We Live in a Culture of Aesthetics and Perfection

The world around us demands only the best, even if we’re falling apart

An observation about the hyper-reality

we seem to live in.

I was watching skincare routines on YouTube when I figured this one out. As I scrolled through my YouTube subscription lists, I started noticing a common theme: perfectly edited videos, aesthetics that are considered optimum, and the illusion that we need to have perfect outfits for the perfect date. All around this digital sphere, there was this idea that we had to be living these perfect lives. There wasn’t anything messy about these people or their relationships on camera.

Why should we need a skincare routine that’s complex when the entire point is to simplify? Why are we sacrificing our authenticity to keep what it is essentially a ploy?

In my nonfiction memoir class the other day, my friend mentioned something in regards to the memoir we were reading at the time and Instagram. “I remember the days when Instagram we’d post silly things about our lives, ones that weren’t as curated. Now we worry about personal branding, who’s going to see it, what are the consequences of breaking our character.” This then got me thinking this: why are filtering who we are to fit an aesthetic?

I think we should live our lives as authentically as possible. It was upsetting for me to meet so many people in my life who weren’t following their dreams, were openly lying about their positions, experiences, and curated something that wasn’t them. Going to a fashion school, it was like you always had to be on—with the right number of followers, have the right makeup and hair, have the right clothes.

But, at the end of the day, it’s up to you to break this societal pressure. No one is truly perfect and we need to acknowledge that. I don’t know how the societal damage of these videos, but it’s kind of terrifying how conforming this all is. Are we losing our individuality? Perhaps only the future has the answers to these questions.