minutes.
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Sometimes I do color out of the line.
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Point is, it's just to have fun, and your art is your art.
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Yes, yes.
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If the pressure to colour the perfect page doesn't ruin your day, your lack of art supplies definitely will.
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Because on Colour Talk, nothing works like a normal hobby, okay?
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Because if creators aren't posting magazine quality hyper-blended pages from the same trendy book, they're posting their massive supply hauls.
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I might have gone a little bit overboard.
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Just a little overboard.
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What it looks like starting colouring talk.
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There's mummy's mortgage.
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Oh, there's the food that we could have had this month.
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In it goes.
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Oh!
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There's our holiday to Bermuda!
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Going right in the cave!
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Now the funniest part about this specific creator is
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that she posted this giant poll around this time last year and scrolling through her page now, she hasn't posted about coloring in months.
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It's literally just cats, which, um, what happened to the coloring?
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Uh, yeah, so to me this kind of just feels less like a coloring hobby and more like a shopping hobby.
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Because you really don't need all this stuff to color.
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If you actually love coloring, then the satisfaction of just doing it should be enough.
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But for a lot of these people, it seems like buying the supplies gives them more joy than actually using them.
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Which is fine, you know, do whatever you want with your money, okay?
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Just be aware that if you get all giddy waiting for the Amazon man to show up, maybe that isn't the best long-term wellness plan.
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Retail therapy is not a substitute for actual therapy.
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There's mommy's mortgage.
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And by the way, I'm not blaming the everyday creators who go all in on a new hobby, because do whatever you want with your money, right?
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I don't care.
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But I am going to blame the influencers who push these absurdly expensive supplies as beginner must-haves,
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because apparently you can't just pull out leftover coloring pencils you've had since middle school.
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No, are you some kind of medieval peasant?
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No, keep up.
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This is serious business now.
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Here's everything you need to start your coloring journey.
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So first you need some markers.
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So I think The perfect set is the 120 set of Ohuhus.
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This has a good variety of colors.
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As you can see, like, you're able to shade with them.
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$200.
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Oh, okay.
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Or if you want to go full out, you can get the 320 set.
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Okay, let's see how much the 320 set is.
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Yeah, I think I'm going to stick with the first ones.
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And then next, you're going to need some acrylic markers.
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These are for, like, covering black lines or adding details to your pages.
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60. Okay.
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Then we're gonna need some coloring books.
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So I have three recommendations.
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Fuzzy Hooga by Vivi Tinta.
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It's a very cozy coloring book.
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$6.
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I'm okay with that.
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And then there's also the Berry Coloring Fairy Dreams coloring book from Amazon.
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Uh, $18.
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Okay.
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And then if we're looking for something a little bit more higher quality, we got Bobby Goods.
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So this is on cardstock paper.
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It's on her actual website.
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$35.
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Okay.
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$318.
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This is a beginner?
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Okay, how much can you make donating plasma? between 30 and 80.
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Ah!
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Now at this point, I had to stop and ask, why are all of these influencers promoting the exact same markers and the exact same books?
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Are they getting paid?
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You have been waiting for Ohuhu to be back in stock here on TikTok.
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Look at all of these markers that I got off the TikTok shop.
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Do all of these people actually really care about coloring?
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Do they like it?
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Is it a hobby for them?
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Or are they just trying to make a quick buck off of the trend?
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My new alcohol markers finally arrived and I have been
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so impatiently waiting for these to come click the orange shopping
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cart above my name to grab a set for yourself
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because it makes sense that they would push the most expensive product
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because they'll make the highest commission so i don't know is the intention pure
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but the same time i get it people gotta eat blah blah blah
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and listen i cannot talk this video is literally sponsored by
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zocdoc take it away shira too before we keep going i
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want to give a big thank you to our sponsor zocdoc you know
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that moment when it's 11 p.m and you're supposed to be asleep
125
but instead you're five tabs deep into why does my chest hurt and already planning your funeral?
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Last month I convinced myself I had every disease the internet has every indexed
127
and the reason was simple I didn't want to go to the doctor not
128
because I'm scared of needles well but because finding a doctor feels like filing taxes blindfolded.
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Who's in that work?
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Who's taking new patients?
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Why does every clinic still want me to fax them?
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And then I found ZocDoc which is a free website created to help people find
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and book appointments with doctors who are in network and close and distance.
