My take on aesthetics.

While I think internet aesthetics can be really pretty (I myself enjoy a few of them), I really don't like them very much. I feel like aesthetics just take parts of genuine subcultures and turn those subcultures into something they're not. I hate when people use subculture names to describe their aesthetics when their aesthetics have nothing to do with the subculture they are named after. (Examples of this include TikTok alt, TikTok "mallgoth," "emocore"- and not the music genre-, "scenecore"- I hate this one, because it is literally just glitchcore with a side of stereotypical scene imagery-, and "gothcore.") Aesthetics also force people into boxes, in my opinion. They seem to be less about living a certain lifestyle and more about looking a certain way. Cottagecore, for example, seems, on the surface, to be about living in the countryside, growing your own food, and living sustainably. However, most people who identify with the cottagecore aesthetic don't really live out this lifestyle in their day to day lives. They just like the look of cottagecore, not the actual lifestyle that it promotes. People who are really into aesthetics also seem to have trouble growing and changing. Aesthetic culture, as I like to call it, pressures people to avoid finding interest in things outside of the interests the aesthetic promotes. (I hope this makes sense.) People are multifaceted. Not every interest a person has is going to fit neatly into a little box. It is okay to like multiple aesthetics (or multiple things in general). Aesthetics are killing subculture, especially because of the way corporations have caught onto them. Because of aesthetics, subcultures seem to have lost their meaning (at least to the general population). Subcultures are being watered down, commodified, and sold to the masses. 

Also, can I take a moment to mention how inaccurate to the 2000s the y2k aesthetic is?