First off, I'm a (former) goth kid, although nowadays I'm a lot more relaxed clothing-wise, but my spooky personality still remains, so I'm by no means against aesthetics and subcultures. Just so we're clear.
But thanks to Pinterest and social media like TikTok, Instagram, and whatever else, there's a bunch of aesthetics one could stumble across. In this discussion, I'll mainly focus on dark academia and poetcore, as they're linked to literature in one way or another.
While I have no issues with people playing around with various aesthetics and such to discover who they are, I'm wondering, are people in 2026 more into looking at beautiful moodboards on Pinterest or photos/videos on social media, rather than actually doing something to achieve said aesthetics?
As a (former) goth kid, it's totally fine not fitting into the mold of said asthetics (don't even get me started on how much I suck at eye make up as I'm almost blind on one eye - I can't apply eyeliner properly even if my life depended on it). What is a huge difference though, is dreaming of a dark academia or poetcore aesthetic and actually doing something to achieve it.
As with both goth and dark academia, there's obviously more to it than clothes (goth is a subculture after all and not "just" a visual aesthetic). Don't get me wrong, I have a weak spot for dark academia as I've got a thirst for knowledge and love to read, but here's the thing. I do read quite a lot of books, both fiction and non-fiction, I enjoy going to museums and art galleries, and a number of other dark academia activities. Heck, I did even enjoy the movie Dead Poet's Society before the dark academia aesthetic was even born.
At this point in time, I do get the sense that a lot of people, both in dark academia, and the poetcore trend (sorry guys, at this point, I feel poetcore is more of a trend than anything), they're more cosplaying being an intellectual or a poet rather than actually being one (whether it's an intellectual or a poet). When it comes to dark academia, some look more like wannabe conservative Tories than being an actual intellectual or academic who's well-read.
Just an observation, based on my own experience at university, few, if any academics and scholars do actually dress like they stepped out of a dark academia novel or movie. They're more busy lecturing and doing research, than finding the perfect tweed blazer, just saying.
On the flip-side of things, even if I feel there's plenty of fakers, dreamers and poseurs, with AI, brainrot, and whatever else, just maybe aesthetics like poetcore and dark academia could inspire people to either read in general, start writing poems, and other activities that's typical dark academia, as a bit of an antidote to all the slop online. Just maybe there's a sliver of hope. As long as people are actively using their brain and not cosplaying by putting on a tweed blazer because those blazers look good.
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