What is the TikTok subculture Dark Academia? (original) (raw)

Style|Academia Lives — on TikTok

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/style/dark-academia-tiktok.html

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Academia Lives — on TikTok

School may be out indefinitely, but on social media there’s a thriving subculture devoted to the aesthetic of all things scholarly.

An Instagram post by Sydney Decker.

June 30, 2020

School, as most of us know it, came to a halt this spring. There were no graduation gatherings and no proms. No study abroad or in-person summer classes.

And what will happen in September is still largely unknown.

Yet in the digital world, a different kind of academic community is thriving, one where students have created a niche of their own, along with an aesthetic that mirrors the world they once knew.

Known as Dark Academia, it is a subculture with a heavy emphasis on reading, writing, learning — and a look best described as traditional-academic-with-a-gothic-edge; think slubby brown cardigans, vintage tweed pants, a worn leather satchel full of a stack of books, dark photos, brooding poetry and skulls lined up next to candles.

Created largely by users 14 to 25 years old, posts tagged with the Dark Academia moniker have racked up over 18 million views on TikTok; there are over 100,000 posts on Instagram. And though Dark Academia predates the pandemic, for many of its denizens it has taken on new importance during a time when school is canceled IRL.

Image

An Instagram post by Ms. Decker.

Sydney Decker, for example, an 18-year-old theater student in the United States who runs the popular MyFairestTreasure, a Dark Academia-themed Instagram account, began posting about Dark Academia outfits in January 2020, after discovering the community at the end of her fall semester in college. She has since amassed over 18,000 followers and focuses on mood boards inspired by literary references, such as retro looks that mimic Hogwarts houses and wardrobe ideas for Neil Perry from “Dead Poets Society.”

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