What are aesthetics? The definition of aesthetics is a set of principles underlying and guiding the work of a particular artist or artistic movement, a particular taste for or approach to what is pleasing to the senses and especially sight.
The rise of “aesthetic culture” on social media first made an appearance around the mid-2010s during the heightened popularity of Tumblr. It was a way for the young generation to form identities, connections and communities. Back then your social media aesthetic was based more on the lifestyle you lived, your cultural beliefs and the type of person you were.
During the peak of Instagram and TikTok we saw a slight shift in the approach of aesthetic culture whereby the focus became based more on the visual appeal, through online curation and access to material goods/services.
The shift came about with the rise of short form content and the public having more access to luxury goods and services. Through this, people were able to get brief glimpses to certain aesthetics without having to fully live the lifestyle. This led to the rise and popularity of influencers and sponsored content.
However, the concern with the modern take was around the idea that you had to look the part and if you didn’t, you don’t fit the aesthetic, despite you believing and even living the culture and lifestyle that the aesthetic embodies. Due to this, certain aesthetics started to lack substance and depth, with only material goods being mainly what certain influencers and brands represented.
As more people started to realize this, another cultural shift happened along with the increasing popularity of Pinterest and the building of online communities on TikTok and Instagram. Trending social media aesthetics started to merge into a hybrid approach with its initial Tumblr debut and its most recent TikTok/Instagram form. These new aesthetics started to become more action based, centred around participating in a particular lifestyle and community.
We see this happen with the “Clean Girl” aesthetic, where it started off as a girl who always looks pristine and clean. To now it being a girl who is eating healthy, regularly exercising, staying on top of her tasks and later evolving into the “Pilates Princess “ aesthetic.
Through this timeline, we really get to see the importance of implementing strong beliefs, cultures and lifestyles and how they are the key features int making the largest impact when nurturing and growing a brand and community.
It will be interesting to see how the online aesthetic culture continues to shift and how future “aesthetic” approaches continue to impact current online social trends.
What do you think will happen next??
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