A curious new trend has taken root on social media, promising to transform ordinary users into intellectual powerhouses. Dubbed ‘disgustingly educated’, this movement is fuelled by influencers offering guides on how to become significantly more clever. But is this a genuine push for self-enrichment, or merely another avenue for online showmanship?
The Rise of the 'Disgustingly Educated' Aesthetic
The phrase, which is roughly 18 months old, describes a state of being perceived as grossly or excessively knowledgeable. It originated not from formal education, but from a deliberate, self-directed pursuit of improvement. In 2024, corners of platforms like Reddit began circulating lists of ‘improving’ books, non-fiction essays, and classic films designed to cultivate a formidable intellect.
Today, the trend has exploded beyond niche forums. TikTok is now saturated with content creators instructing their followers on which specific books to read to master Greek mythology, understand extinction cycles, or boost emotional intelligence. The core activity—reading—is ancient, but its rebranding as a marker of extreme cleverness and a competitive lifestyle is distinctly modern.
Self-Improvement or Performance?
Critics argue the trend risks promoting a shallow, performative version of intellect. The concern is that on a platform often characterised by brevity and immediacy like TikTok, the achievement of genuinely knowing things could be overshadowed by a grim desire to simply appear knowledgeable for social validation and likes. This, they warn, could fuel a rise in pseudointellectualism, where the appearance of wisdom trumps its substance.
However, proponents suggest that any movement encouraging people to read dense material, go offline to focus, and improve their attention span has merit in today's distracted digital age. The trend often ties self-education to improving impulse control and dedicating meaningful time away from screens, positioning old-fashioned reading as a radical act of self-discipline.
The Robotic Twist
In an ironic twist emblematic of our times, the pursuit of ‘disgusting’ education is already being outsourced. Where one might once have proudly cited the Latin etymology of a word like ‘gross’, it is now just as likely the fact was quickly sourced from an AI like ChatGPT. This introduces a new layer to the debate: is the trend about cultivating personal intelligence, or merely about efficiently curating the appearance of it?
A Double-Edged Sword for the Digital Age
The ‘disgustingly educated’ phenomenon presents a modern paradox. It leverages the very platforms blamed for shortening attention spans to advocate for deep, slow consumption of information. While it undoubtedly makes intellectual pursuit trendy, it simultaneously risks commodifying it, turning personal enrichment into another metric for social media performance.
The ultimate impact remains to be seen. It could spark a welcome revival of reading and autodidacticism, or it could simply create a new cohort of individuals adept at name-dropping philosophical texts they have never fully read. As with most internet trends, the line between authentic self-betterment and conspicuous consumption is perilously thin.