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It's also great for people like me who experience anxiety
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when scheduling appointments by helping you choose the right provider for your needs.
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And it's so easy to use that you can just click to instantly book an appointment.
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And ZocDoc isn't just for one type of care.
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They have more than a hundred thousand providers across nearly every specialty from primary care to dental care, eye care to urgent care to mental health and and more.
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It's the one-stop shop for all your healthcare needs.
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You can just search for doctors in your area and book an appointment instantly.
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No phone calls, no awkward, please hold music.
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And if you're picky like me, it even shows verified patient reviews and doctor bios, so you actually get a sense of who you're booking.
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I actually started using ZocDoc when I first moved to Austin, Texas, because every doctor that I called wasn't taking new patients.
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ZocDoc really helped me find one that is a network
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and was taking new patients
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and all i needed was to get my prescription refilled it
147
was super easy i literally got an appointment the next day
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so it's definitely a lot easier than having to call 20 different clinics try to see
149
which will actually work for you so if you've been putting off
150
that checkup stop scrolling the internet and go to zogdoc.com
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it's also linked down below
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and you can instantly book a top rated in-network doctor today now let's Let's get back to the video.
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Okay, but seriously, if you're picking up a new hobby, you should start small.
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See if you like it.
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Because most of the time, the novelty will wear off pretty quickly.
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And that's normal, okay?
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But what's not normal is sinking hundreds of dollars into a hobby before you even know if you like it.
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Why would you want to be stuck with 500 markers and 10 half-used coloring books?
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You can't really donate half of those half-used coloring books anyway.
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A lot of this stuff ends up in landfill.
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Also, don't shop on TikTok Shop or Amazon.
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Buy second hand off of Facebook Marketplace.
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I actually looked up some secondhand markers and it's all there.
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Oh, hoohoo and everything.
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Lots of popular books, too.
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I did some damage, so let's do a haul.
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Speaking of books, let's talk about BookTok, another hobby that TikTok completely ruined.
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So BookTok actually pushed 59 million book sales in 2024, which is up from 13 million in 2020.
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Which, I mean, on paper sounds amazing, right?
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I'm so happy that people are finally reading.
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But when you look into it, the reality is much more grim.
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Because most of those books that are being sold aren't actually being read.
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They're just being collected.
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Let's do a book haul.
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Okay, so 99% of the books that I got, I know nothing of.
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Only know what I know from TikTok reviews.
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This lady bought an entire library in one afternoon because the algorithm told her to.
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So yeah, this is my book haul let me know
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which ones I should read first after turn a glass and if you recommend any more books.
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She's never reading all these books.
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She knows it, we know it, and God knows it.
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At some point, we have to admit, okay, this is not a reading hobby.
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This is a buying hobby.
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Book buying has genuinely become a separate hobby, completely detached from reading itself, and BookTok celebrates it.
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And people don't even try to hide it.
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They say it openly.
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Reading books?
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Definitely a hobby.
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Buying books, not reading them, buying more books, also a hobby.
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Scroll BookTok for just 10 seconds and you'll see the pattern.
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It's hauls, acidic shelves, reorganizing videos.
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That is the content, okay?
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I'm actually reading of the books.
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That doesn't really happen as much as TikTok would like you to believe.
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BookTok isn't just encouraging people to read, it's encouraging them to consume at the same pace as fast fashion.
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Romance books are becoming fast fashion.
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There are authors and certain kinds of books where they come out with a book or two a year,
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and you can kind of feel that they're feeding into the market instead of actual writing, whether it be that there's not enough editing, the story doesn't make any sense, there's no plot.
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Creators feel pressure to post constantly, but reading a whole book takes time, so instead of reviews, discussions,
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and actual opinions, BookTok has defaulted to the fastest form of content, halls.
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Let's go through my new books.
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Hey, so like once again, we've just like somehow managed to accumulate a few more new books.
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I mean it's the exact same cycle we saw with the 2010 YouTube and Sheen hauls, except now the fast fashion is books.
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Nobody has time to read them, so the only thing left to post is, you know, the buying of them.
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Um, I did some damage, so let's do a haul.
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Okay, here's my birthday book haul.
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We're gonna do this back first.
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Hate to these creators, again, building a giant library full of books is awesome.
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It's my dream.
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I'm genuinely jealous.
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I rent.
