How “Dark Academia” became one of the pandemic’s fastest growing internet trends

In spring 2021 Google reported a 4,750 per cent increase in searches for the phrase.

Oxford University students do some last-minute revision before entering the Exam Schools building to take examinations on 17 June 2010 (Photo By Christopher Furlong/Getty Image)

“Today I’m going to be giving an introduction and a guide to ‘Dark Academia’ as an aesthetic,” says Ruby Granger, a popular study and lifestyle YouTuber, introducing a video she uploaded in November 2020. She proceeds to showcase handwritten wax-sealed letters, perform candlelit readings of Oscar Wilde and drink tea to Tchaikovsky, while modelling collared shirts, tweed blazers and tartan skirts, and recommending Charlotte Brontë’s Villette and the 1989 film Dead Poets Society.

The “Dark Academia” trend, which emerged on Tumblr in the mid-2000s, has during the past 18 months exploded on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, with Google reporting a 4,750 per cent rise in searches for the phrase between the start of the pandemic and the spring of 2021.