Academic involvement in school has historically been the butt of the joke in popular media. When people make college movies, they’re not about what happens in the classroom. In fact, most peoples’ ‘college experience’ is about what happens outside of classes. Gen Z’s newest TikTok meme subverts this expectation.
A video from TikTok user, Bradley Kraut, shows a Penn State student sitting front and center at a 700-person lecture, calling himself an “absolute academic weapon.” Since the video’s upload on September 13th, it has amassed over 5 million views and therefore takes credit for starting the trend. The tag #academicweapon now shows dozens of videos totaling several million views, showing users who go out of their way to achieve higher grades in their classes. Although the tone of the trend is still a joke, several of the videos claim that Brad’s original video and the resulting trend inspired them to work harder in class. Another video from Red Cup News on TikTok shows students being interviewed at a Virginia Tech tailgate. In their interview, they’re depicted saying they’re all going to class the next day, citing themselves as academic weapons.
Though it is unclear how long the trend will stay relevant in a constantly changing TikTok landscape, it is important to acknowledge the trends that have real-world positive impacts. Even if it is for a meme, getting university students to work harder in classes to feel part of a group could have long-term benefits that last longer than the trend itself. The hardest part of building positive habits is often taking the first steps. Compared to another TikTok trend from just a year ago, the devious lick, academic weapons are part of a growing movement from older Gen Z students to turn trends away from things that bother other people, such as the milk jug challenge, and work towards making funny trends that have a positive influence, like the angelic yield movement.
It’s important to continue trends like the academic weapon. Although the term’s relevance and humor on the For You Page will wear out quickly, younger, impressionable audiences will start thinking it’s cool to be academic weapons. Much like we saw children trying to recreate popular trends like the cinnamon challenge back in the 2000s, maybe “academic weapon” will spread to middle and high school students. And that will be the most angelic yield of all.