The Dark Academia aesthetic: nostalgia for the past in social networks

Abstract

This article aims to approach the nostalgic essence of the aesthetic community Dark Academia through the social network Tumblr, in order to create new knowledge about nostalgic practices in the virtual environment. To do so, I will analyse the origins and evolution of the community, with an emphasis on the rise of its popularity in the wake of the global pandemic of 2020. Based on my own experience as a dark academic, I will make use of cyberethnographic and folksonomic analysis from the inside, as a participating member of the community. As a form of supporting research and to give users a voice, I will use survey methodology and online interviews to delve deeper into the nostalgic sensibilities of the community's participants, the dark academics, by surveying a thousand members. In this study, I will evaluate how important visual nostalgia has become in the early 2020s and whether the past is more present than ever among us.