Pop Culture Is Passing Me By

Got more evidence that pop culture is passing me by with this piece on “dark academia” in a recent edition of The Huntington News, the student newspaper at Northeastern University. Learned that “Dark academia began years ago on Tumblr as a way for people interested in the humanities, especially the classical studies, to find others with similar interests, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, the subculture exploded and found a larger, captivated audience on TikTok.”

In the days before the internet posted seemingly everything, I used to see value in uncovering obscure references to higher education. Thought it was part of my talent as an editor. Plus, I especially loved the rich, maroon feel of dark gothic academe (even if my experience with it was mostly second-hand.) Hashtags have taken all that away. As the Huntington News piece notes, “common elements of the content under the dark academia hashtag (#darkacademia) on TikTok include studying the classics, vintage books, New England liberal arts colleges, Oxbridge universities, Victorian or Gothic architecture, Donna Tartt’s ‘The Secret History’ and tweed.”