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In 2024, we covered the slang phrase “aura points,” and explained how the amount of aura points you have indicates how “cool” you are. The Hogwarts-esque points system blew up on TikTok and made its way onto middle school classrooms. Now, it seems even X posters and Gen Z TikTokers are using these brainrot words to signal that they’re chronically online. But it’s a new year, and with it comes new evolutions of these slang phrases.
What is aura farming?
In early 2025, the phrase “aura farming” started popping up more frequently on social media, and appears to already have the youth in a chokehold despite being only a year old.
As previously mentioned, aura points refer to the amount of “cool” points you have. So naturally, aura farming is the definition of someone trying to acquire those cool points–while appearing completely nonchalant.
According to KnowYourMeme, the earliest use of aura farming was a little over a year ago. On Jan. 28, 2024, TikTok user @h.chua_212 shared a video of them bowling with friends and captioned it “aura farming.” In it, a young person flips a bottle which lands right-side up on the floor perfectly. Then they saunter over to pick up a bowling ball and proceed to hit a strike without even looking.
This person is “aura farming”–aka, earned a ton of cool points without seemingly trying hard. Urban dictionary’s definition is more straightforward: “Doing random acts for the sake of gaining aura. For example, Duke Dennis shaking skittles like dice before eating them. Another example is an unpopular girl purposefully taking photos with popular girls to boost her aura.”
Why did the term blow up?
But before aura farming became a brainrot term on TikTok and Twitter, the phrase exploded in the anime community.
As any otaku can tell you, anime is rife with villains and protagonists skilled at “aura farming.” (Just picture Piccolo from Dragon Ball Z trying to act cool while standing on an extremely steep ledge.) Today, people are accused of trying to aura farm by attempting to look badass.
One viral example is @tivstippi’s Jan. 20 post on Twitter. They shared an image of the infamous beak mask doctors used during the Black Plague. Their caption? “N-words was dropping like flies and they doctors was aura farming.” It earned 12.8 million views since then. Another viral example is a clip from the show Twin Peaks, where a bunch of the male characters line up to show off their side profile.
However, as with any Gen Zalpha slang, “aura farming” can have a mocking tone depending on the context. While aura farming is another way to call someone badass, accusing someone of aura farming can also imply they may be trying too hard to look hard as f*ck.
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