About

Aura Farming refers to an act of constantly trying to look "cool" or "badass" to build "aura moments." The expression is derived from the "aura" internet slang term and gained viral usage on X / Twitter, Instagram and TikTok in mid-September 2024. Online, the expression is often assimilated to anime characters and celebrities' actions that netizens believe were done only to show off their "presence."

Origin

On January 28th, 2024, TikTok^[3] user @h.chua_212 posted a video bowling with his friends, captioned "Aura Farming," which is one of the earliest online mentions of the phrase, amassing more than 1.9 million plays and 390,000 likes in a year.

Spread

The expression gained more traction over the next few months, especially in the anime community, as fans used the term to mock characters that try to act "cool" for the sake of building "presence." For example, on September 13th, 2024, X^[1] user @scubaryan_ posted the earliest mention of the catchphrase "aura farming" while replying to a video of rapper Duke Dennis, who got called out by fans for "saying he was trying to 'aura farm' with that video of him shaking the grapes in his hand like skittles while eating them," he wrote. The tweet (seen below) amassed over 830,000 views and 10,000 likes in five months.

For instance, on December 25th, 2024, Redditor^[2] u/IrishImperialism posted to the /r/whowouldcirclejerk subreddit about an "aura off" between the Dragon Ball character Picollo and the Hunter X Hunter character Killua. The post (seen below) received roughly 1,000 upvotes and 100 comments in a month.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References