"What is an aesthetic? " by Rebecca O.

 

 

One of the most famous ideas of aesthetics goes all the way back to 375 BCE when Plato published his book Republic. In his book, Plato introduced the theory of mimetics; which introduced the idea that art is mimetic by nature and art is an imitation of life itself. This is not the earliest form of the idea of aesthetics, but it is brought up time and time again. The general definition of aesthetics is the principle of concern with the nature and appreciation of beauty, mostly in art. The definition generally only focuses on art, but today when you search for the word aesthetic you get color schemes, books, flowers, skies, etc.. If you go on apps like Pinterest or Instagram, you can search for any idea and there is an aesthetic for it. There have been many debates about where the idea of aesthetics came from and where it originated. Many ideas and theories come from ancient Greek philosophers and even some ideas from Germany. The idea of an aesthetic has been used as a way to show off a person's lifestyle or wealth in the form of a simple photo. An example we can all relate to are influencers who show their preppy life with a green smoothie at 5am with aesthetically pleasing clothing or an aesthetically pleasing house. This example right here is only the beginning; I am not including other aesthetics which influence people to restrict their diets, and buy things they can’t afford. We can also think of an aesthetic as a trend for many different products and lifestyles that pass every couple of months. We can even consider these trends and aesthetics to be microtrends due to how fast people participate in them.

            In the age of phones and social media, aesthetics is a way of living. Many examples include skincare, books, food, diets, exercise, school, countries, clothes, hobbies, and animated characters. For many today, they see aesthetics as a way of living or a way to live the way that others live. There are positives to this new definition of modern day aesthetics, but the negatives overshadow the positives. There are many people who use social media and feel some sort of pressure to match the aesthetics of their favorite influencer or the girl on Pinterest who has books which make her look smart. The whole idea of aesthetics is to show off your wealth or even your intelligence to the rest of social media. Aesthetic lives like “that girl” show a life of a woman in a positive view, but show expectations that many young girls today cannot follow for a variety of reasons.

            The main idea of aesthetics came from the 375 BCE and even before the age of Plato and Aristotle. The arts and literature were the main points of aesthetics to idealize the beauty of the two. As the centuries went by, the definition of aesthetics changed to the lifestyle and idealization of the world around us. Not just art and literature, but life and how we live today.