Everyone around you busy aura farming? Fed up with the clip farming all over your FYP? Or are you over the age of 25 and have no idea what any of that means?
New slang has captured the cultural zeitgeist − or at least the zeitgeist of Gen Alpha (born 2010-2024) and some younger members of Gen Z (born 1997-2012). One of those terms is "aura farming," and it's been making its mark on the internet, the NFL and, if you're a parent, probably in the backseat of your car, as you drive your kids and their friends to soccer practice.
But "aura farming" − and it's perhaps cringier cousin "clip farming" − aren't merely terms designed to baffle Millennials and Boomers (though they certainly do that too). According to linguistics and communications experts, they also say a lot about the world young people are coming of age in − and what matters to them as a result.
"While a 'new trend' to some, the teenage practice of establishing coded language and terms to describe lived experiences and social trends is not an atypical tactic," says Melvin Williams, associate professor of communication and media studies at Pace University. "Instead, the terms 'aura farming' and 'clip farming' illustrate Gen Z and Gen Alpha’s heavy social media reliance as well as digital media’s role in driving nearly all forms of their sociality approaches."
