Hopecore is Trending on Social Media for all the Right Reasons
Positivity is trending on social media. Heartwarming videos and inspirational posts remind people that kindness and hope can be found everywhere.
In a time of doomscrolling and negativity online, #Hopecore – a viral social media trend on TikTok – has become an important counterbalance for Gen Zers, the LHS The Budget (a Lawrence High School publication) reported. Hopecore began in 2023 and has grown in leaps and bounds since then. With the growing loss of hope for the future that youth are experiencing, hopecore is an outlet for them to see good in the world.
“I love seeing other people’s positivity on my feed because it just reminds me of other people’s experiences and how they can all feel hope in different ways,” LHS senior Giova Rubenstein told The Budget.
Hopecore on TikTok
Hopecore really took off on TikTok because the platform’s algorithm is designed that once you like a video, it will show you similar videos. Since the algorithm works this way, it becomes very easy for trends to start and grow.
This positivity movement has over 8 million likes on TikTok, according to NSS G-Club. After all, what can be more positive than spreading hope?
The descriptions of the videos are filled with inspiration including: “life is beautiful” and “find the good” as well as “life is about moments.” All of this is to remind people that there are still beautiful moments to experience and share.
@milkrosedust
But what makes Hopecore so popular? The answer, reported The Independent, is the deeper meaning of the content.
“Hopecore is a celebration of both little and big things in life and reminds us that a person’s mindset will boil down to discerning between seeking out the good or the bad in every situation they face, and better days will come out of their choice to seek the good,” India Black, who posts a lot of hopecore content, told The Independent.
Why Does Hopecore Keep Growing?
Hopecore is now in its second wave, according to The DEPaula, the university’s student run newspaper. With online content getting overwhelmingly negative and divisive, the content is too heavy for many people to experience. After the initial trend started to stagnate, it has had a new resurgence with a more diverse audience.
“There’s so little hope in the modern sense of it,” said Geoff Durso, an assistant professor of marketing at DePaul’s business school who also has a doctorate in psychology, told the DEPaula. “It’s not necessarily avoiding the bad stuff. … I’ll learn the news, but I also love to see a baby elephant or a baby rhino try to walk around and make some noise.”
This resurgence seems more genuine now and not just algorithm generated. People are looking for something positive to counteract the negativity.
The Instagram creator of BoxInTheAttic was concerned his account was getting dark so he said that “In search of less depressing content, I found multiple hopecore creators, and they inspired me to start posting hopecore myself.” He now has 147,000 followers.
Michelle Friend, a senior majoring in communication and media at DePaul said, “If you focus on positive, more positive manifests.”