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I physically cannot own a library with
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that many books unless I want to fall through my own floor
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and end up living in the unit downstairs okay
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and some of these setups are insane i mean this booktalk
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creator literally has handmade shelves for all of her books i
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feel like it's been a very long time since i've addressed this
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so let's get into it
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so all my shelves i actually built on my own like we went out bought every piece of wood,
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sanded the wood, painted the wood, measured all the shelves out.
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We hand cut every single curve on these curved shelves.
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So she's actually built all of this in just two years.
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And my question is, how do you fill up all of these shelves with that many books in just two years?
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I think I have legitimately reached the place where I have no more space on the shelf.
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Like, I am stacking books on top of each other just to get stuff to fit.
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You know, it's about curation, which should take a lot of time, effort, and luck.
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You know, it's about finding rare gems inside streets of a random bookstore in a random city, okay?
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You know, a collection should contain things you've interacted with, not things you bought because they were trending on the app that day.
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And that's part of the problem is
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that BookTok makes people blind buy books the same way Perfume Talk makes people blind buy scents, purely based on, you know, vibes and a 10 second review.
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And when you constantly do not finish books, you're impulse buying.
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It's not because you're lazy or not a real reader.
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It's because you're buying books based on marketing, not your actual taste.
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Over over consumption habits are why you're reading so many bad books.
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If you're routinely DNFing books, it's telling me that you're not reading them in a store before you buy them, which tells me that more than likely, and I've fallen victim to this myself, you saw them on your FYP,
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someone recommended it and you blind bought it.
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Publishers are getting the feedback that people are buying a lot of these books, that these marketing techniques, that these writing styles are successful,
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and then because they're an industry they are incentivized to pick up more books like
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that book that you will probably continue to blind buy even though you don't like them.
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Good books have always existed alongside bad books, but if there is a trend in the books that you are purchasing, then it turns out that you don't like the way they're written, or you don't like the plot,
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or you don't like some other element of them
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or you think they're not as good as a book you
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read 10 years ago you are contributing to the problem by continuing to tell publishers to option
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and publish more of those books there's definitely a problem where people are pushing
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and by people i mean influencers are pushing books
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because they are paid to do so that are probably not
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that good but i strongly believe
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that we all have a lot more power than we think we do
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and i think it's time for some people to take responsibility
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for their own purchasing decisions that's the thing it always goes back to influencers TikTok shop affiliated products
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because do you think that this lady with this amazing library bought all these books herself?
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No, a lot of them are paid promotions.
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And every other day, there's a new BookTok book trending and another special edition to another book you already have, which triggers FOMO and artificial scarcity.
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And that's why people buy multiple versions of the same book.
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I have a lot of copies of Fourth Wing.
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I really like this book and I'm gonna go through my whole collection.
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It's been a while since I did this and everyone really liked it last time.
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How are there that many special editions of this same book?
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It's almost as tall as her.
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The only time I have repurchased a book, it's because I got a signed copy of my favorite book.
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That's it.
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I don't care if it's in a different color, in a different shade, if it has a sprayed edge.
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I don't care.
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Also, the sprayed edge trend, I am such a hater, okay?
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All right, bud, welcome to the collection.
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On the shelf you go.
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I'm in severe credit card debt.
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Am I the only one who thinks they look super gaudy and trashy?
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Let's rank all of my sprayed edges from best to worst.
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They could have done so much better than this.
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Plain red, 16.
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Now this is stepping it up.
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I love the black and red combo.
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The details are gorgeous, but it's still not completely wowing my socks off.
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Like, some of them look really pretty and cool, but like, even like the idea of all these colors being on my shelves would stress me out
276
because I feel like I'd have to like color coordinate all these colors
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and then have to buy books to like color coordinate them with the other books that I own.
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I mean, it's also like kind of pretty clever marketing because it'll make you buy the whole set, right?
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Because you have to make the picture happen for some of them.
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You're going to get the four books.
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You can get Edward, Bella, and Jacob in this AI generated field together.
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And I'm pretty sure a lot of these are AI because I found a bunch of these like little TikTok shops
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doing all these sprayed edges and it's like, oh my god, this is so AI.
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Now another side effect that nobody really talks about is libraries
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because they kind of become useless in this book talk ecosystem because if the whole culture revolves around owning books, curating bookshelves, color matching sprayed edges,
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the idea of borrowing a book from the library becomes kind of pointless for the algorithm because you can't monetize library books.
