Writer: Sonaxi Satpathy
Editor: Bipasha
Illustrator: Chirag Taneja
Aesthetics have been a persistent topic of interest, from some of the greatest Greek philosophers, to captivating the attention of millions of social media users in the present day as well. The connotations of aesthetics in these two cases are quite different, however.
Aesthetics as a philosophical idea or field of study is a particularly nuanced and vast issue; but to put it down as simply as words allow, one can understand that Aesthetics is the study of beauty, the human experience of beauty. It is worth noting that beauty in turn is again a multifaceted idea as well and can be experienced via numerous mediums, be it nature or art created in its various forms and many others.
Aesthetics, as we know it today, can be defined as a set of characteristics which form the basis of a particular kind of theme or lifestyle, say popular internet aesthetics like the cottage-core, dark academia and goblincore to name a few. These sets of characteristics can include all things like the kind of clothing, the genre of music and the types of hobbies, they also include specific social ideas, cultural preference, and may even include economic and political concepts; all of this packaged neatly and put on the internet. And these internet aesthetics are propagated and popularized majorly based on their visual appeal or in other words how “aesthetically appealing” they are.
One might argue that since Aesthetics as an idea concerns itself with beauty and the perception of it then the aforementioned phenomena of internet aesthetics and their widespread based on visual appeal shouldn’t be a matter of concern. This argument can be contested by pondering upon the impact these internet aesthetics have.
Firstly, while the internet aesthetic phenomena does preoccupy the fashion and beauty arena on social media platforms i.e, the the places where we encounter their visual appeal; it is exceedingly crucial to recognise that these moodboards and curated posts represent way more than what meets the eye. If you like the colors and palettes of dark academia then you are also subscribing to the ideas of higher education and gothic architecture. If you associate with goblincore you are signing up for the ideas of maximalism and escapism. These ideas lay as subtleties but have great influence on the person and in the society as a whole. So it is worth questioning how elegant of a choice it is to consent to complex social, political ideas simply based on a pretty instagram post.
Secondly, as noted above the influence of internet aesthetics can be strongly felt in the domains like fashion, beauty, music, etc. It can be proposed that these internet aesthetics came forth as an assortment of curated personalities from which people can choose from based on what they organically identified with. Except the very obvious fact that it is realistically impossible to have people sorted into few precise prototypes seems to have missed out from the proposal. This has occupied thousands of people with the task of putting together the perfect wardrobe in accordance with the aesthetic of choice and pushing themselves into developing a taste in the music and hobbies that has come along with the aesthetic irrespective of whether they find it interesting or not. And what takes the cake is that this rather tedious and borderline unpleasant task has been readily accepted by these people based on a well organized pinterest board they found.
Of course this does not have to be the case for all people everywhere, but it does happen more often than not that many find themselves engaging in activities and ideas simply based on its appeal.
This brief discussion can be concluded with the idea that internet aesthetics are in fact a matter of concern. But the key to navigate through this dilemma is not to disengage but rather to become more aware of the seemingly simple choices we make and the ideas we interact with.
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