What does Halo mean – and how do you earn Halo Points?

If you’ve recently heard your child talk about winning or losing “halo points,” you may have some questions. Unfortunately for the rest of us, asking what a halo means might cost you some points.

Luckily, we don’t judge. So if you hear your kids say “-100 aura” while showing off their dance moves, or just want to know the latest on what Gen Z and Alpha are talking about, read on to learn what aura is, where it originated and how it is used on social media.

So…what exactly is a halo?

With a halo, you should know it when you see it.

However, for confused parents, this isn’t much help. So if you don’t like Gen Z and Gen Alpha i don’t know whatwe can help explain it!

While aura is a real, dictionary-defined word that refers to the type of vibe, energy, or vibe someone gives off, as always, teenagers have taken to social media to express their opinions on things.

Aura describes someone’s cool or “it” factor; it’s like the Gen Alpha version of swagger. If someone “has an aura,” it means they are so cool that you feel their presence when they walk into a room.

Someone with an aura is someone who is confident, cool, collected, and polished, while someone without an aura is someone who is insecure, shy, or generally uncool.

How are Halo Points earned or lost?

TikTok’s teens have created a system that quantifies how their actions earn real cool points by rewarding and matching each other’s “halo points.”

The system almost mimics the way experience points work in video games. If you spill coffee on your shirt or trip in front of the class, you can lose -100 aura points. But if you ask someone out and they say yes, or you get a good haircut, you can easily earn back +100 halo points.

While the phrase Aura Points is usually preceded by a positive or negative number, there is no need to reach a total or perform any mathematical calculations. Getting +100 aura points isn’t four times better than getting +25 aura points because those numbers don’t have real weight.

The number of aura points you assume to have at any given moment doesn’t actually matter and usually isn’t even calculated. It’s just a silly way to compliment or make fun of someone’s behavior.

The Origin of Halos and Halo Points

The term halo has no clear origin, but has always been rooted in social media.

It seemed to energize sports culture, primarily basketball. On social media, especially on X, many sports fans have long used the term “aura” to describe their favorite players’ impressive and effortless performances on and off the court.

A player with an aura is a player who can perform brilliantly and can immediately excite fans as soon as he appears on the court. Players without a halo either lackluster or can’t seem to find that magic that separates average or even great players from the great players who are fan favorites.

Halo spots appear to be an adaptation of a concept that has grown through various trends on other social media sites like TikTok.

The term has since taken the platform by storm, spawning thousands of videos in which people share their stories of gaining or losing points.

Halo Trends on Social Media

Social media, especially TikTok, has become a petri dish for popular slang-based teen trends over the past few years. If your teen has access to social media, these are some trends they may see or participate in.

How many aura points have I lost?

This question has been asked on thousands of TikToks within the app. People have flocked to social media platforms to share experiences of embarrassing themselves, being rejected, or generally doing something uncool—things that give them a negative aura.

In one TikTok, a boy’s Yeezy flip flops got stuck around his ankle at the beach and he couldn’t get them off, even with a lot of help from others. The video contains a text overlay: “How many aura points did my brother lose when he tripped and got stuck in his leg on a slide?”

Some people commented that just watching the film made them lose some of their aura, while others took the opportunity to hype the boy in the film. “+100 because this is funny lol,” one commenter wrote.

While many users see this TikTok format as a light-hearted way to make fun of themselves and their friends, a very popular part of the format tells a darker story.

In these videos, users (usually teenage girls) use the format to ask how many halo points they have lost when they have been led on, cheated on, or abused in relationships.

The trend, which has amassed millions of likes and thousands of videos, serves as a reminder of the volatility of teen relationships and the importance of talking to teens about dating.

Halo Max

Similar to the trend of maximizing the sense of smell, teenagers are using the new term “auramaxxing” on TikTok to increase their aura. As the name suggests, it means maximizing your aura.

This trend is usually followed by teenagers or teenage boys who make personal and lifestyle changes to inspire self-improvement. According to TikTok, some of the things you can do with auramaxx include:

• Develop a unique fashion style
• Go to the gym to exercise
• smells so good
• Talk less and listen more

Define aura

Perhaps the simplest of the many social media trends related to halo, this one is also probably the most popular. Whether it’s a tweet before an image, text on a video, or a comment, people on social media are using the phrase “defining aura.”

This expression essentially means that if you look up aura in the dictionary, you will see a picture of someone or something that has an aura as identified by a poster.

While you may not be Beyoncé, now that you know what halo means in teen slang and social media, you might be able to score some halo points with your kids.

If we’re being honest, though, they’ll probably think your perfect use of the word is embarrassing.