What’s Up With the Mormons?

Lately, it feels like Mormonism is everywhere.

Between TikTok, reality TV, and TMZ headlines, Mormon life has somehow become one of those things people in the media can’t stop watching, talking, and joking about.

A big reason for that is The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. When season 4 came out this March, like a lot of people, I was glued to my screen, ready to binge. The show follows Mormon moms living in Utah, and what makes it so addictive is that they put everything out there. The good, the bad, the messy, it’s all on display. They’re going through divorces, cheating scandals, and friendship drama, all while the cameras are rolling.

But that’s also just… reality TV. The difference here is what’s underneath it.

Because this didn’t start with Hulu. It started on TikTok, with creators like Taylor Frankie Paul, who blew up posting videos with other Mormon moms. At first, the content leaned into a very polished image of motherhood, marriage, and family life, which made it all the more shocking when, in 2022, Taylor revealed that she and her friends were “soft swinging,” which basically meant kissing outside their marriages. Instead of people being turned off by how much she was sharing, it did the opposite. People became even more invested.

What had looked like a clean, curated world suddenly cracked open to reveal scandal, and that only made more people want to watch.

Now Mormon culture is everywhere online, not just through shows, but through things like dirty sodas, BYU interview videos, and the internet’s constant fascination with Mormon rules around coffee, alcohol, dating, and sex. Because Mormons have strict rules against drinking coffee or alcohol, drinks like dirty sodas, sodas mixed with syrups and cream, have become one of those small but recognizable parts of Mormon culture that people fixate on, which helps explain why it all feels so fascinating to outsiders.

That same fascination shows up in BYU interview videos, where students at Brigham Young University, a majority-Mormon school, are asked absurd questions like whether they would rather drink coffee or do something ridiculous, and their answers go viral because people find the rules so specific and bizarre.

So why are Mormons the moment right now?

I think part of it is that Mormonism feels extremely specific in a way that the internet loves. It has clear rules, clear aesthetics, and a very visible lifestyle. No coffee, no alcohol, strict dating expectations, but also huge families, curated homes, and this very polished version of life. It’s structured, but it’s also being performed online.

What I came to realize is that although Mormon culture seems to be such a big topic right now, I don't really know the truth behind any of it. What is it actually like for someone who grew up in the Mormon religion to see all this online discourse about it?

So I talked to Peter, a friend of mine who grew up Mormon in Virginia and has since left the church.

One of the first things he said was that people who only know Mormonism from what they see online get a lot of it wrong. Online, Mormon life can look chaotic or unserious, but in reality, he described it as way more structured than it seems. Church wasn’t just something you went to on Sundays. It shaped your entire schedule, with early morning seminary before school, multiple weekly activities, hours at church, and most of your social life revolving around other members. “It’s like your whole routine,” he explained.

Peter also pointed out that the family-centered image people see online is not exaggerated either. He said family is such an important concept in Mormonism that the polished, perfect-family version of Mormon life people see online is actually rooted in something very real in Mormon culture.

That’s something you don’t really see online. What you see instead are the extremes: the funny answers, the weird rules, the viral clips. And according to Peter, a lot of that is exaggerated. He told me that a lot of those BYU videos and TikToks are people “committing to the bit.” Some of it is real, but a lot of it is played up because they know it’s funny and people will react to it.

But that doesn’t mean everything is fake. “When you’re in it, it feels really strict,” he said, talking about rules like no coffee or alcohol. “Even something like coffee, it’s just a drink, but it’s treated like this big boundary.”

At the same time, that structure can also be isolating. Peter explained that when your entire life, your schedule, your friends, your activities, are tied to the church, it becomes hard to exist outside of it. Social situations become limited, and you end up staying within that same circle.

And although people online treat Mormonism as this funny, aesthetic, slightly bizarre thing to watch, Peter described it as something that was, at times, genuinely difficult. “It’s weird to see people treat it like a trend,” he said. “Because for me, parts of it were actually hard.”

That disconnect is kind of at the center of all of this. The internet turns it into entertainment, but for people who grew up in it, it’s not just content; it’s their real-life experience.

Peter said he ultimately left the church largely because of its views on queer people and the pressure surrounding family and identity. Growing up, he described feeling like there wasn’t really space for him within the structure of the church, especially when it came to sexuality and expectations about marriage and family. His perspective shifted the conversation for me because it showed that behind all the polished aesthetics and internet jokes lies a culture with very real emotional stakes.

That’s not something that makes it into a TikTok clip or a reality show episode.

Maybe that is why Mormonism feels so compelling right now. It’s close enough to feel familiar, but structured enough to feel completely foreign. The internet has turned it into something watchable, funny, and easy to laugh at. Still, Peter’s perspective reminded me that behind all of that are real people, real communities, and real lived experiences that don’t fit neatly into a TikTok clip or a reality show storyline.