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And that's the saddest part because that's the only place
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that books are free they're sustainable and community driven
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and it kind of gets treated like it doesn't exist
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because i never really hear anybody talking about libraries so to a lot of people who like don't have
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giant amount of money to like pour into this new hobby
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under consumption tick tock yes we're talking to you you see
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that get a freaking library card cool thing about me is
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i have two this isn't just one get a freaking library card if you're really wanting to talk about under consumption
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and stop spending money.
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You can get movies, you can get music, you can get ebooks.
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But it doesn't matter what I say, the BookTok community will always clap back.
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And one of my favorite reoccurring argument from BookTok is why are you mad at a community that loves to read?
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The argument that book talk has an over consumption problem
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On surface level makes sense But the further that you think about it the less sense it makes.
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Through most of history women have had to secretly consume romance books.
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Okay, so why are we getting mad at women for building these bookshelves full of books that they love.
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The art of creating a library is becoming a lost art.
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You need a thousand books to have your own library.
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Who is doing that anymore other than booktalkers?
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It is a lost art.
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The love of reading is also becoming something that we are losing,
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so why are you getting mad at a community that just loves to read?
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Let me be clear, I love reading.
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Those books in the background are not just there for decoration, okay?
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I have a tiny, tiny library because I have moved countries, I've moved places, I can't, you know, if I have books I will give them to a thrift store.
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But my point is reading and buying at different hobbies, okay?
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And companies are exploiting this confusion.
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Another thing that book talk girlies love to do is tell you
315
that you're basically illiterate if you're not reading a hundred books a year.
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Can we stop with saying that reading 100 books a year is over consuming.
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I am a self-proclaimed slow reader and I can easily knock out 100 books a year.
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I don't understand the discourse around consuming too many books.
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I don't think that is possible and quite frankly to police reading seems fascist.
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Oh my god nobody You know what?
321
Buy whatever you want, do whatever you want.
322
My god, this is just a discussion, okay?
323
The thing is though, a hundred books a year is fucking insane.
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That is absurd.
325
A hundred books a year is just two books a week.
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It's not an insane number.
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I agree.
328
Two books a week?
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Do you not have jobs?
330
Families, responsibilities, depression, erectile dysfunction, sorry, executive dysfunction.
331
Most are kind of wondering what kind of books you're reading
332
because you know what if you're reading two books a week week?
333
How long are they?
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How challenging are they?
335
Are you reading philosophy?
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History?
337
I'd love to know.
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Now it turns out like a book influencer actually gave some tips on how to hit
339
that quota and somebody on Twitter made a thread talking about it.
340
I saw a book influencer give tips on how to read more books a year.
341
They were listen to audiobooks on 1.5 speed, skim long passages of texts, read novellas and graphic novels to hit your reading goals faster,
342
which is fine if your goal is to consume as much as possible.
343
It's the same when I see people argue that audiobooks, graphic novels, etc. count as reading.
344
The beauty of being an adult is there is no teacher or parent you have to justify your habits to.
345
There is no one besides you keeping track of what you are aren't reading.
346
You're free.
347
Anyway, I get it.
348
Hitting arbitrary metrics you set for yourself, i.e. reading x number of books a year, can be satisfying.
349
Love to hit an arbitrary metric.
350
But man, isn't literature about so much more than conspicuous consumption?
351
Wise words.
352
I read 100 books last year
353
because i saw everyone else setting those kind of reading goals the year before
354
and i was like oh i can do that
355
but it sucked ass i thought it was a challenge i
356
wanted to impress myself i wanted to stay on top of the conversations
357
that were happening i finished a lot of books
358
that i hated simply
359
because i didn't want to waste the time starting a new
360
book people spent years of their lives on these books
361
and i would be annoyed at the last 25 because i went over my allotted three days of reading time.
362
I want to savor a book.
363
I don't want to feel rushed through it.
364
I just think reading shouldn't feel like I'm cramming for a test that I'm never gonna take.
365
Now, I just want to say this.
366
If you don't regularly read or if you haven't read in years, that is completely fine, okay?
367
Finishing one book should be a massive achievement.
368
You should be proud of yourself.
369
Every time I finish a book, I'm like, yes!
370
Especially in the world where shorts and TikTok exist and, you know, they're always distracting.
