Borg is the latest example of TikTok making campus life a spectacle
When a group of college students wielding borgs— gallon water jugs filled with a delectable combination of water, vodka, and Mio — graced my FYP, I was confused. I clicked into the account that posted the video and was surprised to find that they didn't attend my alma mater, UC Berkeley. I graduated in 2021 and thought borg was unique to my campus.
Videos of students at various universities introducing themselves and showing off their gallon jugs decorated with borg puns kept popping up on my FYP, and conversations surrounding the concoction migrated to other social media platforms. But borg isn't new; it's just the latest part of campus culture that TikTok has turned into a spectacle.
SEE ALSO:What is a borg? The water jug drink college kids are making viral on TikTok, explainedI first encountered borg in January 2019 when a friend of mine made it for a day-drinking event. To understand when borg gained popularity among my social circle at Berkeley, I reached out to the friend who introduced it to me as well as several other borg aficionados. My friend told me that he learned about borg through a few of his mutuals over a school break. A year before TikTok's death grip on Gen Z fully took hold, borg, like so many things before it, spread organically across college campuses through word of mouth.
During my research process, I received a saved Snapchat and a heavily filtered photo of borg, both dating back to early 2019. The images were typical of the moment, when Facebook albums were on the declineand Snapchat and Instagram were the platforms where we documented our college experience. Nobody we weren't friends with could see our Facebook albums, Snapchat stories, or Instagram posts, so unlike now, these small moments of campus life weren't projected for the whole world to see.
Don't get me wrong, borg was a spectacle when jugs of it appeared at parties, but mostly in real life or for your followers. Now, college students post their borg (and college experience) for whoever TikTok serves it to. TikTok makes the college experience so much more visible.
Borg, like sorority recruitmentand the use of digital cameras at parties, was just another part of my college experience, but now it's content. Campus life shut down in 2020 for a year, and TikTok's influence grew over that period. When campus life returned, a hysteria over what Gen Z was up to was in full-force. The colleges these student TikTokkers go to hardly matter anymore; it's all about the novelty of them being Gen Z college students showing off the quirks of college life, like borg, that if you're anything like me you might have previously assumed were unique to your school. Similarly, during the pandemic, college Facebook meme pages, a touchstone of campus life when I was in college, fell out of vogue to be replaced by general college meme pages on Instagram and also TikTok.
Related Stories
- When do you stop sharing your location with someone?
- Teens don't need 'finstas' anymore
- Is Gen Z bringing flip phones back?
- You're not getting old, concerts are weird now
The popularity of borg across our FYPs highlights the ubiquity of the moment: When everything has an audience of everyone, nothing feels personal.
If I had seen hundreds of other college students slamming borg on TikTok, it might not have felt so cooland specialon that crisp January morning when I tasted my first sip.
相关文章
Carbon neutrality law violates basic rights: Constitutional Court
South Korea's carbon neutrality law does not conform with the Constitution because the absence2024-09-21- 中国山东网青岛11月21日讯2016平安人寿第21届客服节全新升级,首倡家庭健康新生活。通过移动服务平台平安金管家APP完成了“平安行”、“绿行家”、&2024-09-21
鎻闈掑矝宸ヤ笟鏃呮父锛氬伐鍘傚巶鎴垮彉鏅偣 鏂囧寲鍐呮兜涓嶈兘灏慱涓浗灞变笢缃慱闈掑矝
銆€銆€涓嶅啀鍙槸浠ョ畝鍗曠殑鍙傝娓歌涓轰富锛岃€屾槸閫氳繃铻嶅悎鏂板叴涓氭€併€佸姞鍏ユ枃鍖栬绱犮€佸€熷姪鏂版妧鏈瓑澧炲姞鍐呮兜涓庝簰鍔ㄤ綋楠岋紝瀹炵幇宸ヤ笟鏃呮父“鍗囩骇鐗2024-09-21- 中国山东网青岛11月22日讯(通讯员 宫晓菲) 海洋是生命的摇篮,生物资源的宝库。近年来,随着我国海洋生物产业的不断发展,海洋生物资源的高值化利用研究已经成为全球海洋生物领域和食品科学、医药科学等领域2024-09-21
- 【来源】学习强国2024-09-21
- 食品+二次元?又一个万亿级产业正在崛起!_南方+_南方plus二次元食品联盟成立、全网征集菜品、专家讨论行业发展......近期,“二次元食品”这一概念火出圈。当人类每日生活刚需与新潮二维概念两相融合2024-09-21
最新评论