Aura Farming: The Ups & Downs of Cultivating Cool | Pop Culture Explained - video Dailymotion

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00:00Some say that the it factor is something that you either have or you don't.

00:04That coolness is something that's just innate within some people,

00:07and something the rest of us can never truly hope to capture.

00:11But the truth is quite different.

00:14Coolness is pretty much always cultivated to some degree.

00:18This choice to deliberately work to build up a specific idea of yourself as interesting

00:22has gone by plenty of different names.

00:24From creating a persona, to curating a vibe, and now to aura farming.

00:29But what is aura farming really?

00:32It's actually more interesting than you might expect,

00:34and can be relatable to our own everyday lives in surprising ways.

00:39So let's take a deeper look to unpack what's really going on.

00:42My resolution was to get more attention.

00:44Aura farming had been a topic of conversation online for a while,

00:48but exploded into the larger zeitgeist in a major way

00:51when a video of a boy dancing on a boat went viral.

00:54The eleven-year-old was recorded doing a dance he made up during a boat race in Indonesia.

00:59And then everyone else began making their own videos doing the dance.

01:03While the dance itself may have faded from its viral peak,

01:06the idea of aura farming has continued to hold people's imaginations.

01:11Aura is the idea of one's personal presence or charisma.

01:14And farming in this context denotes the kind of continual repetitive actions

01:18one often has to do to farm XP or certain items in various video games.

01:23Together, they create aura farming.

01:25Or the idea of deliberately doing things to come across as cool or interesting.

01:29So okay, you're probably going,

01:31is this like an Oxima commercial or what?

01:34This can, unsurprisingly, lead into a feeling of phoniness

01:37that can actually swing things in the complete opposite direction,

01:41and come across as uncool, as we'll dig into more in a moment.

01:44But most often, this kind of aura cultivation is just seen as entertaining,

01:49humorous, or even aspirational.

01:52Ninety percent of life is confidence.

01:55The thing about confidence is no one knows if it's real or not.

01:57But can we apply this to our real-world lives,

02:00in a way that isn't off-putting but actually useful?

02:04Surprisingly, the answer is yes.

02:06But guess what?

02:07From now on, you guys are no longer losers,

02:10so give yourselves a round of applause.

02:11At its core, aura farming is deciding how you want to be seen by the world

02:16and very specifically crafting how you present yourself to reflect that goal.

02:20As society at large has pushed us further and further into having to,

02:25to some degree, conceptualize our personal brands,

02:28and how we're viewed not just by the people in our actual lives,

02:31but the world at large via social media,

02:34this kind of persona development has only become more common.

02:38Now you look at me like you're adoring me,

02:39and I'm gonna look at the camera like I don't even know you're there.

02:41And whether this trends towards positive personal development,

02:44or a more sinister drive for power,

02:47depends upon the person doing the aura farming.

02:50Take Regina George, for example.

02:52An evil takes a human form in Regina George.

02:55She has very deliberately cultivated not only the coolest,

02:58most popular persona in the school,

03:00but she also holds onto it with an iron fist.

03:03She's developed an aura of a nearly impossibly cool,

03:06above-it-all girl that makes many of their peers feel like they're in the presence of a celebrity.

03:12Regina George is flawless.

03:14She has two Fendi purses and a silver Lexus.

03:17I hear her hair is insured for ten thousand dollars.

03:19Regina knows that all of this is key to keeping herself at the top of the food chain.

03:24She doesn't just want to be cool, she wants to be untouchable.

03:28Regina would be nothing without her high-status man candy,

03:31technically good physique,

03:33an ignorant band of loyal followers.

03:35This is where all of the intricate rules of her group come into play.

03:39Who can wear what when, what everyone should and should not look like,

03:43and most importantly, how it can all come together

03:46to make sure that Regina always comes across as the queen of it all.

03:50Regina's like the Barbie doll I never had.

03:52I'd never seen anybody so glamorous.

03:54While Regina might have farmed her aura in order to rule unquestioned,

03:58for others, it's more about building up their own inner confidence

04:02so that they can figure out how to thrive in a world

04:05that always feels like it's working against them.

04:08On Euphoria, Queen B. Maddie comes across as on top of the world.

04:12I had never seen anyone as sure of themself as her.

04:15But this didn't come easy.

04:17It's something she had to work very hard for.

04:19She wasn't always supremely confident in herself,

04:22but she knew that if she was going to build the life she wanted,

04:25then that was what she needed to work towards.

04:28You didn't have to be the prettiest,

04:29or the tallest, or the blondest, or the whitest.

04:34You just had to have f***ing confidence.

04:36She cultivated a look and attitude that allowed her to carve out a space

04:40in her world where she felt that she could at least have some level of control.

04:44And importantly, this isn't just something she does for herself.

04:47She also uses what she's learned to help her friends find their own confidence as well.

04:52Habit Elementary's Principal Ava falls in between the two.

04:55She's definitely always thinking of Ava first and making sure that she gets what she wants,

04:59but she's also able to use those same talents to aid those around her.

05:04She knows how she wants to come across, and so works to reflect that,

05:08even when it doesn't quite line up with her real life.

05:11And because she has a deep understanding of what other people find interesting,

05:16she's even able to go viral online herself.

05:19She then uses the skill to help Janine go viral and get the supplies she needs for her classroom,

05:24and a few things for Ava of course.

05:26While Aura Farming can help cultivate the personality you actually want,

05:30it can also go very wrong.

05:33I think I dropped some money over here the other day.

05:36Maybe it's over here by this manhole.

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07:03One of the first things that comes to mind when thinking of aura farming going wrong

07:07is the trope of villains being so focused on detailing the very cool and intricate evil plan

07:12that they've come up with that the hero definitely has enough time

07:15to ruin all of those well-laid plans by saving the day.

07:19You know, James, I was always better.

07:26But aura farming can fall apart in more subtle ways, too.

07:30Going back to Mean Girls, Regina's power starts to falter

07:33as she begins losing that aura she had so carefully cultivated.

07:37Whatever.

07:38Those rules aren't real.

07:40They were real that day I wore a vest.

07:42Because that vest was disgusting.

07:43You can't sit with us!

07:45But we can also see a version of the darker side of aura farming in Katie's story.

07:49She begins working very hard to fit in with the plastics,

07:52changing her clothes and makeup, attitude, and even interests,

07:56all in the effort of developing the right kind of cool aura that will allow her to not only fit in,

08:01but stake out her own place near the top of the food chain.

08:05I know it may look like I'd become a bitch, but that's only because I was acting like a bitch.

08:10But because she's not as clear-eyed about what this really takes and how it can consume you as

08:15Regina, she doesn't realize how much of her actual self she's lost to this effort.

08:20All my friends hate me and now my mom hates me.

08:22Your mom does not hate you. She's afraid of you.

08:27And Katie has a difficult time coming to terms with it all, because the aura she created

08:32isn't one that she wanted, in the way that Regina's was for her, but one that was chosen for her.

08:38Well, half the people in this room are mad at me, and the other half only like me because

08:44they think I pushed somebody in front of a bus.

08:47Attempting to develop an aura not based on your own personality, or at least parts of it,

08:51but instead someone else's, is often a recipe for disaster.

08:56On Euphoria, while Maddie's persona provides her with the self-confidence and sensitive identity

09:00needed to pick herself back up and keep going after the future she wants,

09:04Cassie's attempt to essentially recreate Maddie's aura finds her trapped in a new level of misery.

09:12On Too Much, Jessica becomes obsessed with her ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend

09:16to an unhealthy degree. Because she's so thoroughly lost her own sense of self,

09:21she begins spiraling out more and more as her attempts to cultivate a cool chill aura flop.

09:27And so now I'm like, literally wracked with unspeakable terror.

09:30Basically like, ruined my life, which is just now becoming tolerable.

09:34Looking at both sides of aura farming together, what can we take away for our real lives?

09:40Aura farming has been around forever in the idea of faking it till you make it.

09:45Just putting on the airs of the person you want to be, until you make it a reality.

09:50Most of our biggest icons weren't just born cool, they put in the work to farm that aura until it

09:56stuck. And even outside of the world of celebrity, we can see this play out in our everyday lives.

10:02When we're at the precipice of a new era of our lives, or we just feel like we want to jumpstart a

10:07big change, we often find ourselves working to create the vibe we're seeking

10:11before we actually get there internally.

10:14So this is what it feels like to not be invisible?

10:16Well, you weren't exactly invisible before, just the anti-hot.

10:20From young people deciding that they're going to change up how they're seen in the new school year,

10:25Things change, whether you want them to or not.

10:30So maybe I'll change too.

10:31To those starting a new job deciding that they want to come across differently in this role.

10:36To deciding that you want to be a new you and moving to a new city and beyond.

10:41I want to be a part of the people that make meaning, not the thing that's made.

10:50The important thing is that you're farming an aura you actually want and can live with,

10:56and not just behaving how you think you should to be accepted by others.

11:00Whether you call it an aura, riz, charisma, or it factor, or whatever else.

11:04At the end of the day, it's really about uncovering those things that make us, us.

11:10The special parts of ourselves that draw others in and help us connect with the world around us.

11:15And if that also happens to make us look kind of cool in the process, all the better.

11:20I want to do the imagining, I don't want to be the idea.

11:23That's the take. Click here to watch the video we think you'll love.

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Aura Farming: The Ups & Downs of Cultivating Cool | Pop Culture Explained

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