371
You know, your only goal should be to just to read more even
372
if it means three pages before bed which is what i usually do
373
and then i just clock out
374
because i'm tired my god read one book a year read 50 read 300 who cares
375
but just read more i do want to say it's not all bad i do love
376
that we're reading more i love
377
that women are picking up reading i do just want us
378
to explore maybe more classics different genres you know try to explore beyond the tiktok shop influencer algorithm
379
and sometimes even indie authors go viral on tiktok like this
380
one how many copies of stone maidens have been sold everybody's asking my dad
381
and i this and we wanted to tell you guys first i'm literally trying not to cry
382
when i tell you this
383
but after months years decades of no sales my dad has
384
sold 65 000 copies of his book this month i mean
385
so many people have rediscovered reading and improved their mental health
386
because of book talk so it's not all bad and
387
if i haven't said it enough throughout this video i just want to make sure
388
that you know that it's good to have hobbies like coloring
389
and books i'm more concerned with for those that are performing the hobby instead of actually doing it, usually with the intent of being a rich influencer rather than a reader or an artist.
390
And it sucks because a lot of people get sucked into that aspect due to TikTok or even YouTube.
391
TikTok shop is literally an MLM.
392
And it feels like people care more about looking like they are a part of the hobby than actually doing the thing.
393
So yes, you don't have to perform for the algorithm.
394
You don't have to let anybody know that you're coloring or reading.
395
Just do it for yourself and do what makes you happy and spend money on whatever you want.
396
I love you and thank you to my beautiful YouTube members.
397
Please join if you want exclusive videos every month and I'll see you on the next one.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 393 sentences and 4473 words to shadow. The speech runs for 22:38. The speaker talks fast, about 198 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- hobby /ˈhɑ.bi/ (noun) — An activity that one enjoys doing in one's spare time.
- shelf /ʃɛlf/ (noun) — A flat, rigid structure, fixed at right angles to a wall or forming a part of a cabinet, desk, etc., and used to display, store, or support objects.
- marker /ˈmɑː(ɹ)kə(ɹ)/ (noun) — A felt-tipped pen, a marker pen.
- creator /kɹiːˈeɪ̯təː/ (noun) — Something or someone which creates or makes something.
- consume /kənˈsum/ (verb) — To use up.
- consumption /kənˈsʌmp.ʃən/ (noun) — The act of eating, drinking or using.
- haul /hɔl/ (verb) — To transport by drawing or pulling, as with horses or oxen, or a motor vehicle.
- algorithm /ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/ (noun) — A collection of ordered steps that solve a mathematical problem. A precise step-by-step plan for a computational procedure that possibly begins with an input…
- suck /sʌk/ (verb) — To use the mouth and lips to pull in (a liquid, especially milk from the breast).
- insane /ɪnˈseɪn/ (adjective) — Exhibiting unsoundness or disorder of mind; not sane; utterly mad.
- reader /ˈɹi.dɚ/ (noun) — A person who reads.
- ruin /ˈɹuː.ɪn/ (noun) — The remains of a destroyed or dilapidated construction, such as a house or castle.
- instantly /ˈɪnstəntli/ (adverb) — At once; without delay.
- shade /ʃeɪd/ (noun) — Darkness where light, particularly sunlight, is blocked.
- blend /blɛnd/ (verb) — To mingle; to mix; to unite intimately; to pass or shade insensibly into each other.
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- talk about (verb) — Used to draw attention to the speaker's characterization of someone or something.
- pick up (verb) — To lift; to grasp and raise.
- wait for (verb) — To wait until the specified event occurs.
- book in (verb) — To check in (to a hotel).
- get off (verb) — To move from being on top of (something) to not being on top of it.
- go through (verb) — To travel from one end of something to the other.
- turn out (verb) — To end up; to result.
- back in (verb) — To reverse a vehicle into a space.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 121 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: algorithm /ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/, thread /ˈθɹɛd/, aesthetic /ɛsˈθɛ.tɪk/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shelf /ʃɛlf/, consumption /kənˈsʌmp.ʃən/, shade /ʃeɪd/, passion /ˈpæʃən/, publisher /ˈpʌblɪʃɚ/
- Long words — get the stress right: anxiety /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/, genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/, arbitrary /ˈɑː.bɪ.tɹə.ɹi/, coordinate /koʊˈɔɹ.dəˌneɪt/, artificial /ˌɑː.tɪˈfɪʃ.əl/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like hobby, shelf, marker.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | have been waiting · you've been putting |
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if I have books I will give |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have placed · hasn't posted · have been |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was never meant · be filmed · be stuck |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.