i stopped taking pictures

On #aesthetic and the need to capture every moment of our lives

I’m currently visiting home and met up with a friend the other day to catch up. It was a gorgeous, sunny fall day, and we went to this popular farmers market that recently went viral on social media because of a cardigan that is now being sold at every second stall. In general, it’s a busy market that has pretty much everything you’d need. Fresh produce, meats, cheese, clothes, jewelry, accessories, and the occasional food stand. It’s in a gorgeous area of the city, people dress well, and everything looks pretty. The experience is very aesthetic. But what does that even mean?

The rise of ‘#aesthetic’ on social media reflects a shift in how hard we try to curate a certain image of ourselves online, driven by the visual nature of apps like Instagram or TikTok. The curation of feeds is closely tied to the algorithm’s favoritism towards visually cohesive content. The actual word is related to beauty and taste, or “a set of principles underlying the work of a particular artist or artistic movement”. It’s not too far off from what we understand it as today: a definition of a specific vibe or lifestyle such as “cottage core” or “dark academia”. These aesthetics quickly become representative of particular values, moods, and ideals. An extreme example of this is for example the “clean girl” aesthetic that has gotten somewhat out of hand. Regardless, an aesthetic becomes a kind of visual language that signals belonging to a community with similar tastes or dreams. It helps us feel connected to others through this shared aesthetic.

I am active of Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest, meaning I post my pictures to these platforms, so that they look good. So that I look good. When my friend and I were strolling along the market, we got to talking about our social medias, and she told me she recently deleted one of her accounts. She’d realized she didn’t want to share as much on the internet anymore because she’d noticed she was “living for the aesthetic”. I immediately resonated with what she was saying because I’ve also noticed how little I take pictures these days. Where I used to have images of every waking moment to look back on, now I have little snippets of my day or sometimes I go days without taking a picture.

I think this has to do with our generation being to focused on capturing an image rather than experiencing. It’s this shift from “taking a picture to remember” to “taking a picture that will look good on social media” for the aesthetic. So what happens when every waking moment has to pass the Instagram test? I’m in no position to get sciency or anything like that, but I can tell you I am exhausted. I’m simply burnt out. I love photography, and I love taking pictures, but when every angle is analyzed through the lens of social media, it’s so incredibly tiring. This idea of aesthetic has ruined the simple art of taking pictures and living. Everything has to look or feel polished, edited, and curated. I am a university student with a shit-ton on her plate and too little time on her hands to do it all, and how stupid is it of me to not want to do an activity or go to a restaurant if it doesn’t look “instagrammable”? My life is not always going to be aesthetically pleasing, and that’s okay.

Going back to “living for the aesthetic”, I need to start “living in the moment”. For me, it has to do with a lot more than just getting out of my phone, but that’s a conversation for another time. Let’s start small. There’s a different feel to an experience when you don’t think about how it might look on an Instagram story or TikTok post. The pressure that I often felt dissipates, and the less I think about it, the better I can let go of the constant need to document everything. Once in a while, when there’s a pretty sunset or an especially good-looking meal on my plate, I’ll take a picture with the intent to post it, and that’s fine. It helps romanticize my dreary uni days, and it makes me happy. But my happiness cannot be dependent on this curation of an aesthetic. Pulling back has made me realize that.

Think about how many times you actually go back to look at all these pictures you took with the sole intent to share them somewhere on the internet. Not that often, huh? I find myself going back much more often to photos I have taken with friends, that one insanely shaky video from a concert, or genuine candids (not those taken not-so-candidly with the intention of posting it online). There’s a certain level of maturity and realization that comes with the act of being present.

And for that reason, there are no photos in this post. Obviously, I haven’t actually stopped taking pictures. I do love using my iPhone camera, and I’ve been starting to actually appreciate it again for what it is: an art and not a chore. Slowing down and posting less can be #aesthetic too.

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