Trying to be aesthetic
Ever since I opened an Instagram account, I've been bombarded with posts from people that are much more artsy and themed than my posts can ever hope to be. I felt like it was suddenly a shortcoming to not be "aesthetic" so I went and did a little research on what you really need to do to achieve this.
BEING #GOALS
The first difference I noticed between me and these aesthetic humans is that they seem to do more in a day than I do in a month. This includes travelling, which means their feeds are filled with stunning pictures of #nature in exotic locations while I'm sitting at home sipping my tea with nothing to photograph. They also take pictures in the most dainty cafés with beautiful décor, while I'm too busy devouring my food to remember to take a photo.
MAD EDITING SKILLS
Aesthetic people take the most simple picture and make it 10x tumblr with glitches, rainbow colours and filters which can easily be accomplished with only like a hundred editing apps. If you edit with just the editing tools Instagram provides, you're a noob. Your feed also needs a theme, which does not mean you put the same filter on every photo (I wish) but you somehow need to incorporate the same colours into every post. I guess that means everything they do is colour-coordinated, a talent the aesthetic gods have not bestowed upon me.
BEING A LANA DEL REY FAN
If you don't think Lana Del Rey is a queen and the personification of the word aesthetic then you, my friend, can't sit with the aesthetic group. Girls strive to be like Lana as much as possible, trying to recreate her style and makeup. Her songs are their hymns and if she ever brought out a book, it would be their bible.
BANGLA AESTHETICS
The sudden rise in popularity of artsy pictures with Bangla quotes from famous songs or poems or just things we say a lot means that you better brush up on your Bangla if you were one of those who took pride in not knowing your own Mother language properly. It is now cool to have Bangla captions or edit Bangla words into your own pictures, along with the tumblr edits. I hope this trend sticks around for a while because it seems to be the most interesting way to get Bangladeshi teenagers into Bangla literature or music.
FLAT LAYS
We've all come across those perfect pictures of objects on a flat surface with pretty things laid around it. It seems like a simple picture that's pleasing to the eye but is it really that simple to take? Hell no. First of all, you need hands as steady as surgeons to take good photos from above. Second, you need an all white or marble or silky surface and then a whole bunch of cute things for decoration. Who has cute things just lying around at their place? Do people intentionally go out and buy things to match a specific product because if it is so, then that is where I draw my not-so-aesthetic line and give up.
Mayabee Arannya is a confused soul still searching for a purpose. Give her advice on life at facebook.com/mayabee.arannya