RushTok has misplaced its novelty

It is that point of the yr when the (principally) blonde freshmen at Southern universities embark on the method of sorority recruitment, broadcasting it for all of TikTok to see. Nevertheless, we’re on day 5 AKA sisterhood day of rush on the College of Alabama, and it is hardly made a peep on my FYP.  

Sure, there are nonetheless a handful of younger ladies gaining a platform from their OOTD (outfit of the day) movies, and RushTok stars of years previous like Kylan Darnell are posting from the opposite facet, however very similar to the third season of a actuality TV present, RushTok has misplaced its novelty. 

Three years in the past, campuses reopened for the primary time for the reason that pandemic started, and the school expertise — sorority recruitment included — beamed onto our FYPs. RushTok movies and discourse felt inescapable, and encountering the frenzy frenzy displayed in movies was a uncommon, collective on-line expertise. We seen PNMs (potential new members) on their journey to seek out their houses on the College of Alabama and the College of Mississippi with shock and marvel. Each element — from the sheer quantity of Kendra Scott jewellery to the brutal nature of a PNM getting “reduce” from their “prime home” — enraptured audiences who, for essentially the most half, had no thought how any of this labored.

We created microcelebrities out of the scholars who posted essentially the most endearing GRWM (prepare with me) movies and cheered alongside as they “trusted the method.” The proliferation of RushTok movies additionally led to a much-overdue dialogue of classism, racism, and elitism of Greek life. The “Bama Rush” and “RushTok” tag has since been seen over 3.5 billion and 1.5 billion instances, respectively. 

Final yr, rumors of an undercover documentary on Bama Rush swirled, sustaining RushTok “Season 2.” A number of college students have been dismissed from recruitment after being wrongfully accused of carrying a microphone, thickening the plot for followers at house watching it unfold on TikTok. However when the HBO documentary, Bama Rush, was launched in Might 2023 viewers have been disenchanted that it did not give them as a lot of the behind-the-scenes look they hoped for. 

Within the practically three years of sorority recruitment hype main as much as Bama Rush‘s launch the frenzy course of was mentioned advert nauseam and acquired nationwide protection. We have wrung RushTok for its final drops of content material. The most recent deluge of rush content material lacks the spontaneity and authenticity of the primary yr and the drama of the second. Now, posting the PNM expertise is only a surefire technique to go viral. 

We already know all of the slang, the preppy lady manufacturers, and the ins and outs of the frenzy course of. All that is left within the viscous TikTok pattern cycle is the inevitable labeling of the enjoyment of RushTok content material as cheugy.