{"id":237584,"date":"2026-05-22T03:43:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T08:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/new-kind-of-dark-tourism-emerging-in-online-backrooms-study-shows"},"modified":"2026-05-22T03:43:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T08:43:29","slug":"new-kind-of-dark-tourism-emerging-in-online-backrooms-study-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/new-kind-of-dark-tourism-emerging-in-online-backrooms-study-shows","title":{"rendered":"New kind of dark tourism emerging in online \u2018Backrooms,\u2019 study shows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/new-kind-of-dark-tourism-emerging-in-online-backrooms-study-shows.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Digital culture is reshaping people\u2019s experiences of fear, curiosity and belonging, according to new findings from Lancaster University. Researchers have explored why online environments like the \u201cBackrooms\u201d\u2014mysterious empty spaces resembling uncharted office blocks, basements and corridors\u2014have become so compelling, and why people are choosing to get lost in spaces that don\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike traditional \u201cdark tourism,\u201d which focuses on physical sites and historical events, the \u201cBackrooms\u201d represent a new kind of experience that exists entirely online. They emerge from, and circulate through, the darker corners of the internet that are less visible, less regulated, and often more experimental in tone.<\/p>\n<p>The research, co-authored by Dr. Sophie James and Professor James Cronin from Lancaster University Management School (LUMS), explains how, in these online spaces, people are not traveling to real locations, but entering shared digital environments that feel immersive, unsettling, and just out of reach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Digital culture is reshaping people\u2019s experiences of fear, curiosity and belonging, according to new findings from Lancaster University. Researchers have explored why online environments like the \u201cBackrooms\u201d\u2014mysterious empty spaces resembling uncharted office blocks, basements and corridors\u2014have become so compelling, and why people are choosing to get lost in spaces that don\u2019t exist. Unlike traditional \u201cdark [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[418],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-internet